ART COVERS POLITICS

CURATED BY TOMÁŠ RAFA

 

The front page of the 7th Berlin Biennale website shows the project Art Covers Politics, which presents images submitted by artists and others who are willing to react on and report immediately about political events. Active since September 1, 2011, the project continues throughout the Biennale.

 

With all the turmoil and struggles happening today—demonstrations, protests, Occupy movements, etc.—the political fight goes on. Nevertheless the mainstream media selects which events to cover and in this way decide what is regarded as political. We can only observe the hectic activity of this media-machine, reduced to passive bystanders and viewers of political spectacle. Artists, with their subtle use of images and social intuition, could be good observers of reality who define what is political by covering these events themselves, showing us an alternative to the media’s logic.

by Artur Żmijewski

 

 

Many people behind social media are already doing it. But we’d like to use this tool within art. That’s why we sent out the call for people to react to and document political events, and to engage in direct political action without it being labeled non-art or activism. Especially artists can be engaged observers, who use their skills to empower communities they are linked to. No tricky art, no mystery, just pure message, pure information, and easy direct action: art-journalism. In this way the Berlin Biennale website turns from a marketing tool into an advocacy tool.

 

Tomáš Rafa, born in Žilina, is an artist who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts (Grzegorz Kowalski studio) in Warsaw and Academy of Fine Arts in Banská Bystrica  (Michal Murin studio).

Comments

  1. Chelsea Renee DeVere

    Saturday Oct 1 marked the launch of Occupy Los Angeles in solidarity with the broader movement which is being dubbed “Occupy Together.”

    “We can no longer afford to let corporate greed and corrupt politics set the policies of our nation.”(occupywallstreet.com)

  2. savitri d

    these are the words of the declaration of the occupation of nyc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgEdrh617qs&feature=youtu.be

  3. Sarah Iremonger

    I thought Occupy Cork/Ireland should be included in the debate “1% get bailout while 99% pay” !

  4. Venia Karolidou

    I already have recorded indignant citizens in Athens-GR, as well as different demonstrations that take place quite often in the city

  5. Christian Costa

    The Florence pictures show the demostration against racism called on 17.12.2011 as a reaction to the murder of two Senegalese traders. Here some more info about it:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16166243
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16175877

    Spazi Docili [Docile Spaces]
    http://www.spazidocili.org
    http://www.facebook.com/SpaziDocili

  6. BOBBY MONTENEGRO

    Protest gegen Nichtbezalung ununterbrochen von januar 2012 in Zamora Spanien
    http://t.co/FHrUoJvZ

  7. Sajan Mani

    great! rather than Occupy,Protest etc can i post other political images like propaganda war on street ,street art by political parties ,election etc ?

  8. tomas rafa

    Thank you everyone for contribution!!!

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10th Berlin Biennale