Projects tagged "Politics & Government"

Destruction of the National Front
Practitioner:
Eddie Chambers
Date:
Dec 3 1979
TATE:
The masked artist protesters in a polluted city of China
Practitioner:
Artists in Chengdu
Date:
Nov 11 2016
In the south-western city of Chengdu, by all accounts a city on the edge coping with heavy pollution but also with authorities scrambling to put a lid on simmering discontent. That night police detained a number of artists who managed to stage a silent demonstration, while wearing face masks.
Refuge
Practitioner:
City of Melbourne Arts House
Date:
Jul 1 2016
Refuge is a 5 year transdisciplinary project that brings together artists, community members and emergency services to investigate arts and culture’s role in developing preparedness and building community resilience for climate related disasters.
Occupation of Alcatraz Island
Practitioner:
Native American Activists
Date:
Nov 20 1969
The beacon flashed incessantly. On. Off. On again. Like some sort of traffic light gone crazy, it pierced the thick nighttime mist hovering over San Francisco Bay. The light sent a message five miles across the dark waters from Ghirardelli Square to Alcatraz Island. There, cheers erupted as the light flashed the words, "Go Indians!"
Fairy Tales (with guns)
Practitioner:
National Rifle Association
Date:
Mar 25 2016
The National Rifle Association has recently decided that the way to promote their gun rights among the American people is to retell the classic stories with guns. Thus far, they have rewritten The Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel, handing guns into the hands of the children protagonists, resulting in, surprisingly, significantly less bloodshed.
Shielding Justice: Cannupa Hanska Luger's Artistic Activism and Beyond
Practitioner:
Cannupa Hanska Luger
Date:
Jan 1 2016
This protest installation was first used in 2016 at Standing Rock when the community banded together to protect the Missouri River from a Dakota Access Pipeline.
Environmental Racism on Display
Practitioner:
Sergio Maciel and Provoke Culture
Date:
Dec 20 2020
Two children stand back-to-back, but they are facing two very different Chicagos. One child blows bubbles in a park under blue skies. The other wears a gas mask against a backdrop of scrap metal and billowing smokestacks.
Joey Skaggs and Santa’s Missile Tow
Practitioner:
Joey Skaggs
Date:
Nov 13 2012
On November 13, 2012, Joey Skaggs dressed up as Santa Claus and rode a three-wheeler to the United Nations in New York, NY. Skaggs’ bike was equipped with a fake mobile rocket launcher and a sign that read “ Peace on earth, or else!” A group of elves also accompanied Santa to the UN, and they alternated between handing out green toy soldiers to bystanders and singing their altered version of Jingle Bells, as seen below:
Brazil to give $25 monthly culture stipend to workers to go to movies, read books or visit museums
Practitioner:
Brazilian Government
Date:
Jan 23 2013
BRASILIA (AFP).- Despite the economic crisis, Brazil announced Thursday it planned to give workers here a 50-real ($25) monthly stipend for cultural expenses like movies, books or museums. "In all developed countries, culture plays a key role in the economy," Culture Minister Marta Suplicy said in an interview on national television.
A Piece of Red Cloth - Rock n' Roll Performed in 1989
Practitioner:
Cui Jian
Date:
Jun 19 1989
“I performed at Tiananmen Square in 1989, 15 days before the crackdown. I sang A Piece of Red Cloth (一块红布), a tune about alienation. I covered my eyes with a red cloth to symbolize my feelings. The students were heroes. They needed me, and I needed them. After Tiananmen, however, authorities banned concerts. We performed instead at “parties,” unofficial shows in hotels and restaurants”.
Real Democracy Australia - Viral Participatory Poster Project.
Practitioner:
Carl Scrase in collaboration with Real Democracy Australia
Date:
Feb 24 2013
Do we need to crowdsource a new Australian Constitution? Does anything matter more than the environment? Should Australia become a republic with an Australian head of state? Should whistleblowers be protected? Is representative democracy antiquated? Controversial artist Carl Scrase is asking these questions in a new project that mixes street art posters with political activism and aims to go viral through social media.
China urges Japan to treat "comfort women" issue in honest, responsible manner
Practitioner:
Xinhua Net
Date:
Jun 29 2021
Photo taken on Oct. 15, 2020 shows a "comfort women" statue in Berlin, capital of Germany. The statue was built to commemorate the more than 200,000 girls and women from 14 countries and regions, so-called "comfort women," who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military during World War II. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)
ScareMail
Practitioner:
Benjamin Grosser
Date:
Jan 1 2013
ScareMail is a web browser extension that makes email “scary” in order to disrupt NSA surveillance. Extending Google’s Gmail, the work adds to every new email’s signature an algorithmically generated narrative containing a collection of probable NSA search terms. This “story” acts as a trap for NSA programs like PRISM and XKeyscore, forcing them to look at nonsense.
