Socially engaged art on the ‘margins’

Image shows a postcard designed in Kristina Borg’s AMASS project ‘Batman Gzirjan'

Marginality remains a contested concept. bell hooks (1990) famously referred to marginality as a site of resistance rather than deprivation - a space where one can refuse to be dominated by the ‘centre’, however important that centre presumes itself to be. This is why AMASS (an EU-funded project called ‘Acting on the Margins: Arts as Social Sculpture’) did not address so-called ‘marginalised’ groups as ‘deprived’ others, even though we openly acknowledged the various challenges so so many people face in their daily lives.. A consortium of 8 European partners conducted extensive research on socially engaged arts projects, including over 30 documented projects forming part of this Horizon 2020 research study. We presented research and creative outcomes of these many research projects, exploring questions related to issues like the documentation and communication of participatory practices, creative engagement and elderly persons, citizenship, pedagogies and museum education. Artistic disciplines ranged from video to analogue photography and theatre while participant groups included rural communities, artists, children, elderly persons and migrants. AMASS received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 870621.

Read more about the project and its publications as well as a MOOC here.

Hooks, Bell. (1990). Marginality as a Site of Resistance. R. Ferguson, et al (Eds).Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. 341-43.