Artistic Activism and Tactics Essay

Introduction

The conscious publicity of art often comes about as a response to the generalization that art is in effect, always already politicized. The construction of different types of art has always occurred in different places at different times and within diverse socio-cultural and political systems. In taking to the streets, the artists did not just attempt to provide an overarching definition of their discomfits with authority; rather, they attempted to paint a picture in which the demands in the trends of social change can lead individual artists to censor the authorities to guarantee more artistic-space.¹

In so doing, the artists were able to align themselves with the comprehensive social movements to ensure they keep the rich tradition that made them not to break from the established institutions of art. In embarking on art activism, the artists meant to protect a set of ideas and the institutions on which art has been advancing its scales throughout the nineteenth century. Essentially, the cultural, political, and economic conditions have been over time a pointer for these artists to explore new spheres to work and to seek the right kind of freedoms.

The transfer of wealth under capitalistic systems in Europe, particularly, manured the ground for the possible creation of a new class system that expanded the expanse between disposable income and the outright leisure time. One of the manifestations of this nature was typical of the economic power brokers that were keen on curtailing the progression of classical art.² This new breed of power created an all-pervasive force to reckon with as many concerns in the concept of free art gravitated towards art encroachment of free art. The encroachment of free art heavily appalled the existing institutions; the mobility of the art galleries was under severe attack by all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture.³

The Culmination of Events

The outbreak of violent protests in the capital city of France in mid-1968 was because of the Student dissatisfaction at the Sorbonne University and the University of Paris. Heavy police presence further made matters worse as they confronted the charged students head-on and by early May 1968, the unrest had escalated to inevitable levels, as Paris’s Latin Quarter, as well as other major cities, became no go zones.⁴

The protest matches further escalated with sporadic strikes taking place throughout the country; soon, France became a standstill, and Paris was a war zone. The police, the military and ordinary citizens took to the streets, engaging one another on running battles. In an attempt to crush this popular uprising, President de Gaulle administration employed military forces and ordinary civilian cohorts.⁵ Seeing defeat in the offing, the state media reported that the protestors were foreign saboteurs whose mission was to cause anarchy against the state. In the final days of May 1968, President de Gaulle had to announce new elections prematurely ending the protests and widespread strikes.

The French protest epitomized more than a political cause, rather French citizens of all walks partook of the opportunity to redeem their scourge, both women and men alike saw an opportunity to answer a call of hope in the land of the living.⁶ In these events, the French nationals recall the duty of nationhood as witnessed in the spirit of their relentless quest for their rights. Together, the brevity and the nature of suffering they withstood in the hope of moulding a democracy that had lived on and eventually shaped their socio-economic and political landscape.

Artistic Activism: Its Practices, Dilemmas, and Prospects

The 1967 publication of Henri Lefebvre book, Le Droit à la ville, was particularly instrumental for the cause of action culminating in the strikers that created new and radical paradigms that were capable of challenging the existing social, economic, and political structures of the capitalism.⁷ Lefebvre’s analysis generally gravitated towards the contentions that attempted to destroy the cities as well as the intensification of urbanity.

In his arguments, Lefebvre opined that the traditional cities are the epicentre of social, economic, and political life. Other elements of life, such as arts, wealth, and knowledge thrived amicably through the cities. Besides, he noted with concern that the misuse of the value of the cities as centres of political, cultural, and social life forms are affected continually by industrialisation and commercialisation.⁸ Accordingly, capitalism was the result of the commodification of the urban assets that ensures other individuals are city-less. In his scholarship, two central rights protrude and avail the options for action by the common person, the right to appropriation, and the right to participation.

Participation allows the French citizens to access all information and form part of the decision that guarantees the urban space. Appropriation, on the other hand, entails a lot more things including the right to access, inhabit, and use the urban space to generate new and profound space that meets the needs of the entire population. While making these observations clear for all to see, Lefebvre argued that the rights and freedoms to the city manifest itself further to loftier forms of rights.⁹ Accordingly, the right to the freedoms of individualisation and association are overboard.

