Political Art Research Articles

Art as Activism: The Role of Visual Arts in Social Movements

The relationship between visual arts and activism has shaped societal transformation across generations. Visual arts have historically been a powerful medium for dissent, mobilization, and solidarity in social movements, offering an emotional resonance that transcends verbal advocacy. This paper investigates the evolution of art as activism, from its historical roots to its role in modern social movements. Through case studies from Brazil, the United States, and other global contexts, the paper examines how artists and collectives use visual mediums to challenge power structures and inspire change. Theoretical frameworks highlight the tensions between commodification and authenticity in activist art, while future directions emphasize the potential of digital platforms to enhance global collaboration. The analysis underscores the enduring capacity of visual arts to amplify marginalized voices and foster societal progress, emphasizing their critical role in addressing contemporary challenges. Keywords: Art activism, social movements, visual culture, political art, historical perspectives, digital activism.

Ability to learn – from ancient to contemporary key competence

The aim of the sketch is to discuss the historiographical aspects of the learning competence. The diaries of Hadrian, a Roman emperor who is considered to be one of the five best Roman rulers, are the starting point of the presented analysis. In his diaries he describes his experience as a schoolboy from the sage’s perspective and the very experience seems to be the reason to indicate the origins of the contemporary school and the concept of the learning competence being incorporated into the educational system. Storytelling, giving a speech, creating a narrative have been a crucial aspect of the learning process ability since the ancient times. Modern storytelling proponents consider the ancient rhetorical art, ars bene dicendi, to be fundamental. Contemporary Polish school may often seem to disapprove of the student’s story due to the fact that curriculum, exams and the teacher’s story are its focal points. Antiquity, which is allegedly perceived as the foundations of our civilisation, is permeated by rhetorical art in politics, culture, law and last but not least education.

Between Magic and Amusement: A Collingwoodian Perspective on Political Art

Abstract In this article I enquire into the notion of ‘political art’, by drawing on ideas from R. G. Collingwood’s often neglected Principles of Art. I show that his characterisation of ‘expression’ reveals what I call the ‘Narrow Aretaic Structure’ (NAS), distinguishable from a ‘Wide Aretaic Structure’ (WAS). Whatever satisfies NAS satisfies WAS, but not vice-versa. Though we have reasons to call ‘art’ anything satisfying WAS, Collingwoodian ‘art proper’ must also satisfy NAS. I then suggest that the distinction between WAS and NAS is more interesting than the distinction between art and non-art and even as a criterion for ‘aesthetic’ (though this is not my main issue). The main issue is articulating a view of when the ‘politicalness’ of ‘political art’ is relevant in light of its being art, or, in Collingwoodian terms, ‘expression’ (under the NAS model). Collingwood allows us to give an alternative answer to these questions; one that does not appeal to ‘messages’ in art and their hypothesised effects on the audience. In other words, an answer that avoids the consequentialist ‘template’, which is restricted to the WAS model. As case studies, I use some of Aleksander Deineka’s ‘Socialist-Realist’ mosaics, as well as other examples of political artworks, and the recording of a work song.

Aestheticizing Politics and Politicising Aesthetics: Principles of Aesthetics in the Context of Totalitarianism

This article examines the complex interplay between art, society, and power, focusing on the aesthetic strategies employed by totalitarian regimes, particularly Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union. Both regimes harnessed aesthetics to propagate their ideologies and suppress dissent. While Nazi Germany aestheticized politics to promote their ideology of racial purity, the Soviet Union politicised aesthetics to glorify the proletariat and the Soviet state through Socialist Realism. The regimes’ manipulation of aesthetics reveals how art can become instrumental in enforcing authoritarian control and shaping public perception through manipulating emotions. The paper further examines common aesthetic principles utilised by totalitarian regimes, aiming to raise awareness about practices of aestheticizing politics and politicising aesthetics, making the topic relevant in contemporary turbulent times. The article thus underscores the contemporary relevance of these strategies in the digital age, where art continues to influence political discourse and public behaviour. It calls for a critical engagement with the ethical dimensions of art in politics and advocates for supporting artistic freedom to ensure art serves as a tool for empowerment of the silenced, resistance against totalitarianism, and positive social change. Through historical and contemporary lenses, this study highlights the dual potential of art to both oppress and liberate, emphasising the need for vigilance in maintaining its ethical use in society.

