Extreme Entanglements

This article analyses experimental institutionalism in the city of Rome, focusing on artistic practices of the C.S.O.A. Centro Sociale Autonomo Occupato (Squatted Autonomous Social Centre) Forte Prenestino and the three-year occupation of Valle theatre, Teatro Valle Occupato. In scholarly research on art institutionalism, artistic practices in squatted spaces are often overlooked. While the 1990s European wave of experimental institutionalism transformed the concept of an art museum or art institution into a processed-based, community-oriented, and participatory platform, in Rome, the collectives of activists and artists used more autonomous endeavours, such as processes of instituting, to affirm how artistic practices’ use of radical imagination can foster collective agency, creativity, and radical statecraft. In the following, radical statecraft is understood as a political act that reclaims and creates anew institutional infrastructures. Teatro Valle Occupato’s experimental cultural institution of the commons at the 17th-century theatre Valle from 2012 to 2015, and the projects of artists and musicians of the European underground cultural hub C.S.O.A. Forte Prenestino at the squatted 19th-century military fort in the working-class, peripheric neighbourhood of Centocelle, are crucial examples of artistic, cultural, and institutional experimentation, whereby artistic and cultural practices foster social relationships based on freedom, mutualism, solidarity, and the commons. In both cases, the contingency to grassroots politics forged the desire and imagination to either create anew or carve out a social space. By reclaiming spaces in which art is used as a means of radical statecraft, these practices reimagine society fostering non-market-driven social relationships becoming pivotal in the struggles against the neoliberal turn in Italy.

Regional identity is a constant construction, in which landscape, human activity and cultural imaginary build a narrative of place. For the Tasmanian Midlands, the interactions between history, ecology and agriculture both define place and present problems in how to recognise, communicate and balance these interactions. In this sense, regionality is defined not so much as a relation of margin to centre, but as a specific accretion of environmental and cultural histories. According weight to more-than-human perspectives, a region can be seen as a constellation of plant, animal and human interactions and demands, where creative art and design can make space and give voice to the dynamics of exchange between the landscape and its inhabitants. Consideration of three recent art and design projects based in the Midlands reveal the potential for cross-disciplinary research, embedded in both environment and community, to create distinctive and specific forms of connectivity that articulate a regional identify.

The purpose of the article is to substantiate the possibilities of using the international experience in the field of cultural and artistic practices as a humanitarian strategy for psychosocial support for children and youth in Ukraine under martial law, based on a cultural analysis of the implementation of the «Mobile Arts for Peace» (MAP) art project. The research methodology is to use interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to study the specifics of the therapeutic impact of various types of arts – theatre, music, visual arts, choreography in the implementation of international art projects in post-conflict societies. The main research methods are: the method of hermeneutic analysis – for the interpretation of works of art created within certain national cultures; the method of semiotic analysis –for revealing the meanings and values of artistic phenomena as sign systems; the method of psychological experiment – for analysing the results of using innovative artistic methods in the process of psychological support for project participants. The scientific novelty consists in summarising the international experience of developing and implementing the «Mobile Arts for Peace» art project in different countries of the world – Rwanda, Nepal, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan; substantiating the possibilities of providing psychosocial support to participants in art projects as forms of cultural and artistic practices; identifying the features of the MAP project implementation based on the specifics of national cultural traditions, historical, and cultural memory, and the depth of cultural trauma in each society. Conclusions. The analysis of the process of implementing the «Mobile Arts for Peace» art project allowed us to summarise the international experience of engaging art as an effective tool for peacebuilding, establishing dialogue, and providing psychological assistance to societies in countries that have gone through various types of conflicts. The studied international experience can be successfully used to develop concepts, programs, and methodological recommendations adapted to the needs of Ukrainian society in the context of war.
 Key words: international art project, Mobile Arts for Peace, cultural and artistic practices, psychosocial support, humanitarian strategies.

