Alessandra Saviotti | Liverpool John Moores University (original) (raw)
Papers by Alessandra Saviotti
Art & the Public Sphere
Artworks operating at the intersection of art and education often attempt to challenge dominant e... more Artworks operating at the intersection of art and education often attempt to challenge dominant education systems in suggesting alternative pedagogical models that could function outside the official academic realm, proposing radical changes to the latter. However, the lack of continuity of alternative education models implemented by artists and curators within universities’ art and design departments fails to provide a longer-term change. This article stems from our research on the usological turn, a recent shift from spectatorship to usership according to which artists and curators tend to create art projects which situate themselves as part of a broader usership. Using an autoethnographic approach, we will analyse how the principles of the art group Arte Útil intersects with the undercommons. Hence, we explore how they apply an alternative method, through participatory curriculum planning, as a tool for change within the institution of education.
Art & the Public Sphere, 2017
‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration... more ‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and the Asociación de Arte Útil. The idea arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive created as a principal source of reference and the core of ‘The Museum of Arte Útil’1 beyond the institution, which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking about how to make visible the poten- tiality that the archive – intended as a tool – has. The project is the first attempt to emancipate usership around the Arte Útil archive through a year touring activity programmes such as workshops, discussions and tours hosted by different organiza- tions in various locations in Europe and United States. This interview will reflect on how ‘Broadcasting the archive’ could be considered as a new methodology to under- stand the porosity of Arte Útil – intended as a movement – outside and inside the institutional framework, with a particular reference to the programme we developed at Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), in collaboration with the Avalancha collective, Núria Güell, Rubén Santiago and Valentina Maini. We invited them to revisit the conversations we had during the weekend for this journal.
Arts, 2022
Since its inception in 2013, the Arte Útil archive has become a collective steadily expanding as ... more Since its inception in 2013, the Arte Útil archive has become a collective steadily expanding as a tool for research and a resource for social practitioners. The archive is available for consultation at the website and consists of a growing database of around three hundred case studies that use art as a tool for societal change. It provides artistic strategies, a historical perspective, and a nexus between theory and praxis, besides being a platform to connect artistic projects and “users” from different geographies and contexts. Overall, it has become a nomadic pedagogical device able to trigger the discussion and the analysis of socially engaged art practice, its nature and its context involving not just artists but social agents and communities. As co-curators of the archive and educators, we interrogated ourselves regarding if curating as a social practice could expand the notion of education. Could we embrace the methodology of social practice to curate and generate pedagogical...
Decentralising Political Economies, 2021
One year after the pandemic’s start it became undeniable that human life represents just a small ... more One year after the pandemic’s start it became undeniable that human life represents just a small element in the universe, nevertheless, it brought one of its planets, the Earth, to the tipping point. Understanding and eventually acknowledging that micro-and macrocosm are interconnected and determine whether human beings, animals, plants, and all the other living beings are going to thrive, it has become imperative to think about how to leave bad habits behind and start fresh for a better future.
The realm of the visual arts has always been a fertile ground to elaborate possible scenarios and even feasible utopia (Bruguera 2016, 316) that rethink how we behave. In particular, in 2011 Tania Bruguera proposed to look at socially engaged art practices under the lens of usership (Wright 2013, 66), suggesting that art might be used as a tool to change people’s behaviour aiming at rehearsing and implementing change. This intuition gained traction on an institutional level soon, until a movement named Arte Útil was articulated through an archive which includes case studies from 1827 until today. Those projects use artistic thinking to imagine, create and implement tactics that change how we act within different fields such as politics, education, economy and so on.
This article will analyze some case studies and practices included in the Arte Arte Útil archive, situated right after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which arose from a shared urgency. In particular, it will take into account those examples that challenge the fields within which they operate, such as environmental justice, climate emergency and sustainability. The main aspect that will be discussed is how socially engaged art practices in being extremely porous to the exchange with other disciplines such as science, architecture, law and so on, became a space where to imagine and enact real alternatives to be pursued in collaboration with citizens.
In particular, this text will discuss the intersection between projects, practices and working methodologies that were initiated by artists and art collectives in different regions of the world such as ‘Recetas Urbanas’ by Santiago Cirugueda, WochenKlausur and Ala Plastica.