Inauthenticity as a Disruption of Neoliberal Resilience Discourse in Brady Corbet'sVox Lux

Brady Corbet's Vox Lux (2018) depicts school shooting survivor Celeste's transformation into a singing superstar, connecting the trauma of a terrorist attack to the phenomenon of musical celebrity. In so doing, the film narrativises the relationship between the pop singer and neoliberal resilience discourse that has been explored by music philosopher Robin James. Mobilising Jacques Rancière's definition of political art, this article suggests that, rather than endorsing the resilience that it depicts, the film formally critiques the neoliberal function of pop stardom by disrupting the pleasurable affect associated with pop music and celebrity. Whilst Raffey Cassidy's performance of the soundtrack was praised in many reviews, the performance of Natalie Portman (playing the older Celeste) was criticised for its inauthentic delivery. Far from being a weakness of the film, my reading suggests that it is in the formal discord between the pleasurably resilient affect of the music and Portman's laboured performance that the film's political-philosophical critique of neoliberal resilience discourse comes to the fore. Taking an interdisciplinary approach grounded in the perspectives of political philosophy, girlhood studies, and celebrity studies, this article proposes that Vox Lux interrogates the neoliberal function of celebrity through a formal disruption of the pleasurable affect associated with the resilient pop star's musical performance.

Let’s Talk About Hair and Art

The objective of this paper is to critically reflect upon a cultural text in the form of a piece of mixed media abstract realism artwork titled Hair Power, made in 2020. This piece was inspired and motivated by my involvement with a World Afro Day event held on 15 September 2020. The paper draws on my personal, political, cultural, and historical rationale for making the artwork, and includes relevant background information and wider influences. I discuss the artistic process — composition, colour scheme, themes, materials— and how and why I made the painting the way I did. The paper also aims to show the intertextuality of visual art and community activism and the importance of art as a form of resistance against Westernised beauty standards and of the power of images in their ability to transport the audience in which they are intended. This paper will also seek to understand the connectivity between artists and the community, and the importance of representation within the visual arts. It will draw on my cultural heritage and African and Caribbean diasporic cultural connections. It will further seek to connect art with literary projects, working together to challenge those ideologies that do not work for Black people who choose to wear their afro hair in its natural state, so that pride is more important than hiding or changing afro hair to fit into society’s ‘norms’. Hair Power is a piece of personal and political abstract realism art that was made as a reminder that afro hair in its natural state is to be celebrated. Hair Power was also one of two pieces of artwork integrated as a symbolic gesture into my Birkbeck College “Race Law and Literature” assignment in April 2021. The assignment involved writing a creative nonfiction narrative of a historical event using the theme of everyday racism in the British education system. Hair Power marks my decision to make more political art.

Dünya Sanat Tarihinde Kültürel Varlık ve Sanat Eserlerindeki Dominant Kültürel Kimlik İzleri

A work of art has the capacity to be an independent examination of the culture from which it emerges. From the birth of art to the present day, works of art analyze their own culture and present messages to society through works of art. With these messages and analyses, they improve society and bring new perspectives, norms, regulations, and even previously forgotten cultures and norms into it. The culture of each nation includes its contexts; it derives from religious, social, political, economic, traditional, and moral values. These values used by the artist are embodied as different products in different branches of art, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, and performance. Universal works of artists, are shaped by the dominant characters of their culture and help to protect their society and new generations in the future. The research aims to identify dominant cultural traces in art using examples from world art history within the disciplines of art and anthropology. In addition, it is to draw attention to the necessity of new aesthetic approaches by excluding Kitsch art, which emerged in the early modern age and corrupted art and culture. The research is important in terms of guiding artists in the context of cultural contacts in art. The following results emerged from the qualitative research: Art acts as an intercultural bridge by infiltrating culture and society. Universal and political messages in art should be used in the context of "doing art politically, not political art" for the benefit of society. Moreover, if care is not taken, it is inevitable that "kitsch art" will corrupt society. Therefore, a work of art must preserve its society by avoiding Kitsch art. On the other hand, an artist must be a good sociologist and an anthropologist. Finally, the artist or the universal work of art protects, secures, strengthens, and develops the future of culture. Otherwise, the opposite will happen.

Forms of Protest: Political Art in the Digital and Urban Realm

IJIA’s Dialogues series brings together scholars and practitioners from across varied disciplines for a discussion of critical contemporary issues that interrogate the boundaries between architecture, art, anthropology, archaeology, and history. This session, the third instalment, was held as a webinar in February 2023 and hosted by IJIA Assistant Editor Eliana Abu-Hamdi, featuring Middle East scholars Jillian Schwedler, Deen Sharp, and Kyle Craig. Their conversation addressed the intersection of art, urban politics, and protest in the Middle East, broadly defined, in the form of public displays of sculpture and visual art (graffiti), especially as they are related to issues of displacement, dispossession, diaspora, and national identity. The conversation also extended to digital media and hashtag culture/activism, and to virtual identities. This is an edited excerpt from the original discussion.

