UVlNG AS FORM: SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART FROM 1991-~011 EDITED BY NATO THOMPSON CREATIVE TIME BOOKS. NEW YORK THE MIT PRESS. CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSFTTS AND LONDON ENGI ANn l.V IL... CONmm FOREWORD 7 PROJECTS 94 Bronwyn Lace and Anthea Moys 177 Marion von Osten 244 Anne Pasternak Ai Weiwei 96 Suzanne Lacy 178 Peter Watkins 246 Ala Plastica 98 Land Foundation 180 WikiLeaks 246 LIVING AS FORM 16 Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla 100 Long March Project 182 Elin Wikstrom 247 Nato Thompson Lara Almarcegui and Begona Movellan 102 Los Angeles Poverty Department 183 WochenKlausur 249 Alternate ROOTS 104 Mammalian Diving Reflex 184 Women on Waves 250 PA RTICIPATION AND SPECTA CLE: 34 Francis Alys 105 Mardi Gras Indian Community 186 WHERE ARE WE NOW? Appalshop 108 Angela Melitopoulos 188 THE LEONORE ANNENBERG PRIZE Claire Bishop Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle 108 Zayd Minty 190 FOR ART AND SOCIA L CHANGE 252 Claire Barclay 112 The Mobile Academy 191 The Yes Men 254 RETURNING ON BIKES: 46 Barefoot Artists 114 Mujeres Creando 192 Rick Lowe 256 NOTES ON SOCIAL PRACTICE Basurama 116 Vik Muniz 194 Jeanne van Heeswijk 258 Maria Lind BijaRi 119 Navin Production Stud io 195 Bread and Puppet Theater 120 Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) 196 THANK YOU VERY MUCH 261 DEMOCRATIZING URBANIZATION AND 56 Tania Bruguera 121 Nuts Society 197 THE SEARCH FOR A NEW CIVIC IMAGINATION CAMP 122 John O'Neal 198 CREDITS 262 Teddy Cruz Cemeti Art House 122 ada Projesi 199 Paul Chan 125 Park Fiction and the Right COLOPHON 263 MICRO UTOPIAS: 64 Mel Chin et al. 127 to the City Network Hamburg 200 PUBLIC PRACTICE IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE Chto Delat? (What is to be done?) 129 Pase Usted 202 Carol Becker Santiago Cirugeda 130 Piratbyran (The Bureau of Piracy) 203 Cambalache Colectivo 130 Platform a 9.81 204 EVENTWORK: THE FOURFOLD MATRIX 72 Phil Collins 132 Public Movement 206 OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Celine Condorelli and Gavin Wade 134 Pulska Grupa 208 Brian Holmes Cornerstone Theater Company 136 Pedro Reyes 210 Alice Creischer and Andreas Siekmann 138 Laurie Jo Reynolds 212 LIVING TAKES MANY FORMS 86 Minerva Cuevas 140 Athi-Patra Ruga 213 Shannon Jackson Decoloniz jng Architecture Art Residency 140 The San Francisco Cacophony Society 214 Jeremy Deller 142 The Sarai Programme at CSDS and Ankur 214 Mark Dion, J. Morgan Puett, Christoph Schlingensief 215 and collaborators 146 Florian Schneider 216 Marilyn Douala-Bell and Didier Schaub 148 Katerina Sed a 217 Election Night. Harlem, New York 148 Chemi Rosado Seijo 218 Fallen Fruit 150 Michihiro Shimabuku 220 Bita Fayyazi, Ata Hasheminejad, Buster Simpson 222 Khosrow Hassanzadeh. Farid Slanguage 224 Jahangir and Sassan Nassiri 152 SU PERFLEX 226 Finishing School 154 Apolonija SuSterSit 228 Free Class Fran kfurt/M 156 Tahrir Square 230 Frente 3 de Fevereiro 157 Taller Popular de Serigrafia Theaster Gates 160 (Popular Silkscreen Workshop) 231 Alonso Gil and Federico Guzman 162 Temporary Services 232 Paul Glover 164 Torolab 233 Josh Greene 165 Mierle Laderman Ukeles 233 Fritz Haeg 166 Ultra-red 235 Haha 168 United Indian Health Services 236 Helena Producciones 170 Urban Bush Women 236 Stephen Hobbs and Marcus Neustetler 171 US Social Forum 237 Fran llich 172 Bik van der Pol 238 Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen 173 Wendelien van Oldenborgh 241 Amal Kenawy 175 Eduardo Vasquez Martin 242 Surasi Kusolwong 175 I Voina 242 t A )1;..1;' WHAT STRIKES ME IS THE FAG THAT IN OUR SOCIETY, ART HAS BECOME SOMETHING WHICH IS RELATED ONLY TO OBJEdTS AND NOT TO INDIVIDUALS, OR TO LIFE. THAT ART IS SOMETHING WHICH IS SPECIALIZED OR WHICH IS DONE BY EXPERTS WHO ARE ARTISTS. BUT COULDN'T EVERYONE'S LIFE BECOME A WORK OF ART? WHY SHOULD THE LAMP OR HOUSE BE AN OBJECT, BUT NOT OUR LIFE? Mch¢1 Foucault I WENT FROM BEING AN ARTIST WHO MAKES THINGS, TO BEING AN ARTIST WHO MAKES J~~ I~e?S HAPPEN. • , ~ M PART I: LlVINC AS FORM and a high rate of fatal gunfire. Working with I local television stations, he invited citizens to Women on Waves is an activist/art organiza­ donate their firearms in exchange for vouch­ tion founded in 2001 by phys ician Rebecca ers that could be redeemed for electronics Gomperts. The small nonprofit group would and appliances from domestic shops. The sail from the coasts of countries where abor­ 1,527 weapons-more than forty percent of tion is illegal in a boat designed by Atelier which were issued by the military-were pub­ Van Leishout that housed a functioning abor­ licly steamrolled into a mass of flattened metal, tion clinic. Gomperts and her crew would then melted down in a local foundry, and recast into anchor in international waters-since the boat 1,527 shovels. Reyes distributed the shovels was registered in The Netherlands, they oper­ to local charities and school groups, which ated under Dutch law-to provide