Arts, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Art & the Public Sphere 6(1):103-116, 2017
‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration... more ‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and the Asociación de Arte Útil. The idea arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive created as a principal source of reference and the core of ‘The Museum of Arte Útil’1 beyond the institution, which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking about how to make visible the potentiality that the archive – intended as a tool – has. The project is the first attempt to emancipate usership around the Arte Útil archive through a year touring activity programmes such as workshops, discussions and tours hosted by different organizations in various locations in Europe and United States. This interview will reflect on how ‘Broadcasting the archive’ could be considered as a new methodology to understand the porosity of Arte Útil – intended as a movement – outside and inside the institutional framework, with a particular reference to the programme we developed at Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), in collaboration with the Avalancha collective, Núria Güell, Rubén Santiago and Valentina Maini. We invited them to revisit the conversations we had during the weekend for this journal.
Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, 2021
The Asociación de Arte Útil operates as a constellation of independent nomadic initiatives using ... more The Asociación de Arte Útil operates as a constellation of independent nomadic initiatives using its website as a platform and a toolkit for users. Since 2014 the Asociación has focused on the dissemination of multiple projects and information related to Arte Útil, and it functioned as a space for research and exchange for its users. As Stephen Wright pointed out, Arte Útil could be the most appropriate artistic response for our network society. Starting from the analysis of the toolkit for institutions and users as different modalities to effect real societal change while operating beyond representation, this text will illustrate how the Asociacion offers an ideal cultural and artistic ground to activate users in order to stand, speak and act. Since 2013 Arte Útil has been circulating inside many institutions in Europe and United States thanks to its initiator, Tania Bruguera, and to its associates. Due to its porosity and the presence of its users in different locations, the Asociación has been developing its program both inside and outside the institutional framework - precisely like a ‘patainstitution’, the Association is committed to pushing the boundaries of artistic research, presentation and education. As such, The Asociación de Arte Útil is continuing to generate its own tools in order to grow and maintain a live and active archive through different approaches: based on cooperation; playing the role of a platform of legitimation and visibility; fostering analysis; opening up a flexible space and opportunities for research and, above all, using a sort of 'holistic approach' to build new forms of constituent usership. In collaboration with art institutions and universities the Asociación is currently co-producing an alternative curriculum as a model for institutional growth and sustainability: as a way to increase the knowledge around practices of usership and Arte Útil whilst, at the same time, encouraging the generation, application and activation of new strategies-projects that could be added to the archive. Over the next months the Asociación will begin to develop and to put into test its alternative constituent pedagogies as a model, through a class at the San Francisco Art Institute, an Arte Útil school at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, an art lab and a summer school at the John Moore University in Liverpool. This article is composed by a polyphony of short texts analysing different approaches and uses of the Asociación as a ‘patainstitutional’ organization aiming at generating knowledge and disseminating it.
Buchaca Generosa - ED.08, Jul 20, 2020
En el 2018, Gemma Medina Estupiñán y Alessandra Saviotti, de la Asociación de Arte Útil, conversa... more En el 2018, Gemma Medina Estupiñán y Alessandra Saviotti, de la Asociación de Arte Útil, conversaron con la co-dirección de TEOR/éTica sobre el modelo grupal de dirección bajo el cual la Fundación opera desde ese año. Más que caracterizar la naturaleza de la co-dirección, esta conversación habla del proceso, de las preguntas que suelen surgir en el camino y de los distintos escenarios que un cambio en el modelo de gestión de un espacio de arte suele traer consigo. Ambos espacios, además, se refieren al papel que sus archivos y colecciones juegan en el ejercicio de vincular el pasado, el presente y el futuro de sus proyectos y poner en diálogo todos estos tiempos para imaginar las posibilidades que una organización tiene o puede llegar a tener desde su contexto.
Roots&Routes, Research on visual cultures, 2020
Since 2013 the Arte Útil archive has functioned as an activator for conversations, workshops, exh... more Since 2013 the Arte Útil archive has functioned as an activator for conversations, workshops, exhibitions and projects carried on around the world, questioning the idea of art as a tool to be used in everyday life.
Following its conception, the Arte Útil archive has been playing with the modernist idea of naming a movement (Bruguera, 2015) in order to be legitimized into the art world, advocating for the recognition of a certain kind of practices that would never be considered as being part of the canon, for example socially engaged art.