A Call That Makes Change Approachable
Practitioner:
The Story of Stuff Project
Date:
Jul 11 2012
The Story of Stuff Project launches a new video. What is instructional, educational, and inspirational is a call for all the people in America to exercise their citizenship rather than their right to consume. Here is what Annie Leonard (co-founder and spokes person for the project) has to say about this new film:
Against Excessive Quarantine
Practitioner:
The Dorr Brothers
Date:
Apr 1 2020
Protests against state stay-at-home orders have attracted a wide range of fringe activists and ardent Trump supporters. They have also attracted a family of political activists whom some Republican lawmakers have called "scam artists."
The "marriage effect"
Practitioner:
Amnesty International
Date:
Mar 20 2014
Rights activists in Mozambique have marched through the capital Maputo to protest a colonial era law still included in new legislation that allows rapists to go unpunished if they marry their victims. The "marriage effect" clause sees convicted rapists given a five-year suspended sentence if they marry their victims and stipulates that the perpetrator should stay married to the victim for at least five years.
Graffiti on the West Bank Barrier
Practitioner:
Various Artists
Date:
Jan 1 2004
In June 2002, the Israeli Government decided to construct a physical barrier separating Israel and the West Bank. The declared purpose of this (as yet unfinished) 709 kilometers long barrier—which came to be known as Gader Ha’hafrada (The Separation Wall)—was to prevent the entry of Palestinian terrorists from the occupied territories into Israel in order to protect Israeli citizens.
Visions from the Inside
Practitioner:
CultureStrike, Mariposas Sin Fronteras and End Family Detention
Date:
Aug 19 2015
Visions from the Inside is a project enlisting 15 artists from across the country to create a piece of art based off letters from women in detention. The initiative, a collaboration between CultureStrike, Mariposas Sin Fronteras and End Family Detention, illuminates the horrific realities of life inside some for-profit detention facilities in the U.S., as well as the resilient spirit that keeps the inmates going.
Dancing in Syria
Practitioner:
Syrian protesters
Date:
Dec 19 2011
In Protests, Syrians Find the Spark of Creativity 
Josep Renau Berenguer (Valencia, Spain, 1907 – Berlin, Germany, 1982): Art and political engagement
Practitioner:
Josep Renau Berenguer
Date:
Jul 18 1936
Josep Renau Berenguer was a Spanish painter, photomontager, muralist and communist militant. Renau was the son of an Art teacher. Due to his father’s low income, he had to work various jobs during his youth and teenage years to maintain a middle class position.
ACTIVISTS POUR CONCRETE OVER 'ANTI-HOMELESS' SPIKES
Practitioner:
London Black Revolutionaries
Date:
Jun 13 2014
The war against London's "anti-homeless" spikes escalated today from sign-waving to radical criminal action In the small hours of the morning, some activists dressed as builders poured concrete over the metal spikes outside a Tesco Metro on Regent Street, before vowing to strike again.
Breathing lights
Practitioner:
Adam Frelin and architect Barbara Nelson
Date:
Nov 1 2016
In October and November 2016, Breathing Lights illuminated the windows of hundreds of vacant buildings in Albany, Schenectady and Troy, NY. Warm light filled each window with a diffuse glow that mimicked the gentle rhythm of human breathing. Concentrated in neighborhoods with high levels of vacancy, Breathing Lights transformed abandoned structures from pockets of shadows into places of warmth.
Chicago Gun Share Program
Practitioner:
The Escape Pod, The Brady Center To Prevent Gun Violence
Date:
May 10 2018
'Gun-sharing' stations in Chicago use art to make a point about gun violence. Users can’t actually grab a gun from the stations, but its creators hope the installation will send a message about how disturbingly easy it is for a citizen to acquire an assault weapon—as easy as renting a bike. They can also make a donation to the Brady Center and learn more about the campaign's gun safety efforts.
Stop Frisk Tourist T- Shirts
Practitioner:
Aaron Gach and Center for Tactical Magic
Date:
Aug 28 2012
At Souvenir Stands, Selling Tourists on Ending Stop-and-Search By COREY KILGANNON New York Times, City Blog, August 27, 2012 Last week, a 37-year-old artist from Oakland, Calif., named Aaron Gach joined the crowds of tourists swarming the sidewalk souvenir stands set up around the perimeter of Battery Park in Lower Manhattan.
Tracking Transience
Practitioner:
Hasan Elahi
Date:
Jan 1 2002
An erroneous tip called into law enforcement authorities in 2002 subjected Hasan Elahi to an intensive investigation by the FBI and after undergoing months of interrogations, he was finally cleared of suspicions. After this harrowing experience, Elahi conceived “Tracking Transience” and opened just about every aspect of his life to the public.

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