{"id":549,"date":"2020-08-23T16:54:53","date_gmt":"2020-08-23T14:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.franziskakoch.com\/?p=549"},"modified":"2020-10-01T20:33:05","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T18:33:05","slug":"ala-plastica-the-ideal-spectacle-of-the-global-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.franziskakoch.com\/?p=549","title":{"rendered":"ALA PL\u00c1STICA: the ideal spectacle of the Global South?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By Maria Rocio Naval<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Introduction – collaborative art and the benefits of a transcultural perspective; democratic “critical zones”: climate activism and its colonial continuities<\/li>
ALA PLASTICA – who are they and what do they do? <\/li>
The AA Project<\/em> – levels of social engagement; collaborative art practice as a site for environmental activism<\/li>
Comparisons – Park Fiction<\/em>; Moving Rainbow<\/em><\/li>
Institutionalisation – GROUNDWORKS<\/em>, Equation of State<\/em><\/li>
Conclusion – issues to consider<\/li>
Bibliography<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\nFig. 1. Rhizome: Current scope of Ala Pl\u00e1stica’s activity source: Ala Pl\u00e1stica website gallery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
INTRODUCTION<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Collaborative art and the benefits of a transcultural perspective<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n
This visual essay aims to explore Ala Pl\u00e1stica\u2019s use of collaborative practice as a potential model for other artist-environmentalist movements in the Global South. To do so, a critical theory of socially engaged art should be considered, specifically in a global and transcultural context. Grant Kester (professor of Art History at the University of California, San Diego and founding editor of critical journal FIELD) and Monica Juneja (art historian and professor of Global Art History at the University of Heidelberg, Germany) have provided some key points regarding collaborative art practice as a site for experimentation in a social setting and how transcultural aspects can help bear insights to specific socio-political circumstances in certain areas (i.e. colonial continuities and issues of decolonisation) and how that, in turn, influences art production and collaboration\/participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is a summary of Kester’s main arguments from his book “The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art in a Global Context” (Duke University Press, 2011):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
collaborative art is a mode of ethico-representational engagement<\/span><\/li>
works like Park Fiction and the AA Project (by Ala Pl\u00e1stica) exhibit the desire to work through experiences in an experimental manner<\/span><\/li>
the definition of art is in constant flux and must therefore depend on the social conditions of local history<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Kester reviews the fluctuations of what can be defined as art by looking at how it has evolved throughout time. He notes that contemporary art for example, its attempt at a destabilisation of power exhibits a paradigm shift, writing: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Art is trapped within the oscillation between challenging the institutional power and being institutionalised.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Juneja further writes in her article “A very civil idea…Art History, Transculturation, and World Making – With and Beyond the Nation” (Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Kunstgeschichte, 2018) that an ever-evolving art history must:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
examine the specific dynamic between distance and proximity, and pay greater attention to multiple relationalities that unfold beyond the coloniser-colonised divide<\/span><\/li>
according to Partha Mitter, direct attention to how actors on these sites (referring to territories) (…) sought to make its civilisational aspect serve as a critique of colonialism<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
In correspondence to Kester’s idea that collaborative art is a mode of ethico-representational engagement, Juneja makes it a point to say the following about transculturation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The idea of world-making needs to be anchored as a perspective with which to shape [art history] where the relationship between ‘archive and vision’ is itself an ethical responsibility.<\/em>“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Democratic “critical zones”: environmental activism and its colonial continuities<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
In order to look at Ala Pl\u00e1stica\u2019s artistic approach to collaboration, it would be imperative to branch out beyond the scope of art history and cross into broader disciplines. For this investigatory purpose, we should consider Mihir Sharma\u2019s thoughts on colonial continuities in environmental activism in the Global North as well as Bruno Latour\u2019s philosophies on humans and their relation to the environment to recognise the principal contexts in which Ala Pl\u00e1stica works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mihir Sharma is a writer and academic who offers lectures on climate activism in the Global North and explores this phenomenon as a method of decolonisation that, paradoxically, has difficulty fully addressing its euro-centrism. However, he notes that key elements remain the same for climate movements in both the Global North and the Global South: where (a) climate change and justice is a social issue and that (b) environmental movements must be based on community involvement in addition to individual motivation. To support this, I have compiled a summary of Sharma\u2019s positions on the decolonisation of climate activism in the Global North in a list of bullet points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is meant by environmental activism as a method of decolonisation -> aspiration toward programme of reparations, oriented toward present-future politics using past actions (including effects of colonialism and its continuities) as reason, involvement of international relations in solving a global problem<\/span><\/li>
There is an attempt at the development of anti-colonial thinking in Western environmental movements through collaborative projects and collective reflection<\/span><\/li>
Activism is a movement generated for the community, rather than the individual<\/span><\/li>
The idea of “climate justice” is brought forth by a culmination of dialectics where it is posed as a social issue, where the fight against capitalism, racism, etc. is imperative to achieving climate goals<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to Ala Pl\u00e1stica, an artist-environmentalist group based in Argentina, their approach to “anti-colonial thinking” encourages a holistic transcultural world-view in climate discussions by offering collective reflection. Ala Pl\u00e1stica achieves their approach through collaborative artistic intervention. However, with collaboration and inter-human relations comes a question of democracy and how that connects to our perception of a physical earth\/environment. Latour, for example, talks about the Anthropocene in terms of human engagement with nature and explores its democratic character, thereby implicating non-human entities as being influenced by inter-human politics (another topic heavily discussed in socially engaged art theory). His arguments are summarised in the following bullet points:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There has been a “breech” between politics on globalisation (of nature): the essential link between conservative revolution and its denial of the new climate regime leads to disorientation and issues of identification, in which territories affect democracy and vice versa.<\/span><\/li>
The “Terrestrial” serves as a visualisation of terrain where politics is being exerted and can be defined as a democratic critical zone.<\/span><\/li>
Art exists as an exploration of connections and relations between humans and non-humans. A historical example of art being used as a medium of exploration of human control over non-human entities is Leviathan<\/em> by Thomas Hobbes.<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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