From the works of Michel de Certeau and Henri Lefebvre, it is clear that the tactics available to the artist in reclaiming their autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture are just as myriad and prospective. DeCerteau ideas particularly dealt with control and resistance. DeCerteau, together with Lefebvre raised concerns as to why the average people tend to develop various strategies that outline their own autonomy in a society that seeks to manipulate and dominate them.¹⁰

The artists were interested in how individuals receive media prompts; they assumed that media producers, photographers, and writers have one common message to their audiences – seeking to advance the meaning on media consumers, though DeCerteau rejects the widespread notion that consumers do consume mindlessly.¹¹ DeCerteau in his objection to state authority considered the use of social representation as well as the modes of social behaviour as very effective ways in their own autonomy from the all-pervasive forces of politics, culture, and commerce. In exploring the public meaning to defend personal rights, DeCerteau in his scholarships drew enormously from the theoretical literature in analytical to put his message across to the concerned forces.

Drawing from the activities of Lefebvre, his works in this area stirred global social movement and brought significant legislative reforms in the Latin America while giving an edge to international community discourse. Much of what both Michel de Certeau and Henri Lefebvre did in particular remains ever elusive and their implementations are normally fraught with challenges.¹² During the 1960s, both Michel de Certeau and Henri Lefebvre became very eloquent mouthpieces for agitating change.

The two artists were powerful voices in rallying the public outcry in calling for social action and rise up against the exclusionary progressions of globalisation, clarion call that further united a global effort to roll back the privatisation and accommodation of urban space, sparking claims over who has the ownership of the city. Ever since riots sparked-off in Paris, France in 1968, the activities of Lefebvre helped in inspiring global social movements in most parts of the world, bringing fundamental legislations in Latin America with myriad local struggles.¹³

International Community Discourse

Public discourse on artists tends to ignore the primacy of human restrains, and in most cases, the authorities tend to challenge the usefulness of the contributions by the artists in developing our societies. A key element that has been consistent all through is that the debate on artistic reform is inclined on the question of their numbers and the security concerns that they posit. While changes to the global artistic policy are necessary, the numbers of artists and emotional security concerns should not cloud the agenda of any reform policy.

The acquisition of individual freedoms, especially political rights should feature prominently as tools for such groups in their quest to achieve socio-economic, political equality and civil rights.¹⁴ Given that legislative organs confer rights and freedoms and make public policy their priority, it is crucial that such bodies offer these groups with tools to enable them possess the ability to influence and choose the framework of their practice. The 1968 uprising in France and America were only practical representations of the inward conflicts that had been gaining momentum from as early as the 1960s, and whose impacts continued to spill over to the succeeding decade.¹⁵

Anti-imperialist movements in most parts of the developing world, especially in Africa and South America, had a soft spot for Marxist-Leninist ideologies. In the same period, Maoism briefly became a darling to the many European intellectuals during much of the early 1970s. However, what was most central about the 1968 movements was due to staunch critic and widespread distrust of the established ideologies.

Legal Obstacles

Legal obstacles that determine political participation have historically hindered the attainment of full participation by talented groups of citizens such as artists, photographers, and filmmakers, as well as skilled women and the youth.¹⁶ The cumulative onus rests squarely on the legal structure to open up more space for greater participation by artists.

It is no doubt, however, that nurturing greater participation and mobilisation to fostering stronger artistic development will eventually solve the problems of inequity in the mould of forces of commerce, politics, and culture and the powers that might arise.¹⁷ Nevertheless, this could be an important step in the societal democratisation process as it guarantees that everyone has a right to be heard. The primary objective in addressing the discrepancies faced by the artists consists of developing a more formidable platform that shapes and protects the talents and skills.

In retrospect, the idea is to come up with a program that highlights and recognises the domestic whims of these people. The essence of which must seek to answer why such a large population remains largely detached from other major practices in their societies.¹⁸ Restoring the rights of artists to operate without fear of victimisation would further help necessitate an all-inclusive society and a representation which is accountable to all the populations in the world. This would help to reverse current contentious inequities and make the socio-economic and political climate a little bit hard for the artists.

Conclusion

Today, artists are a great proportion of the global society as they may not have been back there before the events of May 1968. Evidence indicates that art is instrumental in developing the society in many ways apart from its net economic impacts. For many artists, therefore, lack of artistic freedom has made political voices almost impossible, making them to resort to the streets. However, it is laudable from the works of Michel DeCerteau and Henri Lefebvre that the tactics available to the artist for reclaiming their own autonomy are just too myriad.

There is significant proof that artists make substantial contributions to the developmental paradigms of the global socio-economic and political affairs regardless of the modes they use to step up their statement. Whereas their contribution in sustaining the national economy is true, they equally enrich the sociocultural heritage of the public life through information, arts, music, and language. One of the manifestations of this nature was typical of the economic power brokers that were keen on curtailing the progression of classical art.

