Community Reflections
At the Crossroads of Territory and Subjectivity: Contemporary Socio-Spatial Practices and Emergent Cultural Structures from São Paulo
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sofia Steinvorth
Taking São Paulo as its territory of enquiry, the paper discusses two collective projects from the last ten years: Lanchonete.org (2014-) and Galeria Reocupa (2018-). Through a comparative approach, the projects' deployed creative strategies and their programmes will be analysed with a special focus on their potential to lead to the development of a sense of place within urban areas characterised by neoliberal urbanism and the depletion of public space. Localised in São Paulo's city centre, the projects develop between art and activism, grounding their ideas on urgent housing and food security issues, thus leading to a renewed conversation about the right to the city (Lefebvre) and further highlighting a present-day urban dispute that is not only about space, but about narrative (Said). As such, the paper analyses both projects' particular ways of collectively organising cultural infrastructure in the city and encourages thinking about the different ways in which artists can be allies by speaking directly to an increasingly tense urban environment.
Spectral Knowing and the Community (Art)-yet-to-come
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Valia Papastamou
The paper reflects on issues regarding the ethico-political and aesthetic modalities of artistic knowledges, further questioning what institutional critique and critique of institutions challenge for institutions of knowledge and community art. I approach specific practices that refer to and draw from post-studio art practice, community art, new genre public art and educational turn in art, through questions regarding embodied knowledges, critical engagement and issues of authorship/authority. In this direction, feminist/queer conceptualizations of the performativity of knowledge reinforce thinking about how knowledges are produced, diffused and multiplied as they intersect through the art, pedagogical, economic institutions that constitute the frame of reference for performativity. I further explore the challenges that arise regarding intersectional (e.g. gender, race, ethnicity, class) claims for transformative (artistic) knowledges demanding for more democratic ways of community making through collaborative and participatory methodologies so that knowledge institutions can be inhabited anew with others. Elaborating on the terms that such bodies of theory and practice take charge of the responsibility to the other to challenge hospitality, I critically engage with what is rendered im-possible for knowledge as openness to indiscriminate otherness. Beyond the antinomies of hospitality∙ the unconditional reception of the other and the conditional laws imposed for the (unconditional) hospitality, I propose that the undecidability of knowledge brings forth other ways of aesthetic/political aporias for the community (art)-yet-to-come, so that artistic knowledges are (re)instituted as traces of the unfinished work of knowing or what we would otherwise name as spectral knowing.
Featured Reframing Public Memory: The Role of Art in Postcolonial Narratives
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Melanie Hyo-In Han
This paper explores how public art and literary expression contribute to reframing collective memory in postcolonial contexts, focusing on Korea’s “Statue of Peace” and the poetry of Emily Jungmin Yoon. Both the statue and Yoon’s poetry engage with the complex legacies of Japanese colonization (1910-1945) of Korea, offering alternative narratives that challenge dominant historical discourses. The Statue of Peace, erected in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, commemorates the Korean “comfort women” forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. This paper examines how the statue, in its highly politicized space, functions not only as a site of mourning but also as an ongoing act of resistance, shaping collective memory and challenging historical narratives that have marginalized these women’s experiences. In parallel, Emily Jungmin Yoon’s poetry provides a literary space that resonates with the themes embodied by the Statue of Peace. Through close readings, this paper explores how Yoon’s work captures the emotional and psychological dimensions of “han,” a sentiment of unresolved trauma rooted in Korean culture. Yoon’s poetry serves as a cultural critique, engaging with the historical trauma of colonization and offering a space for collective grief and resilience. By employing interdisciplinary approaches, including art history, postcolonial theory, and literary analysis, this paper demonstrates how the Statue of Peace and Yoon’s poetry function as mediums for social engagement, reshaping collective memory, and fostering a more inclusive understanding of Korea’s past.
Investigating Barriers to Arts Engagement for Disabled People in Wrexham, North Wales
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alec Shepley, Grace Thomas
In November 2021, a research report was published authored by ‘On the Move’ and commissioned by the British Council called ‘Time to Act’ which focused on arts engagement by disabled people in Europe. The report evidenced the lack of accessibility in the arts for disabled individuals and a lack of confidence in arts environments including disabled people in their activities and events. 48% of respondents were not very/at all confident in the accessibility of artistic programmes for disabled people. The report also demonstrated the lack of consideration for disabled people in the planning and facilitation of arts events or programmes. This paper considers how these findings relate to Wrexham specifically. The paper forms an overview of how the arts are perceived within the area, by disabled communities and individuals. The paper articulates the development of a network of third-party collaborators who have an enriched knowledge and understanding of the arts community in Wrexham in relation to disability and community arts. Citing links made with local groups such as The Wrexham Miner’s Project (Art4All); Emerge Community Arts; Nathan Lee Davis (poet and disability rights activist); STAND North Wales; and Dementia Friends Art Group, the paper examines the challenges and identify possible ways forward in enabling local arts venues, event-organisers, and creative practitioners, to foster sustainable approaches to the perspectives of disabled people in Wrexham, with the aim to enable arts engagement.
