This searing critique of participatory art—from its development
to its political ambitions—is “an essential title for
contemporary art history scholars and students as well as anyone who
has . . . thought, ‘Now that’s art!’ or ‘That’s art?’”
(Library Journal)
Since the 1990s,
critics and curators have broadly accepted the notion that
participatory art is the ultimate political art: that by encouraging
an audience to take part an artist can promote new emancipatory
social relations. Around the world, the champions of this form of
expression are numerous, ranging from art historians such as Grant
Kester, curators such as Nicolas Bourriaud and Nato Thompson, to
performance theorists such as Shannon Jackson.
Artificial Hells
is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially
engaged participatory art, known in the US as “social practice.”
Claire Bishop follows the trajectory of twentieth-century art and
examines key moments in the development of a participatory aesthetic.
This itinerary takes in Futurism and Dada; the Situationist
International; Happenings in Eastern Europe, Argentina and Paris; the
1970s Community Arts Movement; and the Artists Placement Group. It
concludes with a discussion of long-term educational projects by
contemporary artists such as Thomas Hirschhorn, Tania Bruguera, Pawel
Althamer and Paul Chan.
Since her
controversial essay in Artforum in 2006, Claire Bishop has been one
of the few to challenge the political and aesthetic ambitions of
participatory art. In Artificial Hells, she not only scrutinizes the
emancipatory claims made for these projects, but also provides an
alternative to the ethical (rather than artistic) criteria invited by
such artworks. Artificial Hells calls for a less prescriptive
approach to art and politics, and for more compelling, troubling, and
bolder forms of participatory art and criticism.