Projects tagged "Housing & Land"

Pandora's Project
Practitioner:
TECHO International
Date:
Oct 31 2012
It was October 31st, 2012, when a new artist appeared on social media. In a series of video clips, she proposed with a soft and slow speech that Peru hide its poverty. Her project consisted of installing vinyl pieces to avoid what she called "the visual pollution." She titled the project Don't be poor, be fashion(able).
Why Did Francis Alÿs Push A Block Of Ice For 9 Hours?
Practitioner:
Francis Alÿs
Date:
Jan 1 1997
What is Francis Alÿs known for? Francis Alÿs is known for using poetic and metaphorical techniques to highlight the political and social realities of his city. Often, the issues he addresses range from national border politics to globalism and areas of conflict in his community and the effects of modernism.
Zhang Huan, To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond
Practitioner:
Zhuang Huan, some laborers, fishermen, construction workers
Date:
Sep 1 1997
Zhuang Huan invited more than 40 men - laborers, fishermen, construction workers––who had recently migrated to Beijing from other areas of China to participate. Zhang Huan said, “In order to find these workers, I visited many of the shacks where they live.”
Gem Spa Rally Turns Beloved East Village Institution Into Mock "Schitibank"
Practitioner:
Vanishing New York, #SaveNYC
Date:
Sep 12 2019
A source of delicious egg creams and daily newspapers since at least the 1930s, an unassuming shop at the corner of St. Marks Place and 2nd Avenue was renamed Gem Spa in 1957 and swiftly transformed into a meeting ground for generations of downtown artists, musicians, poets, and activists.
Aboriginal Embassy, Richard Bell
Practitioner:
Richard Bell
Date:
Jan 1 2013
Richard Bell has often called himself ‘an activist masquerading as an artist’. Aboriginal journalist and radio broadcaster Daniel Browning has suggested that Bell is also ‘a megaphone.
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.
Art Inspection notices
Practitioner:
RTMark
Date:
Jul 25 2000
Bogus building inspection notices with the forged signature of city Building Inspection Director Frank Chiu appeared on buildings in San Francisco's South of Market area, prompting an investigation by exasperated city officials.
#DontMuteDC and Moechella Protest
Practitioner:
Don't Mute DC and Long Live Go-Go
Date:
Apr 7 2019
In response to white gentrifiers trying to silence go-go music on the corners of Florida Avenue and 7th Avenue, activists and D.C. residents poured into the streets by blasting go-go music and celebrating its rich history within the city. For those unfamiliar, go-go music is at the heart of D.C. culture and features live bands playing covers of, and sometimes original, music with all different types of drums and other percussion instruments.
La Casa Invisible Protests Against Gentrification
Practitioner:
La Casa Invisible
Date:
Dec 3 2002
La Casa Invisible project was started in 2007 in Malaga, Spain, when a group of socially involved participants squatted in a run-down building, aiming to eventually claim the legal rights to the property (Moor & Smart, 2016). The space was opened to local artists and creators, quickly becoming a hub for free local music, performances, and seminars as well as creating an important meeting space for social groups (Moor & Smart, 2016).
London’s “Free Butt Plug Catalogue” Confronts Hostile Architecture
Practitioner:
A Chinese Artist
Date:
May 16 2025
Hostile architecture—urban design features like ground spikes that deter the homeless from lying down or slanted benches that prevent lingering—inscribes exclusion into our streets. In response, a Chinese artist will launch the Free Butt Plug Catalogue, an art-activism project that documents fifteen such spikes and anti–loitering benches across London and pairs each with a commercially available butt plug of the same shape.
Kinshasa Costumes
Practitioner:
Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle
Date:
Aug 20 2021
The collective Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle, a group of Kinshasa street performers turn their bodies into living sculptures, and use them to political ends. Among the artists is Jared, who regularly takes to the streets dressed as Robot Annonce. The costume, made from broken radio parts, is designed to raise awareness of fake news. “People receive so much incorrect information and many inaccuracies are spread. I want to fight this,” says Jared.
The Great Migration Series
Practitioner:
Jacob Lawrence
Date:
May 12 1941
National Public Radio (NPR): There's no historical marker outside Jacob Lawrence's childhood home in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. But Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, has an idea of what it might say: "Here lived one of the 20th century's most influential visual artists, a man named Jacob Lawrence, who was a child of southern migrants."
