The Politics of Engagement 13

th

March 2015

Jane Trowell, Platform

Www.platformlondon.org

'Context is half the work'Artists Placement Group, 1960s

Where are we?

When are we?

By UHC Collective, commissioned by Platform

The Niger Delta

The Nigerian oil industry, map by Platform

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ogoniland

Battle Bus, The Living Memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa

by Sokari Douglas Camp

Who are we?

http://voicesthatshake.blogspot.co.uk

Why are we?

“It’s not an ego trip,

it’s serious,

it’s politics,

it’s economics,

it’s everything.

And art in that instance

becomes so meaningful

both to the artist and

to the consumers of that

art”

Ken Saro-Wiwa, 1994

“Poetry is not a luxury”

and

“Your silence will not protect you”

Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider

With whom are we?

'social practice'

'socially engaged practice'

'dialogical aesthetics' (Kester)

'relational aesthetics' (Bourriaud)

Catherine Itzin, 1980

1994, Salford

www.littoral.org.uk

1994, Dun Laoghaire

www.littoral.org.uk

Suzanne Lacy, 1995

Embed the thing in social movements

How do we...keep going?

Book Bloc, anti-cuts protest, 2010

North Kent, rivers Thames & Medway,

and The Swale

'The Body Electric' course