Útil and Arte in the same sentence sounded like a deep contradiction to many, even an anathema to some. However, thanks to the commitment of the members of the Asociación de Arte Útil, such as curators, directors of museums and independent institutions, students, academics and activists, the principles of Arte Útil as well as its archive, gained traction at institutional level triggering in some cases a new vision for the so-called Museum 3.0 (Wright, 2014) derived from usership (MIMA, 2015).
Archiving the “not-yet” (van Heeswijk, 2016), as these practices suggest, seems to carry a burden that is necessary to share. Therefore, the selection process behind the inclusion of case studies was shared with a plethora of institutions and their networks to build an open committee which is in charge of researching, suggesting and archiving case studies.
As a result of this collective process, in 2015 the Asociación de Arte Útil was founded, seeking to promote and implement Arte Útil as a practice, mainly through its archive.
The preservation of an artist’s archive is also one of the research lines of TEOR/éTica, a non-profit, independent and private art organization founded in 1999 in San José, Costa Rica, by artist, curator and researcher Virginia Pérez-Ratton (1950-2010), in collaboration with artists, academics and cultural agents from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since January 2018, TEOR/éTica has been collectively directed by Miguel A. López, M. Paola Malavasi Lachner, Daniela Morales Lisac, Paula Piedra and Dominique Ratton Pérez [1], who, through a collective and horizontal directorship, have been rethinking their institutional model moving toward a shared way of approaching cultural management and the development of artistic practices.
We met the team in the cloud in May 2018, only 5 months since the beginning of the process of collectivization. We discussed how starting from an archival practice, intended as the way to preserve history as well as creating a new one, could influence “instituting otherwise”.
Arte Útil , 2017
As part of the program 'Broadcasting the Archive' curated by Gemma Medina and Alessandra Saviotti... more As part of the program 'Broadcasting the Archive' curated by Gemma Medina and Alessandra Saviotti at mima, Middlesbrough (25-28 October 2016), Adelita Husni-Bey was invited to answer some questions related to the 'Convention on the Use of Space'.
Art & the Public Sphere, 2017
‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration... more ‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and the Asociación de Arte Útil. The idea arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive created as a principal source of reference and the core of ‘The Museum of Arte Útil’1 beyond the institution, which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking about how to make visible the poten- tiality that the archive – intended as a tool – has. The project is the first attempt to emancipate usership around the Arte Útil archive through a year touring activity programmes such as workshops, discussions and tours hosted by different organiza- tions in various locations in Europe and United States. This interview will reflect on how ‘Broadcasting the archive’ could be considered as a new methodology to under- stand the porosity of Arte Útil – intended as a movement – outside and inside the institutional framework, with a particular reference to the programme we developed at Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), in collaboration with the Avalancha collective, Núria Güell, Rubén Santiago and Valentina Maini. We invited them to revisit the conversations we had during the weekend for this journal.
roots§routes, 2017
After closing the doors of The Museum of Arte Útil at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, we felt th... more After closing the doors of The Museum of Arte Útil at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, we felt the need to expand the effect and affects that the archive had produced in those who used it during the exhibition. We wanted to keep alive all that energy, inspiration and empowerment, the sense of the call to action, and the momentum. For this reason we conceived Broadcasting the archive, as an independent project aiming at fostering and emancipating the use of the Arte Útil archive through a year touring program of activities and actions. To do so, we invited different institutions and organisations in Europe and United States to shape the program with us. We thought about activating an experimental and organic program nurtured by collaborations and partnerships, that could extend and implement the potential of the archive and the Arte Util practice-intended as a movement-as a tool. It became an excuse for us in order to expanding the research around artivism and social practices. The primary methodological line was to use selected case studies to arise the discussion and to stimulate connections between practitioners, constituencies and institutions around local urgencies and fundamental issues. Each chapter was different, responding to a particular context, taking into account the organisation and participants. It evolved organically, developing a methodology with a dialogical approach based on collaboration. After finishing the program, we would like to consider the participation in relation with Broadcasting the archive and Arte Util. We would be keen to rethink the implications of participation: the idea of co-authorship as theorised by Roland Barthes; the scale of real engagement; and the reasons for involving local communities and practitioners in the space of the extraterritorial reciprocity[1]. It is fundamental to underline the importance of the circumstances and the 'local knowledge' in bolster any project, action or a general socially engaged practice. Artists and Arte Útil practitioners are opening the possibility for collaboration and participation, transforming the idea of 'space' in 'time' of cooperation and intervention.
