The political space in social art practices

Abstract

While the title of the influential anthology of socially engaged, activist and political art by Nina Felshin, in 1994 asked: But is it art?, the question could presently be shifted to another level: “Yes, it is considered art, but is it political?”

Thereby, the problem that every art form can be interpreted as being political to a certain extent arises. For instance, Walter Benjamin argues that every form of art, irrespectively of its intent, cannot avoid taking a political stand (Benjamin 1998: 86). Even if an artist avoids being political by producing art that touches no apparent political issues, he/she supports by his/her “neutrality” the politics of status quo.

However, social art practices are not only political in this inevitable “passive” sense; furthermore they actively and intentionally intervene in the social order and it is this capacity that this thesis specifically addresses. This PhD with Practice establishes a theoretical base to understand the prerequisites for social art practices and to define criteria to ascertain when they become political and bring change to society. In order to create this theoretical base I discus the key terms, society, the social and the political in relation to art. In so doing I identify the two main criteria for social art practices namely non-identitarian solidarity and minimal politics which, I argue, constitute and define the politicalness or the possibility for the political in social art practice.

Prerequisites for social art practices developed in this thesis contend that art becomes a social practice as soon as it intervenes aesthetically into social conditions by oscillating between the poles of artistic dialogue and aesthetic autonomy. An artistic dialogue aesthetically constructs a communicative situation and thereby opens up the possibility to intervene in societies’ malfunctions, whereas aesthetic autonomy in its absolute form leads to the negation of the utilitarian and in this manner radically questions normality and the functioning of society. This thesis reveals how and why social art practices can act between these two poles and need not to be ascribed to one of them.

The political space of these practices will be defined based upon Oliver Marchart's (2007) concept of the political difference which leads to the thesis examining and presenting how social art practices relate The political and Politics.

The political is understood as the instituting ground of all social relations. The thesis, through detailed readings of selected case studies and through my own practice, shows how political artistic actions may become radically democratic. Politics is investigated in terms of its role in administering the prevailing social system as well as its use in aiming for concrete change.

Having differentiated between the political and politics I then introduce and demonstrate how these criteria define the politicalness of social art practices.

Firstly I argue that, social art practices bring political change to society when social engagement leads to minimal politics. The (post-foundational) criteria for minimal politics are organisation, strategy, collectivism and the aim of becoming a majority (Marchart 2010: 318).

Secondly I propose that, in order to distinguish the political potential of social art practices from any form of totalitarian political art they have to be democratic and have to be at least based on principles such as freedom and equality. I then claim that social art practices also have the potential to become radically democratic, as soon as they base their practice on the principle of difference and root their practice in non-identitarian solidarity.

This research contributes to knowledge by conceptualising a post-foundational theoretical base to assess the significance of social art practices and their political dimension, whilst allowing, at the same time, for such a foundation to remain permanently contingent. As introduced above, key knowledge is also contributed through the identification of criteria that defines the political in social art, underpinning the post-foundational finding of this investigation.

The artistic component of this PhD project is the website project The Political Sphere in Art Practices, which is based on interviews that I conducted with experts in the field of social practice art. The interviewees are Grant Kester, Margit Czenki, Christoph Schäfer, Roger Behrens, Neala Schleuning, Mary Jane Jacob, Gregory Sholette and Nora Sternfeld.

The project provides an interactive dialogical platform constructed as a modular system of questions, answers and categories. It serves as an artistic research tool for artists, critics, academics and other people interested in the subject and offers a meditative and contemplative way of discussing art theory and art practice.

Date of Award	Mar 2016
Original language	English
Sponsors	Vice Chancellor's Research Scholarship (VCRS)
Supervisor	Aisling O'Beirn (Supervisor), Cherie Driver (Supervisor), Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes (Supervisor) & Liam Kelly (Supervisor)