Inasmuch as rhetoric about artists is vile, their impact on societal growth is relatively impressive, and the highly publicized idea that artists abuse the socioeconomic welfare is false and baseless. The new class of power generated an all-pervasive force to reckon with as many concerns in the idea of free art descended towards art advancement of free art. Essentially, the cultural, political, and economic conditions have been over time a pointer for these artists to explore new spheres to work and seek the right kinds of freedom. The infringement of free art heavily shocked the existing institutions and the flexibility of the art galleries were under critical attacks by all-pervasive forces of commerce, politics, and culture.

Bibliography

Abbing, Hans. Why are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2002.

Anheier, Helmut, Yudhishthir Raj Isar, Annie Paul and Stuart Cunningham. The Cultural Economy. Los Angeles: SAGE, 2008.

Armijo, Leslie Elliott and Carlos Gervasoni. “Two Dimensions of Democracy and the Economy.” Democratization 17, no. 1 (2010): 143-174.

Berman, Paul. Power and the Idealists, or, The Passion of Joschka Fischer and its Aftermath. Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2005.

Braumoeller, Bear. The Great Powers and the International System Systemic Theory in Empirical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Burnell, Peter. Democratization through the Looking-Glass. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.

Cohen, Stanley and Laurie Taylor. Escape Attempts the Theory and Practice of Resistance to Everyday Life. London: Routledge, 2002.

Cordell, Sigrid Anderson. Fictions of dissent: reclaiming authority in transatlantic women’s writing of the late nineteenth century. London: Pickering & Chatto, 2010.

Fox, Danny. Economy and Semantic Interpretation. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000.

Haerpfer, Christian. Democratization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Kugelberg, Johan. Beauty is in the Street: A Visual Record of the May ’68 Paris Uprising. London: Four Corners Books, 2011.

Marcuse, Herbert and Douglas Kellner. The New Left and the 1960s. London: Routledge, 2005.

Pratt, Nicola. “Bringing Politics Back in: Examining the Link between Globalization and Democratization.” Review of International Political Economy 11, no. 2 (2004): 311-336.

Schnapp, Alain and Pierre Naquet. The French Student Uprising, November 1967 – June 1968; an Analytical Record. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971.

Singh, John. Globalized Arts the Entertainment Economy and Cultural Identity. New York: Columbia University, 2011.

Weingast, Barry and Donald Wittman. The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Footnotes

1. John Singh, Globalized Arts the Entertainment Economy and Cultural Identity (New York: Columbia University, 2011), 78.
2. Sigrid Anderson Cordell, Fictions of dissent: reclaiming authority in transatlantic women’s writing of the late nineteenth century (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2010), 63.
3. Hans Abbing, Why Are Artists Poor? The Exceptional Economy of the Arts (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2002), 69.
4. Johan Kugelberg, Beauty is in the Street: A Visual Record of the May ’68 Paris Uprising (London: Four Corners Books, 2011), 50.
5. Alain Schnapp and Pierre Naquet, The French Student Uprising, November 1967 – June 1968; an Analytical Record (Boston: Beacon Press, 1971), 204.
6. Barry Weingast and Donald Wittman, The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 62.
7. Helmut Anheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar, Annie Paul and Stuart Cunningham, The Cultural Economy (Los Angeles: SAGE, 2008), 12.
8. Bear Braumoeller, The Great Powers and the International System Systemic Theory in Empirical Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 34.
9. Stanley Cohen and Laurie Taylor, Escape Attempt the Theory and Practice of Resistance to Everyday Life (London: Routledge, 2002), 73.
10. Ibid., 77
11. Peter Burnell, Democratization through the Looking-Glass (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), 49.
12. Herbert Marcuse and Herbert Marcuse, The New Left and the 1960s (London: Routledge, 2005), 96.
13. Paul Berman, Power and the Idealists, or, The Passion of Joschka Fischer and its Aftermath (Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, 2005), 27.
14. Nicola Pratt, “Bringing Politics Back in: Examining the Link between Globalization and Democratization,” Review of International Political Economy 11, no. 2 (2004): 316.
15. Danny Fox, Economy and Semantic Interpretation (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000), 146.
16. Christian Haerpfer, Democratization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 82.
17. Leslie Elliott Armijo and Carlos Gervasoni, “Two Dimensions of Democracy and the Economy,” Democratization 17, no. 1 (2010): 147.
18. Herbert Marcuse and Douglas Kellner, The New Left and the 1960s (London: Routledge, 2005), 96.