Temporary Art Review, 2016
Broadcasting the Archive is a project that arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archiv... more Broadcasting the Archive is a project that arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive, a project initiated by Tania Bruguera, beyond the institution which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking how to make visible the incredible potentiality that the archive (intended as a tool) has. Therefore, our desire is to re-activate and mediate the archive in different geographical, cultural and social contexts in order to test the effectiveness of the strategies we have been investigating so far.
Last September we started with some workshops and informal discussions, which led us to a more structured series of activities we proposed in Liverpool, UK – in collaboration with the Office of Useful Art and in St. Louis, US – in collaboration with The Luminary.
In both cases we spent some time meeting local constituencies, artists, curators, writers, urban planners and users, digging into the history of these places and tried to understand if a common ground could be identified between the two communities.
Visible Project, 2015
Alessandra Saviotti wrote a report on the #OnPedagogy program in Brussels, in which she tries to ... more Alessandra Saviotti wrote a report on the #OnPedagogy program in Brussels, in which she tries to highlight the common threads among the several contributions that have animated the public debate hosted by Visible project space.
Kitchen Blog , 2014
When in 2010 Charles Esche, Van Abbemuseum’s director, decided to invite Tania Bruguera for a per... more When in 2010 Charles Esche, Van Abbemuseum’s director, decided to invite Tania Bruguera for a personal exhibition, she came up with 29 different proposals. The event suggests some interesting clues
about Bruguera’s personality, either an artivist – as she calls herself – or a performer or again a political artist. However the final idea didn’t need so much time to emerge and in a short time the museum’s curators, Annie Fletcher and Nick Aikens together with the researchers based in the museum, decided to embrace her proposal which was the transformation of the traditional museum in the Museum of Arte Útil.
Exibart, 2014
Alessandra Saviotti racconta per Exibart la sua esperienza di lavoro con Tania Bruguera: «è tempo... more Alessandra Saviotti racconta per Exibart la sua esperienza di lavoro con Tania Bruguera: «è tempo di ricollocare l’orinatoio di Duchamp al suo posto, nel bagno», afferma, tanto per mettere le cose in chiaro.
Books by Alessandra Saviotti
Broadcasting the archive: the publication, 2019
'Broadcasting the archive - The publication' is a book that documents the series of workshops, ci... more 'Broadcasting the archive - The publication' is a book that documents the series of workshops, city tours, activities, and conversations as part of the 3 years project 'Broadcasting the archive' (2015-2018), curated by Gemma Medina Estupinan and Alessandra Saviotti in collaboration with museums, activist groups, artists, theorists, designers and students across Europe and United States. The book is conceived not only as a documentation of the process but also as a tool, where readers will find more questions than answers. Every iteration of 'Broadcasting the archive' has a dedicated chapter that functions independently from the others. It gathers the description of the activity, its participants, archive cards used during the workshops, images, essays and interviews.
Thesis Chapters by Alessandra Saviotti
Doctoral Thesis, 2023
This thesis examines the principles of Arte Útil and their application in art education to formu... more This thesis examines the principles of Arte Útil and their application in art education to formulate a new methodology for the composition of the curriculum as a tool for change in both museums and universities. I contend that, previous attempts to apply a change in curriculum planning that emerged in the context of socially engaged art avoided outlining a methodology to be employed in educational institutions. Therefore, this thesis’ overarching aim is to demonstrate how Arte Útil, in applying both art-based methods in tandem with educational methodologies - proposed by socially engaged art, feminist-engaged pedagogy and the undercommons – for the conception of the curriculum furthers institutional change on many levels. What emerged from applying a qualitative method during action research and from the case studies analysed for this thesis, is that artists often infiltrate the institution of education through their artworks. The institution typically welcomes their intervention as if it was ‘just’ art when, in fact, the implementation of curriculum changes. Hence, I argue how unconventional education models, framed as Arte Útil, could be successfully implemented within schools, universities and museums. The result is the development of long-term pedagogic sustainability through processes of participatory institutional hacking. Undertaken with multiple cohorts of students and communities of practice, this thesis situates across museum studies and education. It concludes in the production of a curriculum-as-a-toolkit – such as Hacking (Art) Education, available as a website - that includes a series of resources in the form of syllabi, scores for workshops, and exercises, a glossary and a timeline that can be used to infiltrate schools, universities, and museums through the application of the principles of Arte Útil that constitute a new educational methodology.