In the light of the contemporary discussions of political theory and philosophy, and current demonstrations regarding democracy, this practice-based research aims to examine the role of art at the dawn of new democratic understandings and practices focusing specifically on the function of the artist as author. Simultaneously an analysis of current and radical theories around democracy and an exercise of criticality from the practice of art, this project searches for ways of practising, experiencing and understanding democratic values. The function of the author/artist and its possible re-siting proposes an hypothesis of practising democracy in the ‘artworld’ that stems from my own artistic practice. Following the proposition of diluting oneself as an artist, this thesis hopes to clarify why we believe that art practices can fulfil a leading role in putting into practice new modes of democracy. The path outlined by my artistic projects selected for this research suggests a move towards not only the redefinition of the role of the artist, but also what constitutes an artistic gesture. The consequences of the disarticulation of the given triangulation of the art world authorship, artwork and spectatorship that gives an art project its coefficient of visibility and ultimate inscription in the realm of art, are at stake in this research. This particularly holds true for the displacement of the function of the author. I am looking for new understandings of democracy in art practices, the role of the artist, and her function in the respective projects and the different modes of relationality with either engaged or removed publics. The enquiry into these understandings is motivated primarily by my practice. My conclusion could lead to an understanding of democracy as a series of encounters with the possibility that the question ‘who speaks?’ be of no importance at all, opening up a possibility for a different and perhaps more egalitarian practice and experience of the arts. These conclusions and, subsequently, the types of practice that they might engender can overflow into broader fields and have an effect on different modes of being-together, i.e., the democratic encounter could offer not only a different experience of the arts but also from there be abstracted to a level of experience of other social assemblages.

Resumo: O artigo propõe um alargamento do conceito de arte socialmente engajada de Pablo Helguera, utilizado para descrever trabalhos artísticos que borram as fronteiras entre projeto social e projeto artístico. A partir da análise do processo de criação da performance Bate-Papo na Cama, e que consiste em colocar a minha cama em espaços públicos de diferentes países do mundo, o artigo pretende pensar como a prática artística pode ser intensificada e aprofundada pelos recursos oferecidos pelo somatic experiencing (SE) A prática, desenvolvida por Peter Levine, ajuda a pensar, conceber e realizar projetos artísticos fronteiriços não somente entre projeto artístico e projeto social, mas também que borrem as fronteiras com o projeto terapêutico, seja ele individual ou coletivo, gerando o conceito de performances de arte relacional como cura (PARC).

A growing number of research studies emphasize that art projects make a difference for youth on the edge of society in relation to social inclusion, increased well-being and stronger relations to formal education/employability. However, while these studies present inspiring cases and convincingly point to the significance of involving young people in art practices, they often seem less focused on analysing the conditions constituting a positive difference. Based on a recent study, this article introduces six core elements present in young people’s accounts about how art can work across art forms and projects. The approach thus proposes a shift from a focus on validating the positive effects of art projects to a discussion of the defining practices, when youth on the edge of society engage in community art projects.

Acknowledgments Introduction: Reviewing Visual Arts Research - Graeme Sullivan Changing Demands of Visual Arts Theory and Practice - Graeme Sullivan Limitations of Current Visual Research Methodologies - Graeme Sullivan Art Practice as Research - Graeme Sullivan Strategies for Using Art Practice as Research - Graeme Sullivan Part 1: Contexts for Visual Arts Research CONTEXTS FOR VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH PART ONE CONTEXTS FOR VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH PART ONE CONTEXTS FOR VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH PART ONE CONTEXTS FOR VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH Contexts For Visual Arts Research - Graeme Sullivan 1. Pigment to Pixel - Graeme Sullivan The Enlightenment as a Research Project - Graeme Sullivan Promise of Progress - Graeme Sullivan Fractured Realities - Graeme Sullivan Conclusion - Graeme Sullivan 2. Paradigms Lost - Graeme Sullivan Method as Truth - Graeme Sullivan Doubting Doctrines - Graeme Sullivan Conclusion - Graeme Sullivan Part 2: Theorizing Visual Arts Practice - Graeme Sullivan 3. Explanation, Understanding, and Beyond - Graeme Sullivan Theorizing in Practice - Graeme Sullivan Theorizing Visual Arts as Practice-Based Research - Graeme Sullivan Theorizing Art Practice as Transformative Research - Graeme Sullivan Visual Arts Research Practices - Graeme Sullivan Conclusion - Graeme Sullivan 4. Visual Knowing - Graeme Sullivan Visual Cognition - Graeme Sullivan Thinking Practices in the Visual Arts - Graeme Sullivan Visual Arts Knowing: A Framework - Graeme Sullivan Visual Arts as Transcognitive Practice - Graeme Sullivan A Case Study: Critical Influence - Graeme Sullivan Conclusion - Graeme Sullivan 5. Artist as Theorist - Graeme Sullivan Sites of Practice - Graeme Sullivan Reemergence of the Artist-Theorist - Graeme Sullivan Critical Perspectives and Practices - Graeme Sullivan Conclusion - Graeme Sullivan Part 3: Visual Arts Research Practices - Graeme Sullivan 6. Practice as Theory - Graeme Sullivan A Framework for Visual Arts Research Projects - Graeme Sullivan Visual Practice: Experiences - Graeme Sullivan Empirical Inquiry: Exercises - Graeme Sullivan Interpretive Discourse: Encounters - Graeme Sullivan Critical Process: Enactments - Graeme Sullivan Conclusion - Graeme Sullivan Epilogue: Conclusions and Beginnings - Graeme Sullivan Chipping Away - Graeme Sullivan Uncertain Conclusions - Graeme Sullivan References - Graeme Sullivan Index About the Author

