How might curatorial and artistic practices foster social and political change? This course explores the concepts and methods of socially-oriented and community-based artistic projects that have political impact, both within and outside of the art world.

We will first explore how to develop infrastructures of solidarity and change by discussing principles and strategies of artistic self-organisation, including horizontality, exchange and knowledge-building.

The course will then focus on how artistic projects can build relations with different communities by integrating principles of social research into curatorial work. Case studies drawn from the arts, education and activist initiatives will show ways to reveal mechanisms of social and political injustice, such as geopolitical divisions or human and non-human rights violations.

We will finally consider how collective artistic projects can be forces for empowerment and disruption, especially across fields of media, youth education, public space and national borders.

This course is led by the Creative Association of Curators TOK, an international curatorial duo founded by Anna Bitkina and Maria Veits in 2010. TOK work at the intersection of contemporary art, the social sciences, architecture and socially-oriented design. They will draw on their extensive experiences and unique methods of socially-engaged practice to provide a practical and theoretical framework for those who want to implement political change through their artistic projects.

Image: Shir Comay courtesy of TOK

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