Art & the Public Sphere
Artworks operating at the intersection of art and education often attempt to challenge dominant e... more Artworks operating at the intersection of art and education often attempt to challenge dominant education systems in suggesting alternative pedagogical models that could function outside the official academic realm, proposing radical changes to the latter. However, the lack of continuity of alternative education models implemented by artists and curators within universities’ art and design departments fails to provide a longer-term change. This article stems from our research on the usological turn, a recent shift from spectatorship to usership according to which artists and curators tend to create art projects which situate themselves as part of a broader usership. Using an autoethnographic approach, we will analyse how the principles of the art group Arte Útil intersects with the undercommons. Hence, we explore how they apply an alternative method, through participatory curriculum planning, as a tool for change within the institution of education.
Art & the Public Sphere, 2017
‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration... more ‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and the Asociación de Arte Útil. The idea arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive created as a principal source of reference and the core of ‘The Museum of Arte Útil’1 beyond the institution, which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking about how to make visible the poten- tiality that the archive – intended as a tool – has. The project is the first attempt to emancipate usership around the Arte Útil archive through a year touring activity programmes such as workshops, discussions and tours hosted by different organiza- tions in various locations in Europe and United States. This interview will reflect on how ‘Broadcasting the archive’ could be considered as a new methodology to under- stand the porosity of Arte Útil – intended as a movement – outside and inside the institutional framework, with a particular reference to the programme we developed at Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), in collaboration with the Avalancha collective, Núria Güell, Rubén Santiago and Valentina Maini. We invited them to revisit the conversations we had during the weekend for this journal.
Arts, 2022
Since its inception in 2013, the Arte Útil archive has become a collective steadily expanding as ... more Since its inception in 2013, the Arte Útil archive has become a collective steadily expanding as a tool for research and a resource for social practitioners. The archive is available for consultation at the website and consists of a growing database of around three hundred case studies that use art as a tool for societal change. It provides artistic strategies, a historical perspective, and a nexus between theory and praxis, besides being a platform to connect artistic projects and “users” from different geographies and contexts. Overall, it has become a nomadic pedagogical device able to trigger the discussion and the analysis of socially engaged art practice, its nature and its context involving not just artists but social agents and communities. As co-curators of the archive and educators, we interrogated ourselves regarding if curating as a social practice could expand the notion of education. Could we embrace the methodology of social practice to curate and generate pedagogical...
Decentralising Political Economies, 2021
One year after the pandemic’s start it became undeniable that human life represents just a small ... more One year after the pandemic’s start it became undeniable that human life represents just a small element in the universe, nevertheless, it brought one of its planets, the Earth, to the tipping point. Understanding and eventually acknowledging that micro-and macrocosm are interconnected and determine whether human beings, animals, plants, and all the other living beings are going to thrive, it has become imperative to think about how to leave bad habits behind and start fresh for a better future.
The realm of the visual arts has always been a fertile ground to elaborate possible scenarios and even feasible utopia (Bruguera 2016, 316) that rethink how we behave. In particular, in 2011 Tania Bruguera proposed to look at socially engaged art practices under the lens of usership (Wright 2013, 66), suggesting that art might be used as a tool to change people’s behaviour aiming at rehearsing and implementing change. This intuition gained traction on an institutional level soon, until a movement named Arte Útil was articulated through an archive which includes case studies from 1827 until today. Those projects use artistic thinking to imagine, create and implement tactics that change how we act within different fields such as politics, education, economy and so on.
This article will analyze some case studies and practices included in the Arte Arte Útil archive, situated right after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which arose from a shared urgency. In particular, it will take into account those examples that challenge the fields within which they operate, such as environmental justice, climate emergency and sustainability. The main aspect that will be discussed is how socially engaged art practices in being extremely porous to the exchange with other disciplines such as science, architecture, law and so on, became a space where to imagine and enact real alternatives to be pursued in collaboration with citizens.