Los Palcos del Descubridor (The discoverer's box seats)
Practitioner:
José Aburto and Sebastian Burga
Date:
Mar 1 2012
"Los Palcos del Descubridor" (The Discoverer's Box Seats) was a project created by Sebastian Burga and José Aburto in 2012 that consisted of a large-scale installation on the street and a media campaign on the Internet. The work simulated the upcoming construction of an apartment building that would replace Lima's Teatro Colón, a historical landmark.
Cob Houses, Kitchens, Showers for Homeless People
Practitioner:
Artists Building Communities, Essential Food and Medicine, and Living Earth Structures
Date:
May 1 2021
Members of three organizations – Artists Building Communities, Essential Food and Medicine, and Living Earth Structures – have built a kitchen, clinic, free store, stage, toilet, oven, and shower with and for a homeless community near Wood Street in West Oakland.
Wheatfield - A Confrontation
Practitioner:
Agnes Denes
Date:
May 3 1982
Architectural Digest:
"You won’t own a house IN YOUR WHOLE FUCKING LIFE" world record
Practitioner:
Leonidas Martin
Date:
Oct 6 2007
On October 6th, 2007, we beat a new world record. Thousands of people in cities all across Spain simultaneously shouted: “You won’t own a house IN YOUR WHOLE FUCKING LIFE!” The decibels radiating from this collective cry were registered by an interactive meter, baptized “The Fuck-o-meter” for the occasion.
Pro-Palestine Subway Art
Practitioner:
Anonymous Artists
Date:
Mar 4 2024
"Late last night, an autonomous group of activists placed posters throughout the subway system, blocking out advertisements with their own materials protesting Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.
The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons
Practitioner:
Jacques-Louis David
Date:
Jan 1 1787
Jacques-Louis David was an active member of the French Revolution, and his works often depicted his political affiliations. David’s painting The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons portrays the scene of Brutus, an important figure of the Roman Republic, reacting to the death of his sons. Since they wanted to overthrow the government and restore the monarchy, Brutus ordered their death.
Tiny Homes for Toronto’s Homeless
Practitioner:
Khaleel Seivwright
Date:
Apr 17 2020
On his way to work on a construction site, Khaleel Seivwright surveyed the growing number of tents lining an intercity highway and in parks with increasing discomfort. How would these people survive Toronto’s damp, frigid winters, let alone the coronavirus, which had pushed so many out of overcrowded shelters? He remembered the little shanty he had once built out of scrap wood while living on a commune in British Columbia.
Princess Diana’s 1997 landmine walk: ‘I come with my heart’
Practitioner:
Princess Diana, The American Red Cross
Date:
Jan 15 1997
It's an evocative image — and it was intended to be: Diana, Princess of Wales, wearing a protective visor and flak jacket, walking through a live minefield in Huambo, Angola. The image of the princess, at the time one of most famous women in the world, surrounded by danger, made headlines across the world.
Sleep Out
Practitioner:
Covenant House
Date:
Feb 2 2021
Covenant House has started a ‘Sleep Out’ movement that shines light on the youth homelessness crisis and raises funds for young people who seek shelter. "Covenant House empowers young people to overcome homelessness and trafficking by providing them with safe housing, food and clothing, and relentless support. Sleep Out events are held for people who want to join the movement as they give up their bed for one night in NYC.
the Fundred Project
Practitioner:
Mel Chin
Date:
Jan 1 2008
The Fundred Dollar Bill Project, initiated by artist Mel Chin, is a collaborative art project aimed at raising awareness and mobilizing action against the environmental and health threat of lead contamination. It encourages individuals to create their own unique interpretations of $100 bills, symbolizing the value of human lives and the need for a lead-free future.
7 Days of Garbage
Practitioner:
Gregg Segal
Date:
Jul 10 2014
Gregg Segal -- a California-based artist who is known for using the medium of photography to explore culture with the "sensibility of a sociologist" -- asked family, friends, neighbors and other acquaintances to save their trash and recyclables for a week and then lie down and be photographed in it:
How Détournement Was Used as a Weapon in 15-M Protests
Practitioner:
Date:
May 15 2011
Just over a decade ago on May 15, 2011, a wave of social outrage began as the Spanish people collectively decided that they had had enough of the corruption, cuts, and inequalities affecting their country.
Project Row Houses, 1993-2018, Houston (Texas)
Practitioner:
Project Row Houses
Date:
Jan 1 1993
Collective Creativity in the Beginning Project Row Houses (PRH) is, and has always been, a unique experiment in activating the intersections between art, cultural and historic preservation, affordable and innovative housing, community engagement and development, neighborhood revitalization, and human empowerment. Urban Landscape as Canvas

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