Projects tagged "Activates (people)"

Energizes and organizes people into action. Can include emotion work
Life, Entangled: Artist Liang Shaoji on Working with Silkworms
Practitioner:
Liang Shaoji
Date:
Jul 30 2019
“I am a silkworm.” Liang Shaoji has repeatedly used this phrase to describe his work, underscoring his preoccupation with the materiality of silk and the technology of sericulture, or silk farming. For more than twenty-five years, Liang Shaoji has raised silkworms and trained them to spin silk onto different objects in his Nature series.
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.
Tletl (Mexican Nahua Dance) Performance
Practitioner:
Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli
Date:
May 31 2020
The group known as Kalpulli Yaocenoxtli, which practices Mexican Nahua dance, song and drumming, is a frequent presence at Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Its dancers first took to the streets in solidarity with the movement after the death of Jamar Clark, who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police in 2015.
Missing Faces for Missing Girls
Practitioner:
Peju Alatise
Date:
Jul 1 2014
Born in Nigeria in 1975, Péju Alatise, is a multimedia artist focusing on the experience of women and girls, particularly in her native country but with resonance across the world.
@muchachafanzine
Practitioner:
muchachafanzine
Date:
Jan 1 2011
The user muchachafanzine on instagram is an activist who writes a "decolonial native xicana feminist fanzine". They are an online activist and they spread their message through their page, the zine, and through merchandise. Daisy Salinas began Muchacha Fanzine as a feminist punk zine in 2011. Over the years, Muchacha has grown into a larger, submission-based compilation of work by marginalized voices from around the world.
When an orchestra director negotiated his cachet in trees
Practitioner:
Claudio Abbado
Date:
Sep 9 2009
Claudio Abbado was an Italian orchestra director (1933 - 2014) who served as chief director at La Scala Theater in Milan from 1968 - 1985. After 18 years of absence, in 2009, he was invited to conduct a concert there. He accepted upon condition that, instead of paying him a monetary honorarium, the city would commit to the planing of 90.000 trees in the city of Milan.
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.
How Jean-Michel Basquiat's Art Challenges Status Quo
Practitioner:
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Date:
Jan 1 1983
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who rose to fame in the 1980s. He is known for his graffiti-inspired paintings that often engage with issues surrounding racism and inequality. Basquiat's work challenged the status quo and incited a powerful social commentary on the struggles of marginalised social groups.
As the Taliban Curbs Women’s Rights, Advocates Demand Action
Practitioner:
Afghan women walk along a road in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on July 29, 2022.
Date:
Feb 15 2023
In December – as many around the globe were preparing for the holidays – Sama, a former attorney, remained hunkered down in her house in Kabul, Afghanistan, trying to comprehend how her world had changed.
Ice Watch
Practitioner:
Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing
Date:
Dec 14 2018
Does it vex you, the environmental impact of Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch? Do you hear about the transportation of 30 icebergs from the Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland to be displayed in London as a memento mori for our inhabitable environment and judge the project a bit of an own-goal, sustainability-wise? You would not be alone – on personal evidence, this seems a popular response.
Youth Activist Art Archive
Practitioner:
University of Utah
Date:
Jan 8 2022
The Youth Activist Art Archive (YAAA) is a dedicated platform that highlights and celebrates the creative efforts of young individuals (26 years old and younger) actively participating in diverse social movements and causes. YAAA acknowledges the vital role and innovative vision of young activists who employ their artistic talents to envision and advocate for a brighter future.
‘Framing Britney Spears’
Practitioner:
Samantha Stark
Date:
Feb 12 2021
"Spears entered the conservatorship in 2008, at age 26, when her struggles were on public display. Now she is 39, and a growing number of her fans are agitating on her behalf, raising questions about civil liberties while trying to deduce what Spears wants.
Breastfeeding protest in food court
Practitioner:
Luci White, Bendigo Moms Facebook group
Date:
Feb 26 2016
Dozens of moms organized a breastfeeding protest at an Australian mall after nursing mom Luci White was asked to leave the food court. White says she was finishing up her lunch at Bendigo Marketplace, about 90 minutes outside Melbourne, when her 7-month-old son, Zaydd, started crying for milk. White started nursing him, but other patrons, an older man and a mom of two, started to complain.
2015 Die-In Protest Against Gender Violence
Practitioner:
Women in Black of Madrid
Date:
Sep 2 2015
On September 2nd 2015, a die-in protest to advocate against gender violence was carried out by a group called Women in Black (Olmedilla, 2015). This form of protest was likely inspired by other die-in protests in Spain and represented Spanish women who have died due to domestic violence (DV). A group of women dressed in black clothing gathered on the streets of Madrid. One by one they fell to the ground and lay there, acting dead.
“Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)
Practitioner:
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Date:
Jan 24 1991
Felix Gonzalez-Torres produced meaningful and restrained sculptural forms out of common materials. “Untitled” (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) consists of an ideal weight of 175 pounds of shiny, commercially distributed candy. The work’s physical form and scale change with each display, affected by its placement in the gallery as well as audience interactions.
The World's Most Dangerous Rap Group: NWA
Practitioner:
NWA
Date:
Aug 19 1988
In 1988, rap group the N.W.A from Compton, California released their second album, “Straight Outta Compton”. Without any radio play or media coverage, the album still managed to become an underground hit, and the notorious rap group successfully introduced socially conscious gangsta rap into the mainstream.
Ghana Thinktank. Developing the first world.
Practitioner:
Christopher Robbins, John Ewing, Matey Odonkor, Maria Del Carmen Montoya
Date:
Feb 1 2006
Ghana ThinkTank is an international collective that “develops the first world” by flipping traditional power dynamics, asking the “third world” to intervene into the lives of the people living in the so-called “developed” world.
#thisisnotamask Covid-19 Rubber Stamp Currency Intervention
Practitioner:
Joseph DeLappe and Brent Richardson
Date:
Jul 1 2020
#thisisnotamask Covid-19 Pandemic Rubber Stamp Currency Intervention Website: https://thisisnotamask.tumblr.com/ For more information: Joseph DeLappe artist/activist – j.delappe@abertay.ac.uk Brent Richardson media artist – brent@BrentRich.com Let’s mask the presidents!
“Supporting Ukraine Is Not a Choice, But Our Common Duty”: How a Group of Artist-Activists Is Supporting Ukraine From Warsaw
Practitioner:
Sunflower Solidarity Community Center
Date:
Feb 25 2023
In 2023, it is impossible to be an apolitical artist in Eastern Europe. As war rages on in Ukraine, art serves as a powerful and necessary tool, according the members of the Sunflower Solidary Community Center in Warsaw: Maria Beburia, Sebastian Cichocki, Kuba Depczyński, Taras Gembik, Yulia Krivich, Kaja Kusztra, Natalia Sielewicz, and Bogna Stefańska.
Nadya Tolokonnikova - Pussy Riot: Punk's Not Dead
Practitioner:
Nadya Tolokonnikova
Date:
Jan 25 2025
Nadya Tolokonnikova is a Siberian artist and a creator of the feminist protest art collective Pussy Riot. Tolokonnikova’s political actions and wide-ranging performance interventions have established her as a leading voice in the fight against authoritarian power. During her residency, she will compose performances that demonstrate her multifaceted approach to resisting systems of oppression and dehumanization.
The Fearless Collective – Public Art for Social Change
Practitioner:
Bangalore
Date:
Dec 8 2012
Founded in India, this collective creates participatory murals that transform public spaces into affirmations of love and resistance. Collaborating with marginalized communities, they co-create artworks that challenge narratives of fear and oppression
Fashion Designers Join the Fight Against COVID-19 By Pivoting to Mask Production
Practitioner:
Fashion Designers, Christian Siriano, Christina Karin Monley, Luxury Fashion Houses and Factories
Date:
Mar 20 2020
Fashion designers from L.A. to Milan are picking up their shears in solidarity to do their part to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to at-risk patients and primary care providers.
Protests continue against Netanyahu's government legal reform plans in Israel
Practitioner:
Israeli Demonstrators
Date:
Feb 5 2023
TEL AVIV Thousands of people took to the streets in Israeli cities Saturday for a fifth straight week to protest the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concerning proposed judicial reforms. Demonstrators from non-governmental organizations, lawyers, and technology sectors staged the protests/ Police closed roads leading to squares in Tel Aviv during the day and took security measures in the surrounding area.
Turkey Erdogan: Women rise up over withdrawal from Istanbul Convention
Practitioner:
Feminists in Turkey
Date:
Mar 28 2021
It has been a tumultuous and anxious week for women in Turkey. When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree at midnight last Friday, annulling Turkey's ratification of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women, women poured onto the streets of Turkish cities to protest. Further demonstrations are planned.
Linha Vermelha - Red Line
Practitioner:
Academia Cidadã - Citizenship Academy
Date:
Dec 5 2017
Linha Vermelha was created in 2016 by the non-profit organization Academia Cidadã (Citizenship Academy). At that time there were fifteen active contracts for oil and gas drilling and we were inspired by the “Red Line Action” in Paris, during COP21 and decided to create this campaign.

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