A Biographic Researcher in Pursuit of an Aesthetic: The use of arts-based (re)presentations in “performative” dissemination of life stories

The (re)presentation of biographic narrative research benefits greatly from embracing the art of its craft. This requires a renewed interest in an aesthetic of storytelling. Where do we find an aesthetic in which to base our new “performative” social science? The 20th Century was not kind to 18th Century notions of what truth and beauty mean. The terms need to be re-examined from a local, quotidian vantage point, with concepts such as “aesthetic judgment” located within community. Social Constructionism asks us to participate in alterior systems of belief and value. The principles of Nicolas Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics offer one possible set of convictions for further exploration. Relational Art is located in human interactions and their social contexts. Central to it are inter-subjectivity, being-together, the encounter and the collective elaboration of meaning, based in models of sociability, meetings, events, collaborations, games, festivals and places of conviviality. Bourriaud believes that Art is made of the same material as social exchanges. If social exchanges are the same as Art, how can we portray them? One place to start is in our (re)presentations of narrative stories, through publications, presentations and performances. Arts-based (re)presentation in knowledge diffusion in the post-modern era is explored as one theoretical grounding for thinking across epistemologies and supporting inter-disciplinary efforts. An example from my own published narrative biography work is described, adding credence to the concept of the research report/presentation as a “dynamic vehicle”, pointing to ways in which biographic sociology can benefit from work outside sociology and, in turn, identifying areas of possible collaboration with the narrator in producing “performances” within published texts themselves.

Apropiaciones artísticas del espacio público: del graffiti, artivismo urbano y arte relacional, a la ocupación simbólica cibernética

The configuration of cities is a reflection of the society that inhabits them and of those that once occupied that space. Urban planning also has the capacity to condition the lives of its inhabitants, which is why it has been a connatural concern of human beings since they left nomadic life behind. Rationalist urban planning and architecture, imposed since the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, have given rise to serious problems that are reflected in intellectual, social and artistic movements that have demanded a more human and habitable urban space. Thus, the approaches that have emerged from the very heart of the street are fundamental: the hermetic occupation of space by graffiti; the proposals of urban art and its link with Situationism; artivism and the proposals of relational art that actively involve communities. However, in recent years and above all since the confinements produced by the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020, the virtualisation of the urban is generating new conceptual approaches that will be dealt with in this text, taking as the main example the work of the artist from Jaén, Nati Rodríguez. La configuración de las ciudades es reflejo de la sociedad que la habita y de aquellas que algún día ocuparon ese espacio, pero también el urbanismo tiene la capacidad de condicionar la vida de sus habitantes, por lo que es una preocupación connatural al ser humano desde que dejó la vida nómada. El urbanismo y la arquitectura racionalista, impuesta desde finales del siglo XIX y muy especialmente en el siglo XX, han dado lugar a serios problemas que se reflejan en movimientos intelectuales, sociales y artísticos que han reivindicado un espacio urbano más humano y habitable. Así, son fundamentales los planteamientos surgidos en el propio seno de la calle, desde la ocupación del espacio de manera hermética por parte del graffiti, a las propuestas del arte urbano y su vinculación con el Situacionismo, pasando por el artivismo y las propuestas de arte relacional que implican de forma activa a las comunidades. Sin embargo, en los últimos años y sobre todo desde los confinamientos por la pandemia de COVID 19 acaecidos en 2020, la virtualización de lo urbano está generando nuevos planteamientos conceptuales que serán abordados en el este texto, tomando como principal ejemplo la obra de la giennense Nati Rodríguez.

Procesos artísticos participativos y colaborativos en los distritos culturales de Burdeos y Nantes

This paper analyses the burgeoning impulse, in the main cultural districts of Bordeaux and Nantes, of participative and collaborative art practices. Such adjectives are not synonymous but, true enough, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate these two categories of relational art; moreover, co-working spaces could literally be considered another kind of collaboration process. All in all, beyond terminology matters, the aim of this essay is to point out the flourishing of combined official and community-based initiatives. A model of arts-led urban revitalisation seeking greater involvement of the local ecosystem shaping a “cultural district”, as alternative to the paradigm of the singular institutional trigger worldly identified with the Guggenheim-Bilbao. Nowadays there are many counter-examples in Bilbao and in French cities on the Bay of Biscay. Este artículo analiza el prolífico impulso en los principales distritos culturales de Burdeos y Nantes del arte participativo y colaborativo. Tales adjetivos no son sinónimos, pero es cierto que a veces es difícil diferenciar estas dos categorías de arte relacional; por otro lado, los espacios de co-working podrían ser designados, al pie de la letra, como otro tipo de proceso de co-laboración. Con todo, más allá de la terminología, lo que pretende esta reflexión es constatar el florecimiento de iniciativas oficiales y de base comunitaria combinadas. Un modelo de revitalización urbana a través de las artes con mayor involucración del ecosistema local formando un “distrito cultural”, como alternativa frente al paradigma del singular detonante institucional mundialmente identificado con el Guggenheim-Bilbao. Hoy día no faltan los contraejemplos bilbaínos y en ciudades francesas del golfo de Vizcaya.

Theoretical Problems of Soviet Underground Culture

This article presents a spectrum of theoretical problems associated with the Soviet artistic underground as a historical and cultural phenomenon. The central focus is on constellating issues of terminology and definition around the borders of underground culture in the USSR, within scholarship about it. As a theoretical hypothesis of the handbook, the chapter introduces the concept of the lifeworld, which the volume editors and contributors interpret as a synthetic multimedia nexus of a given nonconformist circle’s activities, both artistic and cultural. The underground lifeworld manifests the aesthetic discourse idiosyncratic for each artistic circle and serves as the source of semi-spontaneous “relational art” that absorbs and generates artworks, along with performative and communicative practices. Through the concept of the aestheticized lifeworld, the authors of this article define the historical specificity of the Soviet artistic underground in relation to the Russian historical avant-garde and Western neo-avant-garde.

Evaluating Socially Engaged Practices in Art: The Autonomy of Artists and Artworks in Community Collaborations

Issues concerning socially engaged practice, autonomy, and narrative in art are introduced alongside Claire Bishop’s critique of relational art. A conceptual framework from the community arts, the ‘Collaborative Stories Spiral’, is presented as a non-hierarchical platform for communities to develop individual and collective narratives. The framework is amended and applied to a reading of composer Brona Martin’s project Sowing Seeds, emphasising the reflective and expressive capabilities of the artist and their artwork. The article seeks to provide a necessary stimulus for better understanding how socially engaged practice may be discussed and evaluated in the community.

Arte relazionale alla Biennale di Venezia dal 1999 al 2017

This essay traces the presence of Relational Art at Venice Biennale, considering ten editions from 1999 to 2017, immediately following the publication of Esthétique relationelle by the critic Nicolas Bourriaud in 1998 and covers the most recent experiences. Analysing the past two decades, a variety of approaches relations are revealed, from the theme of human to the growing interest for involving people in artistic actions. Performances, installations, multimedia projects, workshops involve a heterogeneous public.