Art in Diverse Social Settings

Art is a complex, multiform, fluid human activity that is subjugated to time-space-place contexts and dependent upon social representation and values. But what is it for? This introduction to the book Art in Diverse Social settings begins with a general characterization of Art as universal language. Unlike verbal language, art is primarily processed in the sensorial and emotional fields and only later rationally; unlike science, it does not aim at explaining or predicting the laws of the world's phenomena, instead it communicates by showing (in essence, it has an expressive meaning). In today's world, art became an accessible good and a valuable human creation because of this reappraisal of artistic practices; art is today expressive in domains such as politics, citizenship, economy, ethics, sustainability or public affairs.

The introduction to this edited book explains why it is focused on the role of art in today's diverse society. Art is part of the worldviews and mindsets from which it results and as a complex and ambiguous product of culture and perception, it must be understood from multiple perspectives. As such, this book includes in the first part seminal chapters with a theoretical scope, which highlight conceptual, contextual and cultural issues of contemporary art. The chapters in the second and third parts of the book are exemplary case studies, describing concrete intervention projects, which use some form of art or composed artistic expression as a medium for communication and intervention in the contexts of social and professional organizations, public spaces or the community. A summary of each chapter is provided and linked to the main goal of the book.

This chapter begins with a brief journey through the history of art in order to point out art serves both social and psychological functions and how it is tinged by civilizational and historical context by accumulating layers of purposes and sense from the past times and diverse mind frames. Art produced in the first quarter of the twenty-first century has absorbed the late trends of the twentieth century and has traced and reinforced some paths, especially those in connection to economy (art as a valuable market product) and society (art as statement, critical posture and participatory citizenship). The chapter brings together these ideas with examples showing, on one side, the economic connection of art to the market and mass consumption, while other projects, on the other side, include a politicized facet and activism through self and collective curatorship, participatory art and glocalization of its matters of interest, audiences and social impact.

Duchamp caused a revolution in the art of the twentieth century with the readymade concept, and simultaneously he opened Pandora's Box, which converted art into a simulation and made it dependent on discursive practices. This degenerated into a deconstructive vulgate when, from the 1960s onwards, an ‘aesthetic of banality’ was accentuated and the media institutionalized the ‘guerrilla’ between the practices and the discourses. Art ‘wrecked’ in a regime of hyper-reality of the image, and the art paradigms and criteria shifted from aesthetics to the law of the financial markets. At the same time, the proliferation of coexisting cultural ideas and a revolving cultural miscegenation ended up splitting the kingdom of the art. In the art world today, there is a cleavage between artists: on one side, the adepts to the heteronomy (a line that was born with ready-made products), those who, following dominant rules, work for the market and the organizations; on the other side, those, more passionate, for whom art is a hermeneutics for self-knowledge. Meanwhile, Picasso's aura returns to the art scene, in a panorama that until now was adverse to him.

This chapter is an introduction to what the author defines as central to the Art in relation to Citizenship and Education. As these are regarded as multifaceted concepts that continually evolve and expand, diverse theoretical notions are addressed and illustrated through artistic examples. The author represents ideas, concepts and values, underpinning citizenship in Art and Art Education by posing two questions: (1) Which kinds of Art can support citizenship and in what ways? and (2) Which concepts can foster citizenship in Art and Art Education? Art and Citizenship are discussed in relation to culture and aesthetics, pointing out that Art is meaningful in a cultural context and at the same time it has the potential to engage us in transformative practices. The author contends that Art for Citizenship Education is grounded on two pillars: ‘Who I am’ and ‘Who we are’. These are analyzed and exemplified through artistic practices that are concerned with the power of image, the formation of identities and communities and diverse cultural contexts (spaces and places).

This article is a broad reflection on some of the most common forms of artistic creation, including music, literature and cinema: – a reflection on how (and why) they may reach us and how they may be used or created effectively.

Modern activist artists in their practices try to embody those ideal structures upon which they would like to see free society organized in the future. There are more and more artists who unite in groups without clear leaders, acting collectively and/or anonymously. Striving to overcome the framework of the field of art and reach a wide public audience, they are guided in their practice by the ideas of radical political philosophers who are close to them in spirit and proclaim a horizontal and decentralized system of governance, direct democracy, to the point of rejecting any power and state.

