About

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Arte Útil draws on artistic thinking to imagine, create and implement tactics that change how we act in society.

About Arte Útil

Whether through self-organised groups, individual initiatives or the rise of user generated content people are developing new methods and social formations to deal with issues that were once the domain of the state. Arte Útil case studies show how these initiatives are not isolated incidents, but part of a larger historical trajectory that is now shaping our contemporary world.

The notion of what constitutes Arte Útil has been arrived at via a set of criteria that was formulated by Tania Bruguera and curators at the Queens Museum, New York, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and Grizedale Arts, Coniston.

Arte Útil projects should:

1) Propose new uses for art within society
2) Use artistic thinking to challenge the field within which it operates
3) Respond to current urgencies
4) Operate on a 1:1 scale
5) Replace authors with initiators and spectators with users
6) Have practical, beneficial outcomes for its users
7) Pursue sustainability
8) Re-establish aesthetics as a system of transformation

For the past twenty years the artist Tania Bruguera has been teaching and researching Arte Útil through an academy in Havana; the Arte Útil lab at Queens Museum, residencies at Immigrant Movement International, New York and the Museum of Arte Útil, in the Old Building of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven. The Arte Útil archive has been presented and activated through numerous workshops, exhibitions and seminars throughout the world.

This Platform

This platform is designed as a toolkit for users, hosting projects and information related to Arte Útil. It is intended as a site for research and exchange for its users.

On this platform users can read and download projects from the growing archive of almost 300 Arte Útil case studies. Users are invited to propose new projects to be included in the archive, which we view as open source and permanently in development. Similarly in the tools section users can download designs for the archive structure, which can be adapted and re-purposed depending upon the context within which it is shown. In this way users have the tools to research, curate and construct different formulations of the Arte Útil archive. The feed section details different moments when the archive has been activated by various users. This platform also serves as a focus point for the Asociación of Arte Útil, a network of individual, collective or institutional users who hold affinity with the criteria of Arte Útil. Users can join the association or sign up to the Arte Útil newsletter on this platform.

Asociación

The Asociación de Arte Útil is an international membership organisation that seeks to promote and implement Arte Útil.

The idea of art that is useful or that is effective, is not new; before the autonomous orientations of Modern Art resonated through the 19th and 20th centuries, art predominately operated as a religious, ritual, practical or educational tool as part of daily life.

The Asociación de Arte Útil was initiated by the artist Tania Bruguera and, in line with the Criteria of Arte Útil, it is now being evolved by a growing user group into an international body to promote ways for art to work effectively in ordinary life and to initiate and support new initiatives that fulfil the Criteria of Arte Útil.

As the Asociación membership grows we intend to expand a social, political and active network of members, a communication forum for Arte Útil activity, periodical updates, newsletters on activities of the Asociación. Members of the Asociación are invited to contribute to the evolution of Arte Útil practically and theoretically, as part of an initiative to reinstate art as a process that is fully integrated into society.

The Asociación provides the following: A growing social, political and active network of members. A communication forum for the Asociación’s activity at arte-util.org. Periodical email updates, on activities of the Asociación. A database of case studies and resources that exemplify the different working methodologies used in Arte Útil at arte-util.org. Tools in the forms of a Museum, a School, an Office and a Summit to expand on the critical discourse around the notion of art as a tool; Opportunities to develop, support and contribute to new Arte Útil projects. Opportunities to participate in special events such as work parties, field trips and educational seminars. Invitations to a periodical Asociación de Arte Útil summit. Opportunities, as part of the user group, to shape the future and direction of the Asociación.

The Asociación de Arte Útil is part of an ongoing collaboration between Tania Bruguera, Grizedale Arts, Van Abbemuseum, Liverpool John Moores University and the Internationale confederation of European museums, Tate Liverpool, Ikon Gallery Birmingham and MIMA as part of the 5 year project ‘The Uses of Art: The Legacies of 1848 and 1989’. The Asociación de Arte Útil is co-directed by Tania Bruguera and Alistair Hudson (ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe) in partnership with the Van Abbemuseum, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, The Whitworth and Irish Museum of Modern Art.

