To better understand my approach to long-term projects and what motivates my practice to ideate and work I share these concepts to better define them. My projects often have reoccurring themes that center around food systems, systems of care. My projects are meant to be interacted with and raise questions they in and of themselves are not singular solutions. I feel that collaboration and participation are integral to all projects and our futures.
The following concepts were generated by the artist Tania Bruguera to define her practice and have informed my practice.
Long-term projects can stretch over years, involving a work method that disrupts a social or political status quo. Long-term projects are best experienced when the participants are part of the process, and thus they demand a longer commitment than is necessary when experiencing artworks of a shorter duration. Seeing these projects solely through the demands of the art institution or as “artworks” betrays the goal of the work and results in ethical imprecisions. This kind of work is not validated only through art; it must have an impact and measurable effect. The collective nature of these projects requires the artist to function as an initiator rather than a unique author and conceives of the participant as a collaborator. (2017)
A Long-Term project is a work method that tries to fall within social dynamics and, therefore, makes use of social tempo for production and for the implementation of the project.
Long-term projects are best experienced when the audience incorporates into the process and the dynamics generated by the project, demanding a larger commitment from them than when experiencing artworks in a more passive and purely artistic context. Very frequently these works are experienced in a fragmented way when the project is larger than the commitment from the audience or because of the natural progressive evolution of the project. They may also be seeing it out of context due to the inaccessibility of the project or if seeing a posteriori. (2011)
Arte de conducta (behavior art) is the presentation of a situation that challenges the audience to become active citizens. This reaction of the audience completes/finishes/continues/gives meaning to the artwork. The artist is an instigator. The artwork is not the physical elements presented in the space but the aftermath of the experience—the ensuing process of behavioral change. The works invite participants to question and unlearn normative behaviors. They do not seek to resolve specific problems, but to lay out a quandary in which new behaviors are rehearsed and potential future scenarios are imagined.
Arte de Conducta is expressed in the use of social behavior (the language through which society communicates) taken by art as its work material for public and social art. Arte de Conducta has its roots in conceptual art and performance, but instead of focusing on the limits of language and the physical body it works with the reaction and behavior created in those who witness the work and participate in it, thus giving rise to a process where the audience transforms into citizenship. Just as behavior enters into social life from one generation to another through memory based on experiences, oral tradition, or rumors, the documentation of Arte de Conducta pieces, although using the traditional means of documentation, tries to incorporate collective memory as a form of long-term social permanence and dialogue. Social beings are aware of symbolic meanings, also the result of experience expressed through behavior and the exercise modeling its meanings to transform praxis. That is why Arte de Conducta focuses on the civil aspect of society.
Arte de Conducta is not concerned with forms. It uses behavior as a linguistic tool and cancels aesthetic purposes not stemming from a relationship with ethics. It is interested in the possibility of functioning and not showing off. It moves away from the allegoric representations of the piece and tries to understand and manage elements from within society to provide moments and found institutional structures or systems which will contribute to the modification of some given aspects of society.
Arte uìtil roughly translates into English as “useful art,” but it goes further, suggesting art as a tool or device. Arte uìtil draws on artistic thinking to imagine, create, and implement tactics that change how we act in society. This work methodology transforms social effect into political effectiveness through realizable utopias. Instead of focusing on production, arte uìtil generates a process of social implementation. The “usefulness” in arte uìtil is not about problem-solving to improve the efficiency of the system, but about creating an altogether new system via a-legal loopholes. Arte uìtil shifts from production to a process of social implementation. (2017)
Arte Útil aims to transform some aspects of society through the implementation of art, transcending symbolic representation or metaphor, and proposing with their activity some solutions for deficits in reality. Most Arte Útil artists structured as a long-term project and the way it operates is dictated by the practical impact of their strategies. Arte Útil practices try to address the levels of disparities of engagement between informed audiences and the general public, as well as the historical gap between the language used in what is considered avant-garde and the language of urgent politics, science, and other disciplines.
