Are artistic engagements evolving, or attracting more attention? The range of artistic protest actions shows how the globalisation of art is also the globalisation of art politics. Here, based on multi-site field research, we follow artists from the MENA countries, Latin America, and Africa along their committed transnational trajectories, whether these are voluntary or the result of exile. With this global and decentred approach, the different repertoires of engagement appear, in all their dimensions, including professional ones. In the face of political disillusionment, these aesthetic interventions take on new meanings, as artivists seek alternative modes of social transformation and production of shared values.
Contributors are: Alice Aterianus-Owanga, Sébastien Boulay, Sarah Dornhof, Simon Dubois, Shyam Iskander, Sabrina Melenotte, Franck Mermier, Rayane Al Rammal, Kirsten Scheid, Pinar Selek, and Marion Slitine.
The Global Politics of Artistic Engagement: Beyond the Arab Uprisings is now available in paperback for individual customers.
Pénélope Larzillière, Ph.D. (EHESS) is Research Professor at the Ceped (Université Paris Cité and IRD). She works on political and moral sociology. Her more recent books include
Activism in Jordan (Bloomsbury, 2016) and the co-edited journal issue "Justice, Injustice and Political Emotions" (
Critique internationale, 91(2) 2021).
List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Repertoires of Engagement in Motion Pénélope Larzillière
Part 1: Moving Repertoires of Engagement
1
Creating a Syrian Culture in Exile: The Reconfigurations of Engagement Franck Mermier
2
The “Metamorphoses of the Political” in the Contemporary Art of Palestinian Post-Oslo Generation Marion Slitine
3
Transnationalizing the Repertoires of Action: A Comparative View of African Rappers’ Engagements in Motion Alice Aterianus-Owanga
4
Digital Artivism in Movement: The 2019 Lebanese Uprising’s Art on Instagram Rayane al-Rammal
Part 2: Artistic Visibilities and Political Circulations, in Diaspora
5
Presence and International Journeys of Engaged West Saharan Singers Sébastien Boulay
6
Young Documentary Theatre on Syrian Stages: An Aesthetic of Circulation, Exile, and Engagement Simon Dubois
7
Anatolian Musicians in Europe: Creation, Political Engagement, Transformation Pinar Selek
Part 3: Contest and Critique, in a Globalizing World
8
Palestinian Art Talk: A Local Lexicon for Global Art Production Kirsten Scheid
9
Fictions of the Contemporary: The Shifting Spaces of the Marrakech Biennale Sarah Dornhof
10
Focus on the Bahraini Art Scene: Centralization Processes and Social Engagement Shyam Iskander
11
Embodying Absence: Remembering Mexico’s Missing Persons through Art Sabrina Melenotte
Index
This work draws on original and multi-situated field studies, taking stock of theoretical approaches to engagement and new theorizations of the role of art in politics. It should be of particular interest to researchers in these fields, as well as to postgraduate and undergraduate students of Art and Political Anthropology, Art and Political Sociology, in the Social Sciences, Social Theory, and Cultural and Global Studies.