In art we trust? Socially engaged practices in the artworld

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In 2011 French artist hiding under pseudonym JR has won a prize for the best talk at the famous TED conference. At the very beginning of his speech, JR underlined that nobody can save the world. However, during his presentation, he made a very strong statement and tried to prove that art at least can (and should) make an attempt to change the status quo.

During the course, we will analyze and reconsider various examples of contemporary artistic practices that share the same belief: that art can try to make a difference. However, let us remind ourselves, that already in 1980s Lucy Lippard argued that feminist art was “a value system, a revolutionary strategy, a way of life” – is this concept of art still present and active on our global art scene? How to write about strategies, which not only had a certain political and/or social aspect but which innovative force was also focused on expanding the definition of art through the incorporation of new media and a new perspectives?

In 2011 French artist hiding under pseudonym JR has won a prize for the best talk at the famous TED conference. At the very beginning of his speech, JR underlined that nobody can save the world. However, during his presentation, he made a very strong statement and tried to prove that art at least can (and should) make an attempt to change the status quo. During the course, we will analyze and reconsider various examples of contemporary artistic practices that share the same belief: that art can try to make a difference. However, let us remind ourselves, that already in 1980s Lucy Lippard argued that feminist art was “a value system, a revolutionary strategy, a way of life” – is this concept of art still present and active on our art scene? How to write about strategies, which not only had a certain political and/or social aspect but which innovative force was also focused on expanding the definition of art through the incorporation of new media and a new perspectives? Together we will confront those questions while discussing various pieces from different fields of art (bio art, feminist art, interactive art, political art, and street art, among others).

Due to its strong political content and often taboo-breaking visuality, critical art continues to present its own set of challenges to curators and museum professionals. The course will introduce students to the most important strategies of critical and engaged art and discuss their tactics, premises, and dilemmas. In addition, the course will present curatorial practices and exhibition formats that follow analyzed premises.

The course will include video and photo documentation of key artworks and exhibitions crucial for the analyzed subject. Moreover, short excursions to different institutions and public places within the class-time will be planned.

Participants will be given a reading list after the first introductory meeting.

During the course, participants will see what kind of challenges the artworld confronts in the XXI century. Together, we will reconsider, if the range of problems bothering contemporary artists is really new. Or maybe, some aspects vividly discussed today already have a long tradition in the history of art? Moreover, we will ask ourselves, if the Internet can provide new, public, democratic space. How to analyze Internet-based artworks that use collaboration/cooperation/crowdsourcing? Is it possible that those kinds of projects have a positive social application in reality? Throughout the lectures, we will try to provide answers to the questions mentioned.

Instead of following the chronological or topographical order, the topics discussed throughout the semester will be arranged according to artistic strategies and movements. This structure will allow to easily notice the fact that particular methods and solutions return in different periods and countries.

The course will include the following thematic blocks:

• Bio-art – the bridge between art and science?

• Not only Banksy – various faces of the street-art

• Art trying to address the Everyman: about the intersection of art, social practices, and urban planning

• Is art capable to crash the borders? The images of migrants, refugees, and “the others”

• Art in a dialogue with a local community (special task planned: a short, one page report on a selected artistic project; student is expected to write down his/her observations and explain how a certain art piece corresponds with a specific space and its cultural environment; was the original assumption of the project completed with a success?)

• The new life of interactive art. Activism and new technologies

• Is the slogan “The personal is political” still up-to-date? New kind of feminist art in the Trump era

• Entanglement of art into politics – the current issues and historical references

• Summary debate: engaged art practices – the mean of a social debate or consistent controversy?

Proposed bibliography (a detailed list of the required literature will be created after the consultation with the participants of the course, due to the open formula of the workshop and its co-creation by the students):

Bishop C., Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, Verso, 2014.

Chave A., Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power, “Arts” 1990, 64:5, p. 44–63.

Finkelpearl T., What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation, London, Duke University Press, 2013.

Jackson S., Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics, New York, Routledge Press, 2011.

