Search

This article aims to examine the changes in concept, development and practices of community art in the Western culture from the end of 20th century to the beginning of 21st century, and based on theory of dialogical aesthetics by Grant H. Kester as well as using methodical examples of practicing artists, such as Jeanne van Heeswijk and the cultural association "Artway of Thinking" (Stefania Mantovani and Federica Thiene), evaluate cases of community art projects taking place in Lithuania, especially focusing on the initiatives of the creative project "Friendly Zone". The notion of Grant H. Kester’s dialogical aesthetics as a dialogue-based socially-engaged creative practice helps to reveal forms and directions of socially-engaged art practices which are relevant today. Examining the project "Friendly Zone", which takes part in Šančiai (district of Kaunas, Lithuania), we can see a clear example of creative practice based on dialogical aesthetics with an ethical access to local inhabitants and their concerns. By working together with well-known community and socially-engaged art experts, Vita Gelūnienė and Edmund Carroll aim to apply methods of dialogical creativity: co-creative diagram of "Artway of Thinking" displays four stages of activities. It starts with self-recognition and placement of each member of the team as well as naming their functions in collective practice. Later, the context (place) is explored and monitored. Then, ideas are generated and implemented, the results of which are integrated. The artists also use the principle of a "headquarter" from Jeanne van Heeswijk’s practice, creating a certain meeting and dialogue-based point (house or inflatable tent) in public art projects. The text points out these advantages of the project: long-term effects and artists’ residency in the area. The long-term project "Friendly Zone", taking place in a single district, allows to test different creative methods involving public art, creates an environment of trust between local inhabitants and art initiatives taking place in the area. The process of examining and observing becomes a permanent task and, even, a way of life for the people involved. Nonetheless, difficulties and challenges also exist: the passivity of the members of local community towards certain activities as well as communication with both the outside (the press) and the local community. In both cases, this model of activity is not seen as the end in itself. Thus, it is necessary to strengthen the role of mediators by including people with skills of public relations into the team.

Visuomenė tobulėja, kai jos socialinės grupės turi atviras ir lygias galimybes. Projektinis mąstymas, projektiniai metodai ir projekto veikla tampa vis populiaresnė. Socialiniai projektai – tai gera galimybė planuoti, organizuoti ir sisteminti veiklą, vertinti rezultatus ir analizuoti klaidas ir įgyti patirties. Socialinių meninių projektų veikla yra naudinga darant įtaką kultūriniam gyvenimui, vykdant socialinius meninius projektus, naudojant gatvės meną kaip metodą. Viena iš prevencinės veiklos būdų yra mokytis gatvės meno, nes ji yra artima visuomenei ir vystėsi iš gatvės kultūros. Ši veikla ypač yra artima jaunimo tarpe, nes hip hop‘o kultūra buvo kultivuojama gatvėse, kur buvo aktualios socialinės – ekonominės problemos. Kai jaunimas dalyvauja socialiniuose meniniuose prfojektuose ar propoguoja gatvės meną, jau automatiškai vykdo prevenciją. Kuo didesnis užimtumas, tuo mažiau vykdoma neigamos veiklos. Analizuojant prevencinės veiklos organizavimą ir jos tobulinimą, gatvės menas ir gatvės meno reikšmė parodo gatvės meno socializacijos aktyvinimo problemą ir yra keliamas klausimas – kaip turi būti organizuojama prevencinė veikla, taikant gatvės meną kaip metodą ar įrankį.Tyrimo tikslas: ištirti prevencinės socialinio darbo veiklos plėtotės, taikant gatvės meną, galimybes. Uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti prevencinės veiklos organizavimą socialinio darbo kontekste. 2. Išnagrinėti gatvės meno socialinius ir prevencinius aspektus. 3. Atlikti gatvės meno taikymo prevencinėse... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] Society improves, when its social groops have open and equal opportunities. Project thinking, project methods and project activities become more and more popular. Social projects – it is a good opportunitie to plan, organise and systematize an activity, to value results and analise mistakes and also to gain some eksperiense. Art and social projects activities ar useful doing influence to cultural life, forming art space and involving organization of prevention. In nonformal activitie when doing social and art projects, its might be tought street art. One of prevention activities ways is to have a look at street art , which came through street culture. This activitie is very close to young people groops – hip hop subculture was created and cultivated in the streets, between the youth whitch has social – economical problems. When youth is involved in street culture or participated in social and art projects, they automatically do prevention. The bigger is busyness, the less people do something, what is not acceptable to society. Analyzing prevention activities organizing and making updates, street art and the need of street art, it shows a problem of street art socialization activation and it is made a question – how has to be organized the prevention activitie, applying street art as method or tool. The aim of the thesis: investigate social work opportunities of prevnetion, by invoking street art. The objectives of the thesis: 1. Analyze the organisation of prevention... [to full text]