What Must Be Re-Imagined

Between November 3 and 5, 2017, Swiss-German director Milo Rau and his production company the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM) staged a transnational judiciary assembly of artists, activists and eye-witnesses – a symbolic institution for the future that sought to activate its delegates and audiences – under the title General Assembly. This contribution, a collaboration between dramaturg/curator/activist Kasia Wojcik and scholar/dramaturg/critic Lily Climenhaga, engages in a multi-temporal exploration: a base text written in 2019 that critically examines General Assembly (2017) from a spectator perspective that is then itself reflected upon – reflections from Climenhaga and Wojcik that considers both the performance and the text about the performance. The article is a process of returns, an experiment in scholarly and artistic revisitation. Together, Wojcik and Climenhaga reflect – in a sort of bracketed thinking – on the ever-changing, always developing quality of political art and its scholarship that accompany inevitable processes of increased scholarly and political engagement, the creation of new connections, the undertaking of new projects, and accessing new perspectives.

Older Women Rock!

In this article artist/activist Leah Thorn shares the processes and rationale underpinning ‘Older Women Rock!’, a project creating pop-up political art spaces to raise awareness and explore issues facing early-old-age women in their 60s and 70s. Through poetry, performance, retro clothes, film, consciousness-raising and listening skills, ‘Older Women Rock!’ celebrates older women, unites them across differences, challenges their invisibility and subverts society’s assumptions and prejudices about them. The project arose out of a 10-month Leverhulme Trust artist residency undertaken by Leah in 2015 at the Kent Academic Primary Care Unit, University of Kent, and the England Centre for Practice Development, Canterbury Christ Church University. The project was developed in 2017 through a Fellowship at Keele University Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Examining How Art Reflects and Challenges Political Ideologies and Power Structures in Lebanon

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine how art reflects and challenges political ideologies and power structures in Lebanon.
 Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low-cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library.
 Findings: The findings revealed that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to how art reflects and challenges political ideologies and power structures in Lebanon. Preliminary empirical review revealed the impact of politically charged artworks on public attitudes and political participation is enormous. The researchers conducted a survey with a diverse sample of participants who viewed politically themed artworks and measured their attitudes and behavioral intentions. The study found that exposure to politically charged artworks led to more critical attitudes towards existing political ideologies and increased participants' willingness to engage in political activities.
 Recommendations: The Cultural Hegemony, Critical Theory and Visual Culture Theory may be used to anchor future studies on how art reflects and challenges political ideologies and power structures in Lebanon. Governments, institutions, and societies should actively encourage artistic freedom and support a diverse range of artistic expressions. This will ensure that different political ideologies and perspectives are represented in the artistic landscape, fostering a more inclusive and nuanced discourse. Additionally, public institutions, galleries, and museums should strive to create accessible and engaging experiences for the public to interact with political art. This can include exhibitions, workshops, and public discussions that stimulate dialogue and promote critical thinking about the relationships between art, politics, and power.

Sámi Literature in Norwegian Language Arts Textbooks

Sámi Literature in Norwegian Language Arts Textbooks

Aktiv modstand

In this article, we examine the notion of ‘active resistance’ as a distinct activist and artistic practice. With the so-called Banana Collective, an art collective comprised of a wide variety of people, as our point of departure we investigate a new mode of political art in which critical, caring, loud-mouthed, uncompromising and loving resistance toward a violent political system are practised simultaneously. This resistance takes place at the edges of democracy, it concerns people our society has displaced at these edges (e.g., refugees and immigrants), but the resistance also finds its way to museums and concert halls: venues where more advantaged eyes are looking. The article discusses whether functioning in this spectrum is what makes The Banana Collective’s work stand out within an increasingly conscious and political art scene. It investigates the collective’s specific take on socially engaged art and points to its potential for influencing current neoliberal and anti-immigrant politics. The article aims to shed light on the specific type of avant-gardism practiced by the group: an avant-gardism that seeks a more radical amalgamation of life and art by building new spaces of appearance and a new language of resistance. And it attempts to answer if this type of direct avant-gardism has the potency of political or/and social change.

Art activism: Art of dissent

Moviment Graffitti has, for the last 25 years, been active against the oppression and exploitation of people, animals and the environment with a vision of freedom, justice and radical democracy. Traversing different media, genres and styles, Moviment Graffitti has a dynamic, symbiotic and powerful relationship with art. This article will look at Graffitti’s passionate use of art as a pedagogical tool to create awareness and bring forth social change through the aesthetics of activism and the art of dissent. It explores the role, meaning and paradox of political art through the movement’s artistic sub-groups and the main artistic initiatives embarked upon. Deliberately eschewing the elitism of the art establishment, the commodification of education and culture and depoliticized notions of sustainability and development through art edu/activism (eduvism), Graffitti reappropriates art to agitate educators in revolutionary pedagogy to become pivotal actors in the promotion of progressive social change.

