Can art be a tool to activate real change?
Through the workshop 'Art as a tool', the instructor will guide students through the development phases of the Asociación de Arte Útil, activating a series of exercises that examine the concept of Arte Útil in relation to the history of art.
Arte Útil suggests using art as a device for activating sustainable solutions aimed at producing social transformations. The core of Arte Útil is the creation of an archive of almost 300 case studies presented and activated through workshops, exhibitions and seminars internationally.
Starting from the analysis of the theories that define the practice (1:1 scale*, Double Ontology*, Extraterritorial Reciprocity*, etc.), we will move on to discuss some key texts (Gilles Clêment, Third Landscape Manifesto and Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities) to then understand the relationship between the city and the suburbs, and how it has changed over time in relation to socio-economic developments from the '80s to today. The Arte Útil archive, with its approximately 300 case studies, will support the workshop and will act as a database available to students who will be able to encounter practices of a different nature and forms of artistic activism.
👉 To provide an alternative reading of the history of contemporary art
👉 To provide students with a toolkit necessary to encourage an artistic approach applied to everyday life
Please use the following presentation to introduce Arte Útil to the class. If you are an instructor, you can browse the Arte Útil archive* to find different case studies to adapt to the cohort you are working with.
👩🏽🏫 Slideshow available HERE
Exercise: The relation between the centre and periphery
(10')
Take as reference the centre of the room identified as the school. Position yourself closer or farther according to the km you have travelled to get to class.
How long does it take to come to school?
At what time do you wake up?
How does the travel affect your day?
Reading Group: Manifesto of the Third Landscape
👓 Clément, G. (2005) Manifesto of the Third Landscape. Trans Europe Halles. Pag. 5-6
The Third Landscape indicates all the "places abandoned by man": parks and nature reserves, large uninhabited areas of the planet, but also smaller and more widespread spaces, almost invisible: abandoned industrial areas where brambles and scrub grow; weeds in the centre of a traffic island, etc. They are spaces that differ in shape, size and statute, united only by the absence of any human activity, but taken as a whole, are fundamental for the conservation of biological diversity. The book shows the evolutionary mechanisms, the mutual connections, and their importance for the future of the planet.
What happens when spaces are left empty?
Who and what occupies them? And what happens?
👩🏽🏫 Slideshow available HERE
This session will facilitate the project development for an artwork to be displayed in the city.
Students are encouraged to think about the concept of the Third Landscape and to address the following question:
What happens when an artist or a group of people arrives at an 'abandoned space' with an idea?
Exercise: From the idea to the artwork
(30' design, 1h discussion)
Resuming the previous exercises, imagine intervening in the place you choose or on an object in the public space. Plan to create an artwork by reworking the concepts we have analysed. The work can be in any medium.
Why did you choose this place?
What is your artwork about?
Which materials are you going to use?
Exercise: What does it mean to collaborate?
(30' to 45' depending on the group)
After forming four rows, sit down with your back to your neighbour. The last one in line will use her back to draw a shape which will then be drawn in turn on the back in front of you.
The first in line will translate the drawing and how it has transformed through the passage on the backs.
What was the initial design?
And what has it become?