Projects with Clear Short-Term Goals

These projects all have short-term goals. Ideally each contributes to a campaign with a clear, well-defined path to a goal. Ideally, there are targets—people, institutions—that the project (and/or campaign) pressures and which, if pressured, can help achieve the goal.
Zone à Défendre, or “zone to defend” (ZAD)
Practitioner:
local community groups
Date:
Jan 26 2017

The ZAD (zone à défendre, or “zone to defend”) in Western France is 4000 acres of wetland, farmland and forest that was originally intended to be built into an airport in 1965 but is now an autonomous territory occupied by 40 different collectives looking to reclaim the land. There are around 200 people living permanently on the zone, in addition to some 2,000 people coming and going.

Heritage loss and the Importance of the Past
Practitioner:
Ai Weiwei
Date:
Jan 1 1995

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995) by Ai Weiwei is a highly provocative work of art. This series of three black and white photographs portray the artist holding a 2,000-year-old Han dynasty urn that, frame by frame, he drops, it falls, and shatters. As much a work of photography as a work of performance art, in each still an unaffected Ai looks directly at the camera aware of his destructiveness.

Transforming Lives at Kainbach Nursing Home with WochenKlausur's Initiative
Practitioner:
WochenKlausur
Date:
Jan 1 2003

On the occasion of the European Cultural Capital Graz 2003, WochenKlausur developed a year-long program of activities for older people with severe mental disabilities. The object was to offer them opportunities for a change of their daily routine inside the home.

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.

Interwoven Threads: The Art of Community and Sensory Expansion
Practitioner:
Sebastián Mahaluf
Date:
Sep 1 2023

Sebastián Mahaluf stands out as an artist deeply engaged in weaving the complex threads of human connection, community, and the interplay of personal and collective experiences. His notable work, "CONTRADICTION AND TENSION," showcases his approach to art as a participatory experience that bridges individual perceptions with communal narratives.

‘Met Museum, you’re complicit’: artists and activists take over museum’s front steps with giant pro-Palestine quilt
Practitioner:
Artists, cultural workers and activists
Date:
Mar 24 2024

A two-hour rally at the New York museum drew many supportive cheers and honks, plus a handful of antagonistic shouts
Benjamin Sutton
25 March 2024

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