Collaborative Collective Art Actions and Sensible Politics.

Abstract

In the history of humanity, there are several collaborative practices and actions based on sharing that, among others, generate deep social bonds: potlatch, reciprocal altruism, cooperatives, and mutualism. These practices are based on generosity and collaboration, rather than in competition. These historical links were broken by modernity and the expansion of capitalism and globalization. As a result, art also suffered from this rupture of bonds with society, transforming itself into an art whose end, in general, is situated in itself and in the market. However, there are countless examples of collaborative artistic action. We will explore 2 kinds of collective art strategies, those that (1) make visible the problems of the public sphere in postmodern and hypermodern society and those that (2) aim at creating new forms of common through art. The methodology used is mixed, based on a review of various theories of collective action applying them to art (LeBon; Blumer; Kornhauser; Smelser; Davies; Gurr; Morrison; Olson; Lichbach; Chong; Opp; MacCarthy; Zald; Benford; Snow; Diani; Jasper; Emirbayer; Cefaï; Meg McLagan and Yates McKee) and a series of interviews. Orsi proposed the concepts such as ‘economy of sharing’, ‘politics of sharing’ and ‘practices of sharing’ and of truly collaborative economy. The hypothesis is that the concept of Collaborative Collective Action (CCA) amplifies Orsi’s concepts by posing that collaborating is more than sharing and, therefore, collaboration in art is more than sharing art. CCA in art involves actively enrolling society in all phases of a process so that the ultimate goal is the development of a sense of belonging, a recovery of social bonds between equals, through a conscious commitment to the commons and society. Art, thus understood, would contribute to restore the bonds between subject and community lost with modernity from its specific creative processes, and emerge through collective practices generated by individual artists and collectives that focus on the relationship and the creation of bonds, not on the creation of objects for the market. Common strategies are, among others, the creation of platforms and events, actions of empowerment and education to recover the commons in the public sphere. When art is understood as collaborative collective action there are impacts in relation to various dimensions of the art system. One of the best-known effects is the challenge it poses to the concept of authorship, what affects the relationship of artists with the art system. Another effect is the transformation of the processes and methodologies of creation, production, distribution, knowledge transfer and reproduction of art. Co-creation, co-production, remix, reuse, hacking and copy-left processes emerge. In synthesis, art collaborative collective actions make visible obscure areas of public sphere and address a possible reconfiguration of contemporary commons, personal and collective data sovereignty, and other kinds of open processes.