Projects tagged "Activates (people)"

Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
The body as a living artwork: Olivier de Sagazan’s Transfiguration
Practitioner:
Olivier de Sagazan
Date:
Jan 1 2024
As the audience enter, Olivier de Sagazan is pacing the stage, deep in thought. A slight, barefooted figure dressed in suit and tie, he circles in and out the shadows, head bowed, sometimes muttering to himself. As the audience settle and hush, his footsteps gradually become more audible (the floor is mic-ed) and begin to pound like a calling drum.
Greta Thunberg launches video of family walking around burning house calling for action on climate change
Practitioner:
Fridays for Future
Date:
Apr 21 2020
Greta Thunberg has launched a campaign video of a housing burning to the ground as she calls for more action on climate change. The shocking clip shows a family waking up, having breakfast and talking as their home is engulfed by flames and clouds of smoke. The video was released by the Swedish climate activist's Fridays for Future, which has partnered with LA-based creative agency FF.
Gay men take over the Proud Boys Twitter hashtag
Practitioner:
Proud (Gay) Boys
Date:
Oct 4 2020
The Proud Boys hashtag, which members of the far-right group have been using, was trending Sunday after gay men on Twitter hijacked it and flooded the feed with photos of their loved ones and families and with memes.
La Fiera en Sevilla
Practitioner:
Isaías Griñolo
Date:
Jan 1 2016
During the economic crisis of 2008, bankers in Spain took advantage of the economically disadvantaged, and the artwork La Fiera en Sevilla, or the Wild Animal in Sevilla in English, brings attention to this money-centric act from the bankers. La Fiera refers to the bankers at the time that used predatory methods in their actions to forcibly evict poor people from their houses.
Disability Rights In The Woods
Practitioner:
Guerilla Crip
Date:
Mar 26 2026
Guerilla Crip performs disability rights poetry in her local woods to protest about the persecution, discrimination and oppression that disabled people in the UK have endured since 2010 in the UK. We are being impoverished, demonised and targeted in society and by successive governments. Enough is enough!
Law of the Journey
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Mar 16 2017
The exhibition Law of the Journey is Ai Weiwei’s multi-layered, epic statement on the human condition: an artist’s expression of empathy and moral concern in the face of continuous, uncontrolled destruction and carnage.
Freedom riders
Practitioner:
Hundreds
Date:
May 4 1961
The first legislative victory of the Civil Rights era was obtained by hundreds of people going where they weren't invited. In 1961, Black and white Freedom Riders, well trained by SNCC in nonviolent action, rode Greyhound buses from Washington DC southwards primarily in order to wait, together, in waiting rooms that were still unconstitutionally segregated.
Art as a Mirror: Zhang Huan’s 'Family Tree' and Its Reflections on Cultural Identity
Practitioner:
Zhang Huan
Date:
Oct 11 2000
One of the most critical artists on the contemporary art scene is Zhang Huan. His works are of great social insight and unique in how he applies his artistic expression. He thus makes them an almost visual feast with a peek into the multilevel structure of modern society. One such work is the masterpiece "Family Tree," which shows how art can mould our social cognition through multilayered symbolism and profound imagery.
Social change through music
Practitioner:
Jose Antonio Abreu
Date:
Jan 1 1975
El Sistema, also known as The National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestra and Choir, was established in Venezuela in 1975 by José Antonio Abreu, a Venezuelan educator, musician and activist. The music education program operates within the voluntary sector and is funded publicly.
It Never Ends: The Everlasting Battle on Fighting for Female Equality
Practitioner:
https://www.instagram.com/elreydelaruina/
Date:
Mar 8 2018
El Rey de la Ruina, aka The King of Ruin, is a local artist based in Madrid, Spain, who creates artistic activist pieces that range from the impact Covid-19 had on the social life of people in Spain, to the impact gentrification has taken on various groups of people. He tends to utilize (at least in his more recent pieces) bright colors and fun, geometric shapes in his art.
Hundreds of Pro-Palestine Protestors Stage Events at MoMA and Brooklyn Museum
Practitioner:
new yorkers
Date:
Feb 11 2024
As the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, hundreds of people gathered inside the Museum of Modern Art and outside of the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday for protests.
Why Is Iran’s Regime So Afraid of This Song?
Practitioner:
Shervin Hajipour
Date:
Sep 27 2022
“Baraye,” the anthem of Iran’s “Woman, Life, Liberty” protest movement—a song woven together entirely from a Twitter hashtag trend in which Iranians express their investment in the current protests—continues to unite Iranians in their opposition to the Islamic Republic several weeks after it was first released online.
They're Going To Kill Me
Practitioner:
Jammie Holmes
Date:
May 30 2020
The Black, Dallas-based artist Jammie Holmes put George Floyd’s final words in a place where everyone could see them: the sky. Five days after Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, May 30th, Holmes’s piece took flight across Detroit, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles, and New York. Airplanes carrying banners flew between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. EDT.
Björk to Launch Environmental Sound Installation at Paris’ Pompidou Centre
Practitioner:
Björk and Aleph
Date:
Nov 20 2024
Björk and the French artist Aleph have collaborated on an immersive, AI sound piece that recreates extinct animal calls, set to run at the Pompidou Centre, in Paris, from November 20 until December 9. It will play as visitors travel on escalators in the art museum, as part of its “Biodiversity: Which culture for which future?” forum.
