WEEK 1: The artistic side of socio-political practices

In the first session, I will introduce the concept of “Ready-Made realities” and their relation to art practices. I will be making reference the surrealists economic plans of Fidel Castro, and to the “social agent” as the executor of the work. We will then consider the role of an artist within society. By using examples of my own works and those of other artists we will analyse and discuss the differences that exist between artistic practices and social communitarian works as well as the differences among intervention, integration and subtraction. We will be discussing how we use situations in our social environment and subvert them in order to make art. How can/do we use art as a tool to turn an unproductive system into a productive one?