In the first part of this chapter, I will discuss the history and examples of the existence of a horizontal and decentralized control system in Russia and some other countries, as well as a theoretical rationale for the very idea of direct democracy. Then I will talk about modern collectives trying to apply the ideas of horizontalization and decentralization in their practice.

In the second part of the chapter, I will describe how activist artists try to build their ethics, based on the philosophy of modern anarchism, and to solve an important question – whether or not to participate in institutional and gallery activities.

In the third and final part, I will give the basic philosophical rules of activist art and speculate on whether the work of art activists corresponds to them. My conclusion is that, apart from the grass roots of the movement, from the connection with genuinely protesting and mass movements, the activity of activist artists is doomed to failure.

The chapter is focused on the production of the first Brazilian University Festival of Improvisation Theatre and the problems faced by the production team (teachers and students from two public higher education institutions in Rio de Janeiro). The institutional and political boycott faced by the team will be described and analysed, in a socio-political context of democratic rupture, with the event assuming a character of art for change and resistance.

The first parts of this chapter trace the history of the Chinese national minority Uyghurs, the origins of their ethnic identity and their early art. It then describes the recent government's repression of Uyghurs and their attempts to resist the state oppression and forced assimilation through art.

The 2019 ‘Sanremo’ Music Festival has stimulated a heated debate on immigration and Italy's so-called liberal pro-immigrant elites, as the winner, Alessandro Mahmoud, a 26-year-old rapper born in Milan, is the son of an Italian mother and an Egyptian immigrant, to whom he ‘dedicated’ his winning song, ‘Soldi’ (Money) that speaks about irresponsible fathers. A rapper with an Arabic name winning Italy's most famous festival has shocked many Italians who were used to seeing in Sanremo a reassuring representation of the old traditional canzone italiana. His victory was unexpected in a country, in which anti-immigrant attitudes are becoming mainstream, and the League's movement is deliberately whipping up this nationalist wind. However, Mahmoud represents only the tip of the iceberg as since 2005 a number of so called ‘second generation rappers’ has been growing in Italy, who are using their lyrics to talk about personal and collective discrimination’ experiences. Through a text analysis of the most prominent second generation rap writers, this chapter aims at detecting the claims for belonging they attach to this musicalized social and political forum, shedding light on the question of Italian citizenship that is still denied to second generation young people.

This article is about the construction of masculinity in the German rap scene. After giving a short overview over the history, structure, main narratives and economic relevance of German rap, the construction of rap masculinity will be mainly discussed in the context of a transformation of the (global) gender order. For example, what impact does the rise and success of female rappers have on the gendered power relations within the German rap scene? Does the inclusion of feminine-coded moves and sounds, aesthetics or topics indicate a shift towards more alternative forms of masculinity? And what does it mean, when male rap artists currently rap about the meaning of masculinity, as if it was something that has to be (re-?) defined all at once?

The field study works with different data material from the rap scene, lyrics, interviews, but also multimodal signs as album covers, photos, video material, etc. Through discourse analysis, major discursive lines and threads are pointed out to draw a picture of gender order in this distinctive social and artistic setting.

This chapter analyzes a specific form of contemporary art, the one that is created and exhibited in the community, conceived and visualized outside of the art market and independent of the agenda of creative industries and art galleries. The motivation, purpose and meaning of such art practices, for both the artists and the community, are discussed and examples of community art projects are analyzed in order to understand how art became, in this first quarter of the twenty-first century, such a valued collective asset, so accessible and present in the daily life of the common man. Two Portuguese case studies have been chosen as illustrations: the first one is a funding programme of projects focussed on artistic practices for inclusion (the PARTIS programme, by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation) and the second is a self-financed and self-curated artistic collective, Pescada n^º 5.

