Art, Activism and Ecology: Can Art Change the World?
The time of transformations
The 20th century was marked by great social, political, economic changes and, simultaneously, in the artistic world, the expansion of the concept of art. The Russian avant-gardes, the ready-mades by Marcel Duchamp, the collages of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, among other creations, have transformed our perception of a work of art.In the 1960s, environmental and ecological concerns began to emerge in the field of arts, with artists questioning, in their works, our own survival and the consequences of human action on natural resources. At a time when art was thought of as belonging to a closed space, to museums and galleries, a growing number of artists began to produce outside. By carrying out this action, they renewed the idea of the notion of exhibition, questioned the framing of art and this separation and expanded the concept of art. Art ceases to be a representation, becoming an integral part of life. In this way, art itself does not have the function of explaining life, but of changing it. But can art really change the world?
Agnes Denes and Alberto Carneiro:Eco art?
In the 1960s, in order to enhance harmonization and repair with nature, many artists began to produce works in which nature was the material itself. The concerns of artists with the acts of human beings in the environment were reflected in the field of arts through works produced from nature itself outside and inside galleries or museums.Thus, we see the growth of movements such as the land art that link art and nature, by using the environment, beaches, mountains, deserts and their natural resources such as earth, wood, rock, salt, leaves, among other materials, as a place and material for experimentation .Agnes Denes, currently known as a pioneer of ecological art, became known for the monumental public art work "Wheatfield—A Confrontation" (1982), a wheat field in New York, which criticizes the mismanagement of world hunger, food, waste , energy , trade, commerce, land use and economics.Due to the choice of space and materials, these works are ephemeral and are often only kept from photographs. Artists left museums to expand their production in nature in order to criticize the cultural industry itself, namely the art market, however these works are currently managed and conserved by museums, reducing the artistic purpose of the ephemeral nature of the work. Alongside the development of land art, concepts such as ecology and sustainability, began to gain great importance in the lives of the population.In Portugal, due to the political context, there was a delay in relation to the artistic practices of Europe and the United States of America. Alberto Carneiro was one of the artists who explored the use of natural materials in the field of sculpture. This was not linked to land art but to the memory of a rural world that was close to him. In this way, we see the artists' concerns mirrored in their production, whether ecological concerns or the simple intention of artistic experimentation in nature.
Joseph Beuys' ecological urban renewal projects
In the 1970s, Beuys began carrying out various ecological protest projects. For example, in 1971, he carried out the protest “Overcome Party Dictatorship Now”, in which people had to sweep the forest floor and paint white crosses and circles on all the trees that were going to be cut down. In 1972, during the Document V he stayed for a hundred days, day and night, discussing and dialoguing with the visitors.In the 1980s, he created the project “Spüfield Altenwerder”, in which bushes and trees were planted in the polluted apartments of Altenwerder. In 1982, for theDocument VII, Beuys planned to plant 7000 oak trees throughout the city of Kassel. To encourage the population, he piled up 7000 stones in the garden in front of the Fridericianum Museum, during the event of documents. Anyone could plant the tree together with a stone (Each oak was associated with a basalt stone.) In addition to the visual impact of the stones in the garden that end up forcing people to act, Beuys in establishing this joint was also certainly think of the help in growth and stability that the stone would conceive in the tree. This project "7000 Oaks” it took five years to complete, symbolically being the last oak tree planted by the artist's son. In 1984, he installed the sculpture “Olivestones” which promoted the depollution of the lake in the urban area of Hamburg. These projects are still seen today as gestures of urban ecological renewal.
Is Social Sculpture a form of activism?
In this decade dominated by aesthetic discourse and social artistic practices, it is noted that Beuys' theory of Social Sculpture and its practices were completely involved in the context and in the German mentality of the 1960s. This concept emerged as a way of explaining the extension of his thought in relation to art.The German artist broadened the concept of sculpture, referring that it has the capacity to extend its possibilities, being able to be constituted in several formats and to be in constant mutation. In this way, sculpture can consist of invisible forms just like thought and dialogue. The idea of Social Sculpture is the fusion of this expanded concept of sculpture for society.
