Art as Activism
How art and activism can go hand in hand is explained in the book Art and Activism in the Age of Globalization.Goris, Gie. Art and Activism in the Age of Globalization. Ed. Lieven de Cauter, Ruben de Roo, and Karel Vanhaesebrouck. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2011. Starting point in the book is the term “subversivity”, which is defined as “a disruptive attitude that tries to create openings, possibilities in the ‘closedness’ of a system”. Subversivity is characteristic to most subcultures, as they are “fundamentally deviant, even hostile towards the dominant system or hegemonic culture”. The aim of subversivity is to create a space for alterity, deviance, truths that generally must remain hidden, the forbidden, nonconformity, and the undermining of convention and tradition. It is also closely related to a range of concepts such as criticism, dissent, protest, resistance, and activism. Subversion can come in three different, autonomous forms. First, the subversion of truth undermines accepted theories, dogmas, and myths. Second, aesthetic subversion can, for example, be found in modern art’s subversion of traditional art. Last, ethico-political subversion undermines or overthrows authority. This is subversion as it is generally understood and also the most fitting to the privacy movement in particular.
Art and Activism in the Age of Globalization also mentions three requirements that should be met in order for art to help subvert dominant power. First, art has to strive to retain and cultivate its proper voice. That proper voice is cultural, as cultural power defines how we understand the world around us. The challenge in this is to not limit this to individuals or areas of society that already share similar views, but instead reach and convince those who do not. Second, for art to be subversive, it needs to move away from the context it originally belongs to, for example a museum, to a place where power is located and decisions are made, for example the street, the (mass) media, or religious spaces. Third, art cannot be subversive unless it is well informed about the conflicts that influence our modern day world. Contributions to vague terms such as peace, tolerance, and solidarity are not enough to make a true impact.