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Arte Útil
Arte Util is a concept, art foundation and self-proclaimed ‘movement’ by the Cuban-American Artist, Tania Bruguera.

Concepts
The core philosophy of Arte Util is to engage art as a ‘tool’ for social change. This is a strategic move away from the inherent and historically defined uselessness of art. A number of specific objectives and aspects the movement are articulated by Bruguera below:

Arte Útil projects should:

1) Propose new uses for art within society 2) Use artistic thinking to challenge the field within which it operates 3) Respond to current urgencies 4) Operate on a 1:1 scale 5) Replace authors with initiators and spectators with users 6) Have practical, beneficial outcomes for its users 7) Pursue sustainability  8) Re-establish aesthetics as a system of transformation

History
Arte Útil as a concept presented through Brugueras major presentations of this concept and associated program in the the ‘Arte Útil' lab at Queens Museum, residencies at Immigrant Movement International, New York and the Museum of Arte Útil, the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and the  Grizedale Arts, Coniston, U.K.

Bruguera first presented the concept of useful art during multi faceted  a project in New York art movement supported by the arts organisation creative time

the concept of art util was initially presented through a manifesto written by Bruguera and an artwork. The artwork was Marcel Duchamps famous 1918 Urinal titled ‘Fountain’ back into the Queens museum toilets. The gesture was to demonstrate the key concept of finding utility within the field of contemporary art rather than celebrating its inherent  uselessness.

The Van Abbesmuseum has been directly influenced by Bruguera’s presence through  their allocation of an “Urgency Room” which is dedicated to showing artworks/projects  that engages topical and critical issues.

Arte Útil is offered as an organisation and foundation via its website and has been incorporated into several art institutions not simply as a temporary exhibition but more permanent  ‘offices’ such as the The office of Useful Art at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) under the directorship of Alistair Hudson.

Historical context
Bruguera claims to have developed the concept of Arte Util via historical examples,  stating that  the movement is not about formal institutions of art and culture such as the Lourve but peoples lives and homes

ref: http://www.taniabruguera.com/cms/528-0-Introduction+on+Useful+Art.htm

Bruguera cites a major influence as the Manifiesto de Arte Útil written by Argentinean artist Eduardo Costa in 1969. The scanned version is available at the website www.immigrant-movement.us.

The philosophy if a utilitarian art proposed by Bruguera is similar to another artistic endeavours such as, Bureau for the Organisation of Direct Democracy, an ongoing project by prominent German artist  Joseph Beuys that was presented at Documenta 5, Kassal, Germany in  1972.

Arte Útil is linked to other artistic strategies    such as relational  aesthetics developed by Nicolas Bourriaud in the 1990’s

Supporters:
Bruguera has stated that Arte Util is open and can be taken up as an artistic strategy by anyone.

many artists have been working with the concept of useful art before Brugueras formal presentation of the concept- updated from Costa’s initial manifesto.

French artists Didier Courbot has worked with usefulness  via artistic processes such as maintaining streets etc

ref http://didier-courbot.com/works

and Rafael Zarka has reframed artworks via skateboarding  https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphaël_Zarka

Australian Artist Shaun Gladwell has engaged ideas associated with Arte Util  in several  parallel projects. Gladwell answers Bruguera’s ‘use’ of duchamp’s readymades by  riding  the 1913 Bicycle Wheel  (Reversed Readymade, Turin Italy, 2015) and Gladwell's essay

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copyright free PDF link https://www.dropbox.com/s/aesb19c5qr5iqki/0.1_GLADWELLl_Semiotext%28e%29.pdf?dl=0

criticism
in his article for e-flux ‘Teleology and the Turner Prize or: Utility, the New Conservatism’ Critic and curator Morgan Quaintance, questions the 2015 Turner Prize awardee Assemble. in doing so, Quaintance calls into question the notion of utility in art being problematic and even conservative. Quaintance charges Alistair Hudson, the aforementioned  supporter of Arte Util and director of Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA).

http://conversations.e-flux.com/t/teleology-and-the-turner-prize-or-utility-the-new-conservatism/2936