“My objects are to be seen as stimulants for the transformation of the idea of sculpture, or of art in general. They should provoke thought about what sculpture can be and how the concept of sculpting can be extended to the invisible materials used by everyone: Thinking Forms – how we mold our thoughts or Spoken Forms – how we shape our thoughts into words or Social Sculpture how we mold and shape the world in which we live: Sculpture as an evolutionary process; everyone an artist.-Joseph Beuys
By expanding the concept of sculpture, consequently the idea of art is also amplified. For Joseph Beuys all human acts that are thought and structured are creative acts. Thus, thoughts or dialogues that intend to provoke a process of evolution in society are considered a Social Sculpture, an integration of art as part of life. The German artist believed that the only force capable of changing humanity and the social order was art, based on human creativity. In this way, creativity should be the currency of exchange for human relationships, rather than capital or profit. Based on the Social Sculpture concept, Beuys thought of art not as an object that guides an action, but as a solution to social problems, namely ecological ones.From this idea, currently there are still artists who produce pieces that fit the concept of Social Sculpture as they try to transmit or provoke a transformation in society. How do today's artists continue to give continuity to the thought of Joseph Beuys?
Art projects involved in activism and ecology
The artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, like Beuys, also established in his practice a union between art and life. In the late 1990s, the artist created “The Land”, an environmental restoration project in Sanpatong, Thailand. In this space open to the community, people can cultivate, build sustainable houses, among other activities that lead to experimentation and debate.
There are other projects that involve the community in order to establish a new contact, a new experience, such as “Bródno 2000”. In February 2000, artist Pawel Althamer had to reach out to residents of the apartment block at 13 Krasnobrodzka St. in Warsaw to help him with his piece. About 200 families were involved in this project, turning on and off the lights in specific windows, to form the number “2000” on the building's facade for half an hour. At Document XI in 2002, Thomas Hirschhorn built “Bataille Monument”, a tribute installation to the philosopher George Bataille, located in Friedrich-Wöhler Siedlung, in a socio-economic suburb of Kassel. It consisted of a library, an exhibition, a cafeteria, a sculpture and a television studio where seminars and conferences were held. The artist built a new alternative space where common activities were carried out by the resident community and by visitors to the exhibition.
Bordalo II
The Portuguese artist Artur Bordalo, known as Bordalo II, became famous for using street garbage to create stunning animal sculptures, with the purpose of alerting people about pollution and all kinds of species that are endangered. From street art he developed his practice, evolving into what is now considered "trash art". Since 2012, Artur Bordalo has created around two hundred animal sculptures using over 60 tons of recycled materials. The formerly abandoned objects - the plates, the tires, the doors - in the hands of Bordalo II acquire an aesthetic and communicative function, in the shape of animals. The Portuguese artist wants to represent an image of nature in his works, based on what destroys them - garbage, waste and pollution, clearly expressing a critique of consumerism and offering a sustainable solution. His “Big Trash Animals” installations, spread across various locations around the world - public or museum - scream about the need for socio-ecological sustainability. On the streets of his hometown, a series of works, ”Provocative” and “Train Tracks”, interact with urban fabric and furniture, presenting a new critical look at society, its stakeholders and constraints. These small ephemeral interventions seek to be a vehicle of communication and awareness through art, thus addressing diverse themes, such as pollution, exploitation of women, media sensationalism, connectivity and control, among others.
Photo Credit Barbara Picci
Pedro Reyes
Recently, in 2007, in the city of Culiancán in Mexico, the artist Pedro Reyes organized a campaign in which citizens could voluntarily donate their guns in exchange for coupons. These could be used at local stores in exchange for appliances and other electronic objects. This campaign was located in a city with a high death rate due to firearms. 1527 weapons were collected, of which 40% were high-powered automatic weapons for military use. These were transported to a military zone to be publicly crushed by a compressor. After this act, the pieces were transformed into 1527 shovels that were distributed by different art institutions and schools so that these shovels would help in the planting of 1527 trees.
What is the potential of Art?
All of these works are challenging and provoke tensions between spectators, participants and the spaces where they take place. Understand, from these projects, the potential of art to educate and transform the world! By establishing a contemplative confrontation, they create debates about the social, structural and political problems of the spaces involved. These artists ignore the division between art and life, making their artistic contribution in order to build or improve the community environment. Through everyday activities, these artists involve the community, create structures and carry out collaborations so that there is a social transformation.
However, what is the true potential of art in relation to its possible transformation in society?
Can Art Change the World?
By analyzing the referred works, it was realized that art itself cannot directly change the world, but rather raise questions about it. Art can modify our vision, leading the viewer to question himself about various issues that can be political, economic or ecological. Art has the power to inform, clarify or question and this can lead to transformation.
Do artists currently believe that they are changing the world through their artistic actions? Joseph Beuys believed that art could heal the world. In contrast to this idea, artists today, for the most part, do not consider that their works of art are directly changing the world. They share the vision that art can raise questions and that these can lead to social transformation. The concept of Social Sculpture persists in the context of social transformation, based on the creation of community structures that confront and create debates on social, ecological, political or economic difficulties and problems.
