Arts Special Issue “The Contemporary Art Market”

When setting out to organize this Special Issue of Arts, I began with the goal to survey the emerging field of art market studies but also to expand the notion of the market to include alternatives, such as art collectives and festivals, that challenge the dominance of the market as the pre-eminent arbiter of cultural value [...]

On trying to be collective

In this article we ask in what way can the notion of care, collectivizing and the collective become a primary part of contemporary art practice? And further, what types of art practices address these central tenets of democracy? We do this by reflecting on the political potential of care and its importance as a tool for achieving an equal society. Uniting the action of care and collectivity, we conclude that together these two undertakings represent a political force of commoning within the public sphere. Utilizing the writing of Beech, Hutchinson and Timberlake, who argue for collectivism over collaboration as a way towards societal change, we reflect upon the political implications for art when artists work collectively. We consider the practices and function of other art collectives examining their key purpose for acting collectively. We employ our previous practice as the Freee Art Collective, as well as our more recent work as the Partisan Social Club to consider in what ways our practice can be deemed collective.

Le Musée d’Art E Pluribus Unum: An Urban Arts Movement in Haiti

The Atis Rezistans (Resistance Artists) are a collective of sculptors based in downtown Port-au-Prince who have founded their own museum. The artists are best known for using found objects and wood to make politically charged works that draw on the imagery of Vodou. Since launching this artistic movement over a decade ago, co-founder André Eugène has referred to his home and atelier as Le Musée d’Art E Pluribus Unum. While art collectives are common in Haitian art, by designating themselves a “museum” the Atis Rezistans have incorporated aspects of conceptual art and installation art into their art movement. They describe the founding of this museum as a strategic appropriation of an institution that has historically belonged to the bourgeoisie. Conversations with Eugène, and other artists in the collective, reveal that they have carefully considered the power of museums: museums imbue certain objects with cultural capital and monetary value; present certain world views through the display of objects; and may offer visitors encounters with human remains. Becoming a museum has allowed Eugène and the other artists to access networks of art world mobility in ways that their artworks alone would not have. This essay offers context for understanding the Atis Rezistans as part of a tradition of art making among Haiti’s majority. It argues that due to their location, their class, and their overt use of Vodou imagery, scholars have overlooked conceptual elements of their movement, specifically how they play with the idea of the museum.

How the Machine Works

In this article, Kênia Freitas documents the growing presence of Black filmmakers in Brazil’s independent cinema exhibition circuits and investigates the larger network of art collectives, film clubs, and film festivals that are contributing to the recent racial reconfiguration in Brazilian cinema. Focusing on three new black film series and festivals—Mostra de Cinema Negro Brasileiro (Paraná), Mostra EGBÉ de Cinema Negro (Sergipe), and Negritude Infinita (Ceará)—all situated outside the more traditional Rio/São Paulo axes of national cinema, Freitas’ discussion of these nascent exhibition networks suggests future strategies for structural transformational change.

Unauthorized Curating. The Relations between Art Activism and the Museum

The article focuses on art activism directed to museums and their sponsorship relationship with the oil industry. It considers the form and content of protests undertaken by art collectives such as Liberate Tate, BP, or not BP?, and Fossil Free Culture NL. The author recognizes the goals of activists in undermining the reality of capitalocene. She frames this form of protest with the term “unauthorized curating”, which she derives from the analysis of participation paradigm and the definition of curatorial practice proposed by Marta Kosińska. Finally, she analyzes the strategy undertaken in art of protest.

Contingency Plans: Art Collectives, Shared Pseudonyms, and Theories of Collectivity

This review considers Jacopo Galimberti's Individuals Against Individualism: Art Collectives in Western Europe (1956–1969), 2017, and Marco Deseriis's Improper Names: Collective Pseudonyms from the Luddites to Anonymous, 2017 and the theories of collectivity that inform them (multitude, inoperative community, and transindividuality). While Galimberti looks at how collaborative practices model new strategies for collective action, and Deseriis examines forms that allow multiple actions and ideologies to flow through them, they authors share a desire to move beyond representation to model, enact, and realize real change in the world. Taken together, these two books afford us the opportunity to evaluate the critique of cultural and political representation at the heart of these theories of collectivity and assess the limits of analogies between aesthetic and political forms.