Art and activism
When can we say that art becomes activism? What is the thin line between mere propaganda and commitment felt? Directors, photographers, painters, sculptors, writers, set designers, dancers: all men of passion who are committed to the preservation and well-being of the planet and of man, to ensure that the message that reaches the rest of their peers does not stop to the pure and simple contemplation of the work, but which makes its way through a series of actions to which it is inevitably conditioned. They are men who investigate the engines of the world, on the levers that stir the collective consciousness. Without them one would perhaps sleep a long, perpetual sleep. The mind, the heart, the hand, become strongly interconnected parts between them.
The artists-activists
Is the artist an activist? It can be. Given the increasingly rapid changes we are taking on, a keen need to tell it emerges. Here then is who feels to become a spokesperson. From the American Guerrilla Girls On Tour to the Mexican Minerva Cuevas. From the Albanian Anri Sala to the Italian Gianni Motti, from the Kossovaro Sislej Xhafa, to the Taiwanese Shu Lea Cheang and again to Marjetica Potrc, Superflex to the provocations of the controversial Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei.
One of the examples that can be cited today in terms of strength, impact and continuity of commitment is Chris Jordan, with his Midway photo reportage on the albatrosses, dead, torn and reassembled with the bowels full of plastic that we release into the seas. A set of shots that move consciences and show us, through the direct and frank lens of the camera, what we are.
Another example is the director of La belle verte, in Italian translated as Il Pianeta Verde, Coline Serreau . This is a film from 1996 but very modern, a film that treats, in a light key, the problems that afflict the western world, that is the frenzy, the abuse of command, pollution, the wild consumption of natural resources and spaces, the human cycle. The story is that of a group of extra-terrestrials arriving on Planet Earth.
Even the theatrical piece I Monologhi della Vagina by Eve Ensler can be considered active art, in denouncing, with all-female sensibility, the abuses and violence that women have suffered. The Monologues still continue to be represented every year on Valentine's Day in theaters, university campuses, cafes, spaces all over the world.
The importance of active art today
Political, social commitment, environmental protection, protest against wars and abuses, direct intervention, peace. Sometimes the fields and boundaries between art and activism become so thin that the forms are lost. The meaning is expressed and becomes a living matter of action. The direct impact, functionality, observation. Everything penetrates. It is a series of people whose work has in itself a line of demarcation that goes between art and commitment, and which is very often still being defined; a modeling that is decided by the public itself, almost "belly", depending on the emotional impact it receives. And when this type of art has passed it has certainly already left its mark. An indelible sign. It is perceived as now that active art is a strong need for reaction in the face of a system of values in crisis and the desire of the artists to not demorder is felt . Participating with art means taking back a critical thought, a space and a given time, safeguarding it, regaining contact.