Lacy S., Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974–2007, Durham, Duke University Press, 2010.

O’Brien P., Culture, Ecology and the Real, in: Ascott R., ed., Engineering Nature: Art & Consciousness in the Post-biological Era, Bristol, Portland, Intellect, 2006, p. 285–291.

Pollock G., Feminist Interventions in the Histories of Art, in: Fernie E., ed., Art History and Its Methods, London 1995, Phaidon Press, p. 296–313.

Sholette G., Unnatural Speculations: Nature as an icon of urban resistance on NYC’s Lower East Side 1979–1984, “Afterimage: The Journal of Media and Cultural Criticism” 1997, September-October issue, p. 17–20.

Thompson N., Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991–2011, New York, Creative Time Books, 2012.

Student w zakresie wiedzy:

• Rozróżnia i identyfikuje kluczowe dla współczesności nurty sztuki zaangażowanej

• Zna zbiór podstawowych prac wpisujących się w obszar sztuki zaangażowanej/krytycznej

• Charakteryzuje budowę wybranego dzieła sztuki współczesnej, z uwzględnieniem specyfiki medium, jak i jego teoretycznym zapleczem

• Porównuje i przeciwstawia odległe sobie chronologicznie realizacje, dotykające analogicznych problemów społecznych/politycznych

• Rozpoznaje relacje i zależności pomiędzy wydarzeniami historycznymi, społecznymi i politycznymi a zjawiskami w sztuce współczesnej

After the course student will have knowledge on how to:

• Distinguish and identify key movements of contemporary socially engaged art

• Describe crucial works that are an essential part of the area of the socially engaged / critical art

• Characterize the construction of a selected piece of contemporary art, taking into account the specificity of the medium as well as its theoretical background

• Compare chronologically distant realizations that deal with similar social / political problems

• Recognize the relationships between historical, social and political events and different phenomena in contemporary art

Student w zakresie umiejętności:

• Krytycznie intepretuje materiały wizualne oraz towarzyszące im źródła tekstowe

• Potrafi uargumentować swoją opinię, uwzględniając wielość możliwych sposobów interpretacji

• Dokumentuje swój tok rozumowania w postaci samodzielnej wypowiedzi ustnej

• Efektywnie wyszukuje, selekcjonuje i syntetyzuje wiadomości z różnych źródeł, potrafi wykorzystać informacje zawarte w materiałach wizualnych, tekstowych i nowoczesnych środkach przekazu

After the course student will be able to:

• Critically interpret visual materials and other types of sources (texts, videos, archival documents)

• Discuss his/her opinion, taking into account the multiplicity of possible interpretations

• Show his/her way of argumentation in the form of an oral presentation

• Effectively search, select and synthesize data from various sources

Student w zakresie postaw/kompetencji społecznych:

• Wygłasza i prezentuje własne stanowisko w grupie, pozostając otwartym na inne możliwości rozwiązania problemu. Reaguje na uwagi i oczekiwania publiczności/odbiorców; dokonuje świadomej samooceny, rewiduje granice własnych kompetencji

• Docenia i szanuje, jak też jest gotów promować tradycje oraz europejskie dziedzictwo historyczne, kulturowe i artystyczne

• Dostrzega rolę i znaczenie historii sztuki w kształtowaniu świadomości kulturowej i artystycznej, pogłębianiu więzi społecznych i kulturowych na poziomie lokalnym i ponadlokalnym

After the course student will gain new skills in the field of social competences and will be able to:

• Deliver and present his/her own position in the group, remaining open to the other possibilities of solving the problem; will be capable to respond to the comments and expectations of the audience and revise the limits of his/her own competences

• Appreciate and respect European traditions and global historical, cultural and artistic heritage

• Recognize the role and importance of art history in shaping cultural and artistic awareness

In order to pass the workshop, the student is expected to:

1) Attend the classes (two absences possible in the semester without any doctor’s note)

2) Being prepared for classes (participate in discussions, read texts)

3) Prepare a short (20 minutes) presentation (guidelines for the presentation) will be presented to the participants during our first meeting