Reflections: On Strike MoMA, Caribe Fractal and Decolonial Feminisms as Political Arts Practice

Abstract: This piece is an assemblage of two voices meditating on the Strike MoMA protests, the work of digital humanities/material project [Taller] Electric Marronage, and the ways that decolonial feminisms allows for a complex understanding of our roles and commitments to practices that span across and beyond western institutions (including museums and universities). By tracing these events and experiences through a decolonial feminist politic, we aim to render transparent the tangle of insurgency and complicity that we negotiate as Black/Latina scholars and organizers within dominating institutions. The essay further considers the content and context of the art exhibit "Caribe Fractal/Fractal Caribbean" by José Arturo Ballester Panelli and how fractality, ecology, and the sacred are linked to human living beyond capitalism and fragmentation. In the wake of the pandemic fractality, ecology, and the Sacred are tools for practicing intersubjectivity and relationality.

Communications

Communications William Kinderman The review by Barry Cooper of my book Beethoven: A Political Artist in Revolutionary Times in Fontes Artis Musicae (Vol. 68, No. 3 [July–September 2021], 273–276) contains errors. Professor Cooper writes that ‘the theory that the Eroica Sketchbook was begun in 1802 rather than 1803 (p. 65) is based on flawed evidence and has been comprehensively discredited’. However, the publication of Beethoven’s “Eroica” Sketchbook: A Critical Edition, edited by Lewis Lockwood and Alan Gosman (2013), and the literature cited therein, indeed supports a dating of 1802, which has not been ‘comprehensively discredited’. Cooper also writes that ‘the contredance . . . used in the finale of the Eroica was not composed until after Beethoven’s ballet Prometheus of 1801’, which makes no sense since that very theme already assumes prominence in the ballet, to be later absorbed into the very different context of the symphony. Furthermore, the gripping narrative of Beethoven refusing to play for French officers and leaving Grätz in defiance of his patron Prince Lichnowsky in October 1806 is not merely ‘a compilation from a number of unconfirmed recollections’ but an event that can now be vividly re-envisioned from Beethoven’s rain-stained music manuscripts and from the diary of the young poet Joseph von Eichendorff, who reported ‘threatening weather from the West’ with lightning and thunder coinciding with the ‘bolt out of the blue’ of Napoleon’s decisive victory at Auerstädt and Jena. William Kinderman University of California, Los Angeles Copyright © 2023 International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres

Towards a Theory of the Art of Politics for Citizens

Towards a Theory of the Art of Politics for Citizens

TRANS ARTIVIZAM NA POSTJUGOSLOVENSKOM PROSTORU

This text explores the field of trans artivism in the post-Yugoslav space as a platform of social and political intervention. Trans artivism is approached as a form of political art, but also of social action with a potential to enable and support social and political mechanisms of change. In other words, trans artivism is a hybrid modality of artistic and activist work enacted as a strategy of resistance to transphobia. In the post-Yugoslav space, trans artivism often appears as the most potent mode of social intervention left for the trans community. I explore both artistic practices made by trans artists and trans-related art which uses trans-related elements and approaches. The analysed examples are illustrative of the attitude that the social majority has towards gender minorities as well as of the attitudes that the trans individuals themselves have towards their own bodies, identities, and the wider trans community. Keywords: artivism, transgender, community organizing, post-Yugoslav space, trans community

Introduction

Introduction

THE RELEVANCE OF ASJA LĀCIS’S KINDERTHEATER TODAY: A BRAZILIAN PERSPECTIVE

The goal of the article is to show that Asja Lācis’s theatre programme, which was based on her reasoning about historical, practical and political issues in the theatre for children and adolescents, can be significant in the development of modern youth theatre in Brazil. Walter Benjamin’s Programme of the Proletarian Children’s Theatre, which included and explained Asja Lācis’s ideas, enhanced a better understanding of the involvement of art and theatre in politics, as well as the education based on emancipated artistic experience. The article views these ideas from a historical perspective by studying the case of “Casa do Teatro”. This institution is an heir to the tradition of education theatre, whose political dimension is associated with the resistance to Brazilian dictatorship (1964– 1984). Through emphasising theatre activities as a type of conscious education, certain aspects of Asja Lācis’s ideas gain the kind of significance that Brecht’s and Benjamin’s works have possibly lost in the context of contemporary politics and the latest trends in theatre development.