Art, education and the actuality of revolution: Althusser's aesthetic materialism.

This article examines the aesthetic, political, and pedagogical theories of Louis Althusser to explore how art education can engage with the current global class struggle, particularly in Western contexts where Marxist revolutionary theory has been ideologically marginalized. It argues that Althusser's concept of a Marxist reading—an active, processual engagement with knowledge—combined with his views on aesthetics, offers a framework for an educational encounter that makes perceptible the actuality of revolution and the materiality of thought. The article situates this aesthetic pedagogy within the broader conjuncture of capitalist abstraction and class relations, emphasizing that art's political power lies in its capacity to reveal invisible social relations and produce a disjunctural experience that challenges dominant ideological perceptions. Ultimately, it contends that integrating Althusserian theory with new materialist approaches can mobilize art education as a site for revolutionary political and pedagogical practice.