Lynn Neuman: Showing How Quickly Plastic Amasses
Practitioner:
Lynn Neuman
Date:
Jan 1 2011
Lynn Neuman, director of New York City–based Artichoke Dance, became preoccupied with single-use disposability after she started wondering about waste and who was responsible for it. For some of her performances, she has collected massive quantities of discarded plastics, like bags and six-pack rings, and invited community members to contribute their own. “There’s a real aha moment when people see how quickly plastic amasses,” she says.
Artist Statement
Practitioner:
Mbizo Chirasha
Date:
May 7 0020
Mine is not Arts for the sake of Arts. It is a revolutionary INSGINA carved into the artistic plaque of my DNA to speak FREEDOM of expression and then freedom after EXPRESSION. The footprints of my revolutionary walk are dipped in the paths of RESISTANCE. My Ideological Swag -word is CREATIVITY. My spiritual birth mark is RESILIENCE. My revolutionary slogan is a nonviolent but a poetic fist of MASS INSTRUCTION. I am non-selfish believer.
After a Military Coup, Artists Across Myanmar Are Making Protest Art to Share Their Struggle for Democracy With the World—See Images Here
Practitioner:
Artists civilians in Myanmar
Date:
Feb 16 2021
"Myanmar has been engulfed in protest since February 1, when Burmese army general Min Aung Hlaing seized control of the government in a military coup, refusing to accept to the landslide election victory of the National League for Democracy and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
No Pride in Incarceration!
Practitioner:
QLatinx, Familia TQML
Date:
Jun 24 2021
❗❗PRIDE REQUIRES ACTION❗❗ Celebrating Pride? What better way to uplift LGBTQ people’s lives than by joining our campaign to #EndTransDetention? Honor the legacy of Pride by taking action until all of us are free. Sign here & share with 3 friends: https://www.endtransdetentions.org/petition
Gravity of Equilibrium, an exhibition about Mass Shootings in USA
Practitioner:
Arts Letters and Numbers / Adela Wagner
Date:
Aug 3 2019
“Gravity of Equilibrium” revolves around Mass Shootings in USA. Mass shootings and guns are an incredibly divisive topics, one that is nearly impossible to engage opposing viewpoints in a discussion about. The majority of gun related debates devolve into charged arguments with parties feeling threatened. This effectively creates an environment where new perspectives and inputs are unable to be processed.
Old People's Home
Practitioner:
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu
Date:
Jul 12 2008
These thirteen life-like sculptures resemble familiar politicians, admirals, generals, bishops, and dictators. Portrayed as frail seniors, they sit dozing off and drooling in electric wheelchairs. They roll on a slow collision course, crashing into each other like bumper cars.
"We stand in solidarity"-Asian American Artist Confront Racism
Practitioner:
Mike Keo, Monyee Chau, Godzilla: Asian American Art Network
Date:
Apr 2 2020
Unleashed by anxiety over the pandemic, the nationwide rise in anti-Asian hate has served as a call to action for many Asian American artists to take a stand: To actively challenge the historic negative stereotype of the vice- and disease-ridden Yellow Peril; to dismantle the pernicious and divisive myth of the model minority that pits achievements by Asian Americas as judgements against other communities of color; and to advocate for social justice, eq
Chinese artist speaks out against zero-Covid policy by wearing 27 hazmat suits in Times Square
Practitioner:
Zhisheng Wu
Date:
Oct 18 2022
On Sunday morning, a puffy, Michelin Man-like figure trudged through Times Square in New York, panting from the exertion of trying to move while wearing 27 hazmat suits. Inside the white cocoon was Zhisheng Wu, a Chinese artist who staged the street performance to criticize China’s unrelenting zero-Covid policy.
Coco Fusco and Paula Heredia’s The Couple in the Cage: Guatinaui Odyssey
Practitioner:
Coco Fusco and MoMA
Date:
Jan 1 1993
The Couple in the Cage documents the travelling performance of Guillermo Gómez -Peña and Coco Fusco, in which they exhibited themselves as caged Amerindians from an imaginary island. While the artists’ intent was to create a satirical commentary on the notion of discovery, they soon realized that many of their viewers believed the fiction, and thought the artists were real “savages”.
Voguing As Resistance
Practitioner:
Black Trans Liberation
Date:
Aug 7 2023
There were still bloodstains outside the Midwood Mobil gas station on Friday night; a fresh sign taped to a lamppost read “A Hate Crime Happened Here.” This is the place where, less than a week prior, 28-year-old O’Shae Sibley, a gay Black dancer and choreographer, made a pit stop with friends after a Jersey beach day.
RED CARD TO VIOLENCE Juventus and Serie A stars have red marks on face in campaign to stop domestic violence against women
Practitioner:
Juventus, WeWorld Onlus, Lega Serie A
Date:
Nov 23 2020
SERIE A players are once again doing their bit to raise awareness for a campaign against violence to women. They have teamed up with Italian organisation WeWorld Onlus, and will promote the cause at all ten Serie A matches this weekend. Players will have red stripes on their cheeks as they play their matches. The striking look seeks to promote WeWorldOnlus' Red Card to Violence campaign.

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