abortion used them to plant 1,527 trees in public spac­ services to women, legally and safely. The fol­ es throughout the city. The spades have been lowing quote is from a documentary film about widely exhibited, with labels attached explain­ the history of Women on Waves. While reading, I ing their origins; each time they are shown, bear in mind the almost Homeric qualities this they are used to plant more trees. seafaring narrative conjures. It is a drama, and Here we have before us two socially this is no accident. engaged art projects-both poetic, yet func­ tional and political as well. They engage people '·As the ship sails into the Valencia har­ and confront a specific issue. While these par­ bor, conservatives dispatch ships bear­ ticipatory projects are far removed from what ing banners reading "no" and drumming one might call the traditional studio arts-such thunders from the anti-choice protes­ as SCUlpture, film, painting, and video-what tors leaning on the gates to the port. The field they do belong to is hard to articulate. dock is mobbed with supporters and Though defined by an active engagement with aggressive press. As the ship attempts groups of people in the world, their intentions to tie up, a dissenting harbor patrol and disciplines remain elusive. Are these proj­ egorize these projects, they typify a growing curator Nicholas Bourriaud, or Danish curator I ship lodges itself between the Women ects geared for the media? Each project flour­ array of complex cultural production that con­ Lars Bang Larsen's term, "social aesthetics." on Waves ship and the dock, securing ished among news outlets as these artists cre­ tinues to garner interest and adherents. Say We can also look to artist Suzanne Lacy's "new their lines to the sh ip and attempting ated new spin around old stories: a woman's what one will, socially engaged art is growing genre public art:· or the commonly known to drag the ship back to sea, while the right to choose and the drug wars of North­ and Ubiquitous. West Coast term "social practice." Other pre­ activists frantically try to untie the line. ern Mexico. Women on Waves has performed The projects in Living as Form expose cursors include Critical Art Ensemble's activ­ The authorities seem to be winning relatively few abortions over the course of the numerous lines of tension which have ist approach called "tactical media" and Grant the tug of war, when Rebecca, clearly seven years. In fact, the boat has mainly been surfaced in socially engaged art in the past Kester's "dialogic art" which refers to conver­ enjoying the moment, emerges from the deployed as a media device intended to bring twenty years, essentially shaking up founda­ sation-based projects. We can also go back hole wielding a large knife. The crowd awareness to the issue. Similarly, Pedro Reyes tions of art discourse, and sharing techniques further to consider Joseph Beuys's "social onshore thunderously stomps and did remove 1,527 guns from the streets of Culi­ and intentions with fields far beyond the arts. SCUlpture:· Numerous genres have been cheers as she slices the patrol's rope in acan. But, given the actual extent of gun vio­ Unlike its avant-garde predecessors such as deeply intertwined in partiCipation, sociality, half, freeing her ship, bows to the crowd, lence there, his gesture seems far more sym­ Russian Constructivism, Futurism, Situation­ conversation, and "the civic." This intercon­ and tosses the Women on Waves lines bolic than practical. ism, Tropicalia, Happenings, Fluxus, and Dada­ nectivity reveals a peculiar historic moment to the eager supporters. As the harbor And yet, symbolic gestures can be power­ ism, socially engaged art is not an art move­ in which these notions aren't limited to the patrol's motorboat circles, baffied and ful and effective methods for change. Planting ment. Rather, these cultural practices indicate world of contemporary art, but includes vari­ impotent, hundreds of hands pull the trees does improve quality of life, and using a new social order-ways of life that emphasize ous cultural phenomena which have cropped sh i pinto dock." recycled guns to do so speaks directly to those participation, challenge power, and span disci­ up across the urban fabric. For example, spon­ most affected by the violence. likewise, Wom­ plines ranging from urban planning and com­ taneous bike rides in cities by the group Criti­ Seven years later, for his project Palas Por Pis­ en on Waves provided essential services to munity work to theater and the visual arts. cal Mass, guerrilla community gardens, and talas, the artist Pedro Reyes collected 1,527 women in anti-choice countries, regardless of This veritable explosion of work in the micro-granting community groups are just weapons from residents of Culiacan, a west- I how many were actually able to take advantage arts has been assigned catchphrases, such a few of the non-discipline-specific cultural ern Mexican city known for drug trafficking of them.