Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Ben Kinmont Bookseller (essay)



"In the text Towards a Definition of Project Art one can possibly locate where Kinmont’s aesthetic-ethical concerns line-up specifically with contemporary critical discourse about the social practices of art. Pablo Helguera proposes in his lecture/book, Education for Socially Engaged Art, that one of the central questions for the socially engaged artist is whether (and why) they should venture into the complex disciplines of education, anthropology, and social service. In Kinmont’s work, art can model the kinds of practices and behaviors that one would otherwise want from a larger sociopolitical and economic sphere. Art can also present a kind of micro-politics—a space where aesthetic decisions can undergird and affirm political or social ones."

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