Straipsnyje aptariamos sparčiai populiarėjančio socialinio meno vertinimo problemos. Radikaliai pažeisdamas modernybei būdingos meno autonomijos ribas, socialinis menas perkelia kūrybos ir sklaidos procesus į visuomeninių santykių sferą, tad jo interpretacijose susipina estetiniai, etiniai ir politiniai aspektai. Čia mėginama suformuluoti tokios meninės veiklos vertinimo kriterijus ir išbandyti juos projekto Šančiai – draugiška zona atvejo analizėje.

Straipsnyje iš teorinių pozicijų aptariamas vienas svarbiausių šiuolaikinio meno aspektų - dalyvavimo tendencijos. Trumpai apžvelgiama šią problemą nagrinėjanti literatūra, jai nusakyti vartojamų terminų įvairovė. Straipsnyje siekiama įvardyti kai kurias teorines ir praktines šio reiškinio atsiradimo prielaidas ir pristatyti pagrindinius teorinius-kritinius požiūrius į dalyvaujamojo meno praktikas (Nicolas Bourriaud, Granto Kesterio, Claire Bishop), aptarti jų sąsajas ir skirtumus, iškelti trūkumus ir naujas problemas, su kuriomis susiduria tiek dalyvaujamojo meno teoretikas, tiek kritikas. Participation, involvement, sociability are the keywords more and more often applied to contemporary art. Art practices today turn more into dialogue, artist and audience collaboration, rather than being expression of individualistic experience, and art critiques therefore are induced to search for new critical criteria. While in West Europe discussions on participatory art practices have started already in the end of 90's, Lithuanian critics are still behind in using and questioning these theoretical positions. This article aims to present most vivid theoretical and critical approaches to participatory practices of contemporary art, to discuss relations and differences between these standpoints as well as their lacks, and to bring forward new questions and problems. Neither contemporary participatory art practices nor the need to deal with them theoretically arose in the last decade of ao* century: it was rather coherent continuation of changes throughout the history of art and aesthetic thought. The article starts with presentation of most important premises of the phenomenon - that of poststructuralist approach towards art-work, the dematerialization of art, institutional theory of art and Institutional Critique, and critique of art space. Attempts toward changing the relation between art institution and everyday life prompted artists to focus on the viewer, the mediator between these two social spaces, and to rethink her/his relation to the work of art. One of the key notions in participatory art theory today is the one of relational aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud - which is true also because of vast critique towards it. Bourriaud takes contemporary art for the field of researching and producing human interactions and its social context: art projects focus on their effect on public or this 'effect' is the work of art itself. Nevertheless the critics like Claire Bishop and Hal Foster criticize the notion of relational aesthetics and relational art due to its overall unconcernedness: participation for the participation's sake, relations for the relations' sake seem to be enough, while the real problems concerning social relations are left behind. Grant Kester meanwhile is interested in sociallyengaged art projects, which define dialogue as their aesthetic core, and the artist is taken for facilitator of the dialogue among diverse communities, and context provider. But Kester as well as other critics comes to the dead-end while attempting to judge dialogical art projects. Bishop calls this dead-end ethical turn, since aesthetical criterions are replaced by ethical ones, based on equality and democracy towards non-artist communities participating in the art projects. The artist is as far conceived as social worker, therapeutist, or cultural animator.These problems in art critique force us to doubt the use of this new genre system. Perhaps renounced to manipulate the terms like relational, participatory, community-based, dialogical etc. we can focus not on ihe participation itself, but on significant whole of the work of art and the contribution of participation to it. There can be however no doubt, that participatory aspects of contemporary artworks change the whole institution of art: the concept of the gallery, the exhibition format, curatorial role, the way artists work, art politics, art critic's way etc. - and these are still waiting for investigations. One more waymark for researchers is the need to look at post-communist countries in regard of their way of understanding community strategies in contemporary art field.