Beauty and the “We”
“Our experience of the beautiful in the recognition of models that make world and community is restricted to the moment when these worlds and communities present themselves explicitly as the plural” – Gianni Vattimo
“Our experience of the beautiful in the recognition of models that make world and community is restricted to the moment when these worlds and communities present themselves explicitly as the plural” – Gianni Vattimo
Scene: a regional workshop on arts engagement. A funder is speaking with conviction about the fact that her foundation is focusing their arts grantmaking strategy on engagement. Engaging new people. Engaging more diverse people. Engaging people actively in the arts. Any questions?
The question of aesthetics in socially engaged art is as fraught and enduring as our varied understandings of what constitutes critical discourse.
There is a productive conflict at the root of any discussion about aesthetics and social practice that I would like to focus on.
what is beauty
without justice?
a hollow shell.
a shallow façade
anxiously anticipating
time’s decay
exposing the space
where it’s soul should be
-me
The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions which have been hidden by the answers. – James Baldwin