Socially Engaged Art

Free
Address ul. Jazdów 2, Warszawa
Entry Free
Venue's website www.u-jazdowski.pl…
Language English friendly

Meeting with Anna Berry and Pierre d'Alancaisez. The first discussion in the 2023 Cultural Tensions series at Warsaw's CCA will discuss a burning issue concerning contemporary art in an atmosphere of open, frank dialogue and conversation.


Socially engaged art is currently the most popular art trend. Its roots can be traced back to the 1970s and Joseph Beuys' (1921-1986) radical concept of 'social sculpture', which assumed that everyone is an artist and that art concerns everyone and has the potential to influence society, politics, and the environment. In addition to environmental concerns, socially engaged art is also closely linked to gender, body and identity politics. In the creative process, it often favours the active engagement and participation of so-called marginalised communities and specific groups, such as children and young people, migrants, ethnic minorities, or people from the LGBTQ+ community, for example.

The prestigious UK Turner Art Prize started this trend back in 2015. The prize was awarded to the Assemble group, a collective of young architects. Their work has evolved over time from building design to community engagement in "a democratic and collaborative method that enables architectural, social and research activities on multiple levels simultaneously, both creating things and making things happen". Since then, other socially engaged collectives have been shortlisted for the Turner Art Prize, such as Array Collective (explores socio-political issues relating to Northern Ireland), Forensic Architecture (investigates issues relating to human rights abuses), Project Art Works (works at the intersection of art and care practices and neurodiversity issues) and Black Obsidian Sound System (a community of queer, trans and non-binary people of non-white skin colour engaged in art, the medium of sound and radical activism).

Public funders, private donors and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as, but not limited to, Creative Europe, Arts Council England, European Cultural Foundation or SIX strategically target the arts towards serious socio-political issues and support artistic activism to accelerate a change in public attitudes. Pierre d'Alancaisez (one of the invited speakers) writes that as the demand for social interventions by artists increases, socially engaged art offers new career paths to the next generation of emerging artists who are prepared to work with communities.

Aaron Moulton (curator of the Machine of Influence exhibition) argues that the innovative art network created by philanthropist George Soros between 1989 and 1998 in Central and Eastern Europe (Soros Centers for Contemporary Art, SCCA), was a precursor to 'NGO art' and socially engaged art practices in former communist/Soviet states. Moulton writes that Soros's network implemented "the development of new activist strategies by creating relationships between activists, scholars and artists" that now proliferate in European/international art event programmes such as Documenta, Manifesta and countless art biennials around the world, for example.

What drives socially engaged art? Is it driven by ecopolitics or leftist, neoliberal, identity ideologies? Can a participatory garden or communal cooking be called art because artists participate? Perhaps socially engaged art is a counter-attack to the capitalist decadence of the art market, where digital artworks [NFTs] now sell for sums close to $70 million? What does socially engaged art have to offer to a wider audience, who may after all hold conservative or centrist views? Or are these audiences excluded from participating in such events?

English-speaking guests may join the debate live on YouTube

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