Johannesburg inner city has undergone major changes in the last twenty-five years, a process keenly observed, commented and negotiated by many local artists. The transitional years can be summarized by two phases in urban policy, the discourses of which are coined by urban ‘decay’ marked by informal practices in the first years of transition in the 1990s, and ‘urban regeneration’ when the city authorities intervened with private-public partnerships and a public art program in the 2000s. These recent interventions promise a better city but also appear to reinforce social injustice and spatial control. As an integral part of strategic gentrification, they involve artists and the art market, offering new opportunities and spaces for studios, galleries, or art commissions while extruding undesired and often illegalized residents and traders.The reaction of artists in Johannesburg is accordingly ambivalent if not contradictory. Some try to understand the logic of informal practices and include or even support them in their art practice. This often involves opposing the increasing regulations by the city authorities and police and engaging with discriminated stakeholders. Others discover business opportunities by offering their creative, administrative and collaborative expertise for public art projects to the city administration and thus blend into the official urban policy. Finally, many artists are just residents and visitors of these neighborhoods, sometimes unintentionally benefiting from or even contributing to these developments.I argue that as social actors, artists willingly or not participate in and shape the city even beyond their artistic practice. Therefore, their artistic intentions and their practice as ordinary urban dwellers often interfere or even converge with each other, This paper discusses two case studies of artistic interventions in the inner city of Johannesburg by Ismail Farouk and the Trinity Session and analyzes the observed ambiguities between alignment with and opposition to urban policy and its implications with regard to the role of artists as social actors in the crossfire of urban regeneration and social justice.

The article considers the social preconditions and socio-cultural context of the formation of art practices as a cultural phenomenon of the XX century and identifies the causes and features of sectoral influence on other forms of activity in modern conditions of digitalization of social space. It is noted that the process, which reflected the binary stratification of high culture and "one-dimensional" (according to H. Marcuse) civilization, accumulated protests of the last century and formed in the structure of society field of practice – art practice, appears in modern culture in a new capacity construction of socially demanded spheres of interaction. Hypertext, interaction, co-creation, as characteristic features of the culture of postmodernism determine the principles and approaches of modern Internet, virtual, media practices. Network art practices, art projects, virtual exhibitions – what became possible with the beginning of digitalization, was a few decades ago rather an aesthetic experiment, marking the contours of creativity. The development of digital technologies, with which various spheres of activity are fused today, has formed fundamentally different conditions for the transit of practices, instant real implementation in various fields of human activity. The article provides examples of appeals to such areas of actualization of art technologies as education, psychology, social work and more. The article states that art practices, as a specific format of creativity of an experimental, interactive, dialogic nature, which absorbed various intentions of the culture of the XX century: protest moods, demarcation and at the same time borrowing of artistic traditions, acute presentation of social problems, etc., occupies a place in the development of information culture XXI century leading place in visualization of future prospects, new contours of digital civilization. However, the extent of their involvement was determined by factors of an individual, subjective nature. It is the information processes, network interactive communication, and the singularity of the fields of practice in various spheres of activity that determined the new order of introducing art practices into a wide spectrum of the sectoral development of society.

This article suggests that the discourse on arts and health encompass contemporary arts practices as an active and engaged analytical activity. Distinctions between arts therapy and arts practice are made to suggest that clinical evidence-based evaluation, while appropriate for arts therapy, is not appropriate for arts practice and in effect cast them in unreasonable doubt. Themes in current discourse on “arts” and “health” are broadly sketched to provide a context for discussion of arts practices. Approaches to knowledge validation in relation to each domain are discussed. These discourses are applied to the Irish healthcare context, offering a reading of three different art projects; it suggests a multiplicity of analyses beyond causal positive health gains. It is suggested that the social turn in medicine and the social turn in arts practices share some similar pre-occupations that warrant further attention.