In particular, this text will discuss the intersection between projects, practices and working methodologies that were initiated by artists and art collectives in different regions of the world such as ‘Recetas Urbanas’ by Santiago Cirugueda, WochenKlausur and Ala Plastica.
Arts, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Art & the Public Sphere 6(1):103-116, 2017
‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration... more ‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and the Asociación de Arte Útil. The idea arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive created as a principal source of reference and the core of ‘The Museum of Arte Útil’1 beyond the institution, which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking about how to make visible the potentiality that the archive – intended as a tool – has. The project is the first attempt to emancipate usership around the Arte Útil archive through a year touring activity programmes such as workshops, discussions and tours hosted by different organizations in various locations in Europe and United States. This interview will reflect on how ‘Broadcasting the archive’ could be considered as a new methodology to understand the porosity of Arte Útil – intended as a movement – outside and inside the institutional framework, with a particular reference to the programme we developed at Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), in collaboration with the Avalancha collective, Núria Güell, Rubén Santiago and Valentina Maini. We invited them to revisit the conversations we had during the weekend for this journal.
Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, 2021
The Asociación de Arte Útil operates as a constellation of independent nomadic initiatives using ... more The Asociación de Arte Útil operates as a constellation of independent nomadic initiatives using its website as a platform and a toolkit for users. Since 2014 the Asociación has focused on the dissemination of multiple projects and information related to Arte Útil, and it functioned as a space for research and exchange for its users. As Stephen Wright pointed out, Arte Útil could be the most appropriate artistic response for our network society. Starting from the analysis of the toolkit for institutions and users as different modalities to effect real societal change while operating beyond representation, this text will illustrate how the Asociacion offers an ideal cultural and artistic ground to activate users in order to stand, speak and act. Since 2013 Arte Útil has been circulating inside many institutions in Europe and United States thanks to its initiator, Tania Bruguera, and to its associates. Due to its porosity and the presence of its users in different locations, the Asociación has been developing its program both inside and outside the institutional framework - precisely like a ‘patainstitution’, the Association is committed to pushing the boundaries of artistic research, presentation and education. As such, The Asociación de Arte Útil is continuing to generate its own tools in order to grow and maintain a live and active archive through different approaches: based on cooperation; playing the role of a platform of legitimation and visibility; fostering analysis; opening up a flexible space and opportunities for research and, above all, using a sort of 'holistic approach' to build new forms of constituent usership. In collaboration with art institutions and universities the Asociación is currently co-producing an alternative curriculum as a model for institutional growth and sustainability: as a way to increase the knowledge around practices of usership and Arte Útil whilst, at the same time, encouraging the generation, application and activation of new strategies-projects that could be added to the archive. Over the next months the Asociación will begin to develop and to put into test its alternative constituent pedagogies as a model, through a class at the San Francisco Art Institute, an Arte Útil school at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, an art lab and a summer school at the John Moore University in Liverpool. This article is composed by a polyphony of short texts analysing different approaches and uses of the Asociación as a ‘patainstitutional’ organization aiming at generating knowledge and disseminating it.
Buchaca Generosa - ED.08, Jul 20, 2020
En el 2018, Gemma Medina Estupiñán y Alessandra Saviotti, de la Asociación de Arte Útil, conversa... more En el 2018, Gemma Medina Estupiñán y Alessandra Saviotti, de la Asociación de Arte Útil, conversaron con la co-dirección de TEOR/éTica sobre el modelo grupal de dirección bajo el cual la Fundación opera desde ese año. Más que caracterizar la naturaleza de la co-dirección, esta conversación habla del proceso, de las preguntas que suelen surgir en el camino y de los distintos escenarios que un cambio en el modelo de gestión de un espacio de arte suele traer consigo. Ambos espacios, además, se refieren al papel que sus archivos y colecciones juegan en el ejercicio de vincular el pasado, el presente y el futuro de sus proyectos y poner en diálogo todos estos tiempos para imaginar las posibilidades que una organización tiene o puede llegar a tener desde su contexto.
Roots&Routes, Research on visual cultures, 2020
Since 2013 the Arte Útil archive has functioned as an activator for conversations, workshops, exh... more Since 2013 the Arte Útil archive has functioned as an activator for conversations, workshops, exhibitions and projects carried on around the world, questioning the idea of art as a tool to be used in everyday life.