For more information contact@arte-util.org

The Coefficient of Arte Útil

As a subjective mechanism that creates art in a “raw condition,” Marcel Duchamp first proposed the idea of the “art coefficient” in 1957. According to him, artists experience a sequence of subjective reactions as they go from purpose to realisation, and this process frequently leaves a gap between the original aim of the artist and the final product of the artwork. In other words, the “art coefficient” stands for the relationship between the artist’s goal and what is unintentionally revealed and becomes apparent through how the audience responds to the artwork. Independent of the artist’s aim, the audience perceives the piece of art. As a result, the artwork is completed by the observer by conveying its inner value to the outside world.

By offering a series of queries that interpret the coefficient of art from a new perspective, Stephen Wright gives a different viewpoint on the “art coefficient” through the lens of usership in ‘Towards a lexicon of usership’ (available here). He asks: ‘Could it be that art is no longer (or perhaps never was) a minority practice, but rather something practised by a majority, appearing with varying coefficients in different contexts?’, ‘What coefficient of art have we here? Or there?’ and yet again, ‘What is the coefficient of art of such and such a gesture, object or practice?’

The Asociación de Arte Útil designed a practical exercise to clarify what the coefficient of art represents and how to utilise it to understand various practises according to usership, as well as to potentially translate it into operation. Because a fundamental component of the exercise is the eight criteria of Arte Útil, we designed a simple mathematical exercise: the coefficient of art would be the result of the sum of an assigned value between one to ten to each of the eight criteria divided per their number.

Contact

Information about arte-util.org, the Association de Arte Útil, its initiators, contributors and supporters.

Contact info:
To get in contact with Arte-Util.org, mail to: contact@arte-util.org or info@arte-util.org

Subscribe to newsletter:
Subscribe to the Arte Útil newsletter to receive posts and periodical updates on the Association, studies and related projects.

Submit a project to the archive:
We meet once per year to go through the applications and select them. As the nature of the Asociación de Arte Útil is as flexible and open to the periodical contribution of users, we encourage everyone interested in being part of the selection process to be in touch so they can be included in the yearly meetings to go through the received applications.

Join the Association:
Join the Association, a network of Arte Útil practitioners and institutions. Association members receive the Arte Útil newsletter and are invited to contribute to the Association through either resources, labor or expertise. Association members are invited to an annual conference.

Propose a Project

Join the Ascociación

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Initiator:
Tania Bruguera

Directors:
Tania Bruguera and Alistair Hudson

Initial Partners:
Queens Museum (New York)
Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven)
Grizedale Arts (Coniston)

Archive researchers and coordinators:
Gemma Medina Estupiñan and Alessandra Saviotti

International correspondents:
Nick Aikens, Rael Artel, Claire Bishop, John Byrne, Clare Butcher, Binna Choi, Teddy Cruz, Ekaterina Degot, Galit Eilat, Charles Esche, Annie Fletcher, Tom Finkelpearl, Tom van Gestel, Grizedale Arts, Claire Hsu, Matteo Lucchetti & Judith Wielander (Visible project), Abdellah Karroum, Grant Kester, Heejin Kim, Michy Marxuach, Cuauhtémoc Medina, Gabi Ngcobo, Paul O´Neill, Sarah Rifky, Caterina Riva, Lucía Sanroman, David Teh, Nato Thompson, Stephen Wright,Vivian Ziherl, Magdalena Ziolkowska.

Platform partners:
MIMA (Middlesbrough)
Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven)
The Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester)
FRAC Poitou-Charentes (Angoulême)
IMMA (Dublin)

Platform Design:
Collective Works (Peter Zuiderwijk)

Platform Development:
All Sizes

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