This study is a case study that how music learning and visual art thought during the Pandemic of COVID-19. Students are learning from home who learn the art of music and fine arts by offline learning. Elementary School Pre-Service Teacher conducted experiments to increase student motivation and provide learning experiences during the Pandemic. Art learning, especially the practice of music and fine arts during this 'long holiday', is not given optimally because online learning experiences various advantages. The purpose of this study is to overcome the issue of practical art learning that is carried out at home by conducting Home Visit. These activities are carried out so that the learning of music and fine arts can be understood well by students. The practice of music and fine arts through song and movement and creating collages can provide students with great enthusiasm for learning and provide an important artistic practice experience for learning. The practice of art by directly meeting with students can lead students to study well. Students are given examples in practicing the art of music, song and movement that can directly inspire students to be brave and activate kinesthetic intelegence through movements and provide good motor activities. The art of collage gives students an experience of cutting and placing pieces of plastic material into pictures neatly.

Are artists, their communities, and their works of art interconnected? How may multiple feminist perspectives be applied to the perception and articulation of artworks? Art, Feminism, and Community: Feminist Art Histories from Turkey, 1973-1998 explores how the lives and communities of artists, and the artworks they create intersect. It suggests that feminisms inform artists’ relationships and experiences, which get intertwined with their artistic practices. Through detailed readings of artworks, it covers seven major case studies from Turkey and focuses on rarely seen paintings, installations, photographs, drawings, batik, and performance art spanning twenty-five years, from 1973 to 1998. Across six chapters, it incorporates twenty artists and cultural figures in a world of complex interactions and encounters that impact the making of new art. By reconstructing transnational networks, intellectual collectives, political alliances, and ethnic communities, it reveals bonds of familial, professional, and friendly relations. It shows how artists have examined their own experiences in their works, reflecting the influences of their communities and lives, despite the fact these aspects have been persistently ignored in the history of Turkish art. The book integrates a set of theories through feminist, postcolonial, intersectional, new materialist, and posthumanist perspectives.

Since February 24, 2022, the discourse of visual arts in Ukraine has been characterised by a significant focus on revising and rethinking the topic of the ongoing war in the country since 2014. The author analyses the forms of art representation of the war in Ukraine based on visual projects and art practices in the dimension of existential resistance to cruel reality, which contribute to the narrative of Ukraine’s resistance. The article discusses the correlations between the art discourse and the figurative topic of war, which has become an integral part of the art landscape. The article suggests analysing the events in Ukraine during 2022–2023 in the paradigm of cruel optimism, which is exemplified by the art projects by Alexander Krolikowski, Fedir Alexandrovich, Kateryna Yakovlenko, Anton Logov, and others. A crucial aspect of the research involves delineating the inherent characteristics of the new imagery and language in visual arts. This allows the author to posit the realisation of the concept of “zero” language, which lacks conventional forms of expressiveness but embodies an objectification of depicted signs and motifs associated with archetypal structures and linked to thanatological discourse. It has been demonstrated that the use of thanatological discourse in visual art practices was the impetus for finding new vitality in the pathological reality of military necrophilia. The art discourse takes on an objective ground, with a clear demarcation line between the living and the dead, one’s own and alien, cruel and optimistic, etc.

The practice of the visual arts in post-independence Nigeria has been variedly characterized. This has been more so since 1977 when the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture was held in Nigeria. This epochal event is, today, said to have engendered mercantilism, a decline in standard of art products, and a laisser-faire attitude towards art practice in Nigeria. These, it is said, have singly and collectively affected the status and working conditions of the Nigerian artist. It is also said that the practice of the arts, as well as the artist, are in jeopardy, at the moment. To remedy this situation, it is suggested by some, that the practice of the arts be regulated and that a code of conduct should be instituted. These suggestions are interrogated in this paper with the aim of finding out the suitability of these prescriptions for solving the identified problems in a 21st century art environment. The interrogation identifies that resorting to regulation would amount to imprisoning creativity and lead to retrogression.

Irrational Economics and Regional Cultural Life