In the transition to more inclusive societies, design, far beyond traditional design domains dealing with form shaping, can contribute to organizational and social transformation (Jones & Van Patter, 2009) through projects for new meanings, new services and new processes. In this sense, the chapter aims to discuss the practice of ‘Costruire Bellezza (Crafting Beauty), an experiment (Binder & Redström, 2006) of design for social inclusion. It focuses on both the empowerment of homeless people (Sen, 1999) and the development of skills – mainly relational – of university students (Margolin & Margolin, 2002) via Design Anthropology–led creativity. Participants include researchers, homeless people, students in design and social sciences, social workers, educators and creative talents. Through regularly organized ‘design initiatives’ (Manzini, 2015, p. 91) they as a group work on projects, languages and co-creation processes. Design and Anthropology shaped this strong relational and community-based apparatus of collaborative experiences thanks to which all participants' backgrounds are valued. The participatory experience becomes the context where experiments are carried out to develop more effective services for homeless people and new models of active and responsible citizenship.

Drawing on findings from the project ‘Walking around with our cameras’ (2014–16), this chapter explores educative and methodological implications of arts-based research. The project on which this chapter is based was conducted in Bilbao (Spain) by two local organizations: Sala Rekalde, a contemporary art gallery; the Institute of Human Rights of Deusto University, a local artist and a group of migrant women. Analysis of this project offers insights into the ways that artistic practices afforded unique opportunities for migrant women to reconstruct and represent their migratory experiences. This chapter sheds light on the ways that participatory arts-based research can move across disciplines and enhance effective achievement on collaborative projects that work to give voice to the voiceless.

This chapter is about a group of designers, from the Piracema Lab that works with traditional craftspeople trying to avoid any imposition or direct intervention on the artisans in order to foster the development of the creative process. The process is initiated through workshops to make craftspeople aware of their personal history, of each other's experiences and local history. A local historian is always invited to talk about the town. The education process is based on research of the materials from the region for economic reasons and on the development of visual perception. The designers stimulate the participants to observe local things like patterns and forms in the architecture, in the surroundings and nature to be used as visual motives of the products to be created. I will refer to three experiences, two in the Amazon region and one in Africa.

Graffiti and street art have become a universal, intercultural and multidisciplinary urban phenomenon. The contribution of scientific research has greatly increased knowledge about this peculiar culture that has transformed the way we view and experience the city. The general objective of this chapter is the description of a framework for community development, focused on young people, using graffiti and street art culture as an aggregating resource for social inclusion, cultural entrepreneurship and empowerment. The identification of a set of tangible and intangible assets linked to the creation of cultural synergies for the benefit of young citizens provides a model that may be employed for the social and economic progress of local communities. This chapter also provides a macro and micro environmental analysis intended to establish guidelines for the implementation of entrepreneurial projects for the cultural development of diverse social settings. In this sense, the examples of distinct cities, such as Lisbon, Heerlen and Toronto, demonstrate that their dynamics around street art culture are a challenge for engagement in effective socio-economic constructions. Similarly, the academic research project StreetArtCEI provides not only the scientific knowledge but also resources for the community to use in entrepreneurial actions.

This chapter refers to basic qualities of art learning in relation to citizenship education. It aims to explore pedagogical principles and methods/strategies through examples of artistic practices in different settings and instances, emphasizing cultural and democratic dialogue.

Artistic practices in education are explored through documentation and visual data and reveal different ways of learning and thinking that incorporate inclusive and critical approaches to art education. Documentation encompasses (1) examples of artistic initiatives in Europe including Cyprus and (2) the researcher's initiatives reported through visual notes in informal and formal types of educational settings. Documentation exposes creative processes and strategies significant for learning in, about and through art and introduces visual research methods as a meaningful and democratic way of teaching and learning the visual arts. Findings reveal features of art learning emphasizing cultural dialogue, pluralism and creative processes based on active and participatory art education approaches.

Cultural traditions should not be lost, and yet because of lifestyle changes, reorganisation of family life and the influence of globalisation, the rich heritage of a country like Finland risks being forgotten. In this chapter, the author argues for ways to redress this situation by ensuring the transmission of traditions, cultural heritage and enculturation through early childhood education.