Bruguera created the Arte Útil Association in January 2011 to provide a platform to meet, exchange ideas, and share strategies on how to deal with the issues of implementing the merger of art into society. The association will work in an open manner through discussions, printed texts, action groups, and public events examining what it means to create Arte Útil. (2011)
The following concepts were generated by the artist Tania Bruguera to define her practice and have informed my practice.
Long-term projects can stretch over years, involving a work method that disrupts a social or political status quo. Long-term projects are best experienced when the participants are part of the process, and thus they demand a longer commitment than is necessary when experiencing artworks of a shorter duration. Seeing these projects solely through the demands of the art institution or as “artworks” betrays the goal of the work and results in ethical imprecisions. This kind of work is not validated only through art; it must have an impact and measurable effect. The collective nature of these projects requires the artist to function as an initiator rather than a unique author and conceives of the participant as a collaborator. (2017)
A Long-Term project is a work method that tries to fall within social dynamics and, therefore, makes use of social tempo for production and for the implementation of the project.
Long-term projects are best experienced when the audience incorporates into the process and the dynamics generated by the project, demanding a larger commitment from them than when experiencing artworks in a more passive and purely artistic context. Very frequently these works are experienced in a fragmented way when the project is larger than the commitment from the audience or because of the natural progressive evolution of the project. They may also be seeing it out of context due to the inaccessibility of the project or if seeing a posteriori. (2011)
Arte de conducta (behavior art) is the presentation of a situation that challenges the audience to become active citizens. This reaction of the audience completes/finishes/continues/gives meaning to the artwork. The artist is an instigator. The artwork is not the physical elements presented in the space but the aftermath of the experience—the ensuing process of behavioral change. The works invite participants to question and unlearn normative behaviors. They do not seek to resolve specific problems, but to lay out a quandary in which new behaviors are rehearsed and potential future scenarios are imagined.
Arte de Conducta is expressed in the use of social behavior (the language through which society communicates) taken by art as its work material for public and social art. Arte de Conducta has its roots in conceptual art and performance, but instead of focusing on the limits of language and the physical body it works with the reaction and behavior created in those who witness the work and participate in it, thus giving rise to a process where the audience transforms into citizenship. Just as behavior enters into social life from one generation to another through memory based on experiences, oral tradition, or rumors, the documentation of Arte de Conducta pieces, although using the traditional means of documentation, tries to incorporate collective memory as a form of long-term social permanence and dialogue. Social beings are aware of symbolic meanings, also the result of experience expressed through behavior and the exercise modeling its meanings to transform praxis. That is why Arte de Conducta focuses on the civil aspect of society.
Arte de Conducta is not concerned with forms. It uses behavior as a linguistic tool and cancels aesthetic purposes not stemming from a relationship with ethics. It is interested in the possibility of functioning and not showing off. It moves away from the allegoric representations of the piece and tries to understand and manage elements from within society to provide moments and found institutional structures or systems which will contribute to the modification of some given aspects of society.
Arte uìtil roughly translates into English as “useful art,” but it goes further, suggesting art as a tool or device. Arte uìtil draws on artistic thinking to imagine, create, and implement tactics that change how we act in society. This work methodology transforms social effect into political effectiveness through realizable utopias. Instead of focusing on production, arte uìtil generates a process of social implementation. The “usefulness” in arte uìtil is not about problem-solving to improve the efficiency of the system, but about creating an altogether new system via a-legal loopholes. Arte uìtil shifts from production to a process of social implementation. (2017)
Arte Útil aims to transform some aspects of society through the implementation of art, transcending symbolic representation or metaphor, and proposing with their activity some solutions for deficits in reality. Most Arte Útil artists structured as a long-term project and the way it operates is dictated by the practical impact of their strategies. Arte Útil practices try to address the levels of disparities of engagement between informed audiences and the general public, as well as the historical gap between the language used in what is considered avant-garde and the language of urgent politics, science, and other disciplines.
Bruguera created the Arte Útil Association in January 2011 to provide a platform to meet, exchange ideas, and share strategies on how to deal with the issues of implementing the merger of art into society. The association will work in an open manner through discussions, printed texts, action groups, and public events examining what it means to create Arte Útil. (2011)
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