Vol. 3 No. 1 (2015): Rethinking the public sphere. Intersections between cultural practices and the collective scenario
In the last decades we have witnessed an increasing shift of artistic practices towards the social space whose nature is willing to transcend the classical notion of the "public art" and to open new intersection zones between cultural practices and the collective scenario. This turn has motivated a fundamental crossroad that compels social-oriented artistic practices to speak about whether they should contribute to strengthen the established model of social cohesion (an ideal of integration) or on the contrary, they should focus on the imagination and the rehearsal of alternative communal models and constitute itself as an example of other possible instituting practices.
It appears to be that only by trying to resolve of this dilemma the role of cultural practices could meet their expectations beyond the logic of representation and in turn opening up the possibility of transforming or generating new imagery for the social body. On the other hand, the social mutations emanating from the process of political, economic and urban globalization compel artistic practices to rethink its field of action in order to address, from an interdisciplinary approach, fundamental notions such as the new formats of social mobility (subjects, services, commodities, narratives...); the new identity profiles (local, resident, tourist, foreigner, undocumented...); the recognition of spaces susceptible to operate as a socio-political unit (neighbourhood, city) and the modes of articulation of the collaborative and cooperative processes as an alternative to the model of self-sufficient subject model promoted for the capital. The complexity of these questions call for a reflection around the working methodologies that could enable answers to all of these lines of action.
The issue 3 of REG/AC configure the contribution of the Research Group Art Globalization Interculturality (AGI/ART: 2014SGR 1050) to the research platform Dispositivos Post. Prácticas artísticas y redes de acción ciudadana en contextos post-crisis - Seminario Expandido promoted by Fundació Antoni Tàpies and the cultural producer Idensitat, where researchers from Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Universitat Ramon Llull, EINA - Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art y Universitat de Barcelona, addressed different methodologies and models of intervention in the public sphere from artistic practices and social sciences. Some of these contributions are collected in this volume, along with works from the Forum Permanente of Instituto de Estudos Avançados from Universidade de Sao Paulo and the research group GIAI / AE from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Similarly, the present issue gathers 13 articles selected through a an open call authored by researchers affiliated to centres and international universities such as Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, Universidad de Málaga, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Universitat Jaume I Castelló, Universidad de Costa Rica, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Universidad Federal de Bahia, Universidad de Los Andes – Venezuela, Universität Giessen, California Lutheran University and University of the Philippines.
Lastly, with the Miscellanea section we aimed to gather recent approaches to these questions from researchers associated to the Research Group AGI Art Globalization Interculturality. We also collect an assessment, as an epilogue, by Ramón Parramón, director of Idensitat cultural producer.
Martí Peran and Diana Padrón Alonso, guest editors.