Following its conception, the Arte Útil archive has been playing with the modernist idea of naming a movement (Bruguera, 2015) in order to be legitimized into the art world, advocating for the recognition of a certain kind of practices that would never be considered as being part of the canon, for example socially engaged art.
Útil and Arte in the same sentence sounded like a deep contradiction to many, even an anathema to some. However, thanks to the commitment of the members of the Asociación de Arte Útil, such as curators, directors of museums and independent institutions, students, academics and activists, the principles of Arte Útil as well as its archive, gained traction at institutional level triggering in some cases a new vision for the so-called Museum 3.0 (Wright, 2014) derived from usership (MIMA, 2015).
Archiving the “not-yet” (van Heeswijk, 2016), as these practices suggest, seems to carry a burden that is necessary to share. Therefore, the selection process behind the inclusion of case studies was shared with a plethora of institutions and their networks to build an open committee which is in charge of researching, suggesting and archiving case studies.
As a result of this collective process, in 2015 the Asociación de Arte Útil was founded, seeking to promote and implement Arte Útil as a practice, mainly through its archive.
The preservation of an artist’s archive is also one of the research lines of TEOR/éTica, a non-profit, independent and private art organization founded in 1999 in San José, Costa Rica, by artist, curator and researcher Virginia Pérez-Ratton (1950-2010), in collaboration with artists, academics and cultural agents from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since January 2018, TEOR/éTica has been collectively directed by Miguel A. López, M. Paola Malavasi Lachner, Daniela Morales Lisac, Paula Piedra and Dominique Ratton Pérez [1], who, through a collective and horizontal directorship, have been rethinking their institutional model moving toward a shared way of approaching cultural management and the development of artistic practices.
We met the team in the cloud in May 2018, only 5 months since the beginning of the process of collectivization. We discussed how starting from an archival practice, intended as the way to preserve history as well as creating a new one, could influence “instituting otherwise”.
Arte Útil , 2017
As part of the program 'Broadcasting the Archive' curated by Gemma Medina and Alessandra Saviotti... more As part of the program 'Broadcasting the Archive' curated by Gemma Medina and Alessandra Saviotti at mima, Middlesbrough (25-28 October 2016), Adelita Husni-Bey was invited to answer some questions related to the 'Convention on the Use of Space'.
Art & the Public Sphere, 2017
‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration... more ‘Broadcasting the archive’ is an independent project conceived and curated by us in collaboration with Van Abbemuseum, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) and the Asociación de Arte Útil. The idea arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive created as a principal source of reference and the core of ‘The Museum of Arte Útil’1 beyond the institution, which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking about how to make visible the poten- tiality that the archive – intended as a tool – has. The project is the first attempt to emancipate usership around the Arte Útil archive through a year touring activity programmes such as workshops, discussions and tours hosted by different organiza- tions in various locations in Europe and United States. This interview will reflect on how ‘Broadcasting the archive’ could be considered as a new methodology to under- stand the porosity of Arte Útil – intended as a movement – outside and inside the institutional framework, with a particular reference to the programme we developed at Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), in collaboration with the Avalancha collective, Núria Güell, Rubén Santiago and Valentina Maini. We invited them to revisit the conversations we had during the weekend for this journal.
roots§routes, 2017
After closing the doors of The Museum of Arte Útil at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, we felt th... more After closing the doors of The Museum of Arte Útil at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, we felt the need to expand the effect and affects that the archive had produced in those who used it during the exhibition. We wanted to keep alive all that energy, inspiration and empowerment, the sense of the call to action, and the momentum. For this reason we conceived Broadcasting the archive, as an independent project aiming at fostering and emancipating the use of the Arte Útil archive through a year touring program of activities and actions. To do so, we invited different institutions and organisations in Europe and United States to shape the program with us. We thought about activating an experimental and organic program nurtured by collaborations and partnerships, that could extend and implement the potential of the archive and the Arte Util practice-intended as a movement-as a tool. It became an excuse for us in order to expanding the research around artivism and social practices. The primary methodological line was to use selected case studies to arise the discussion and to stimulate connections between practitioners, constituencies and institutions around local urgencies and fundamental issues. Each chapter was different, responding to a particular context, taking into account the organisation and participants. It evolved organically, developing a methodology with a dialogical approach based on collaboration. After finishing the program, we would like to consider the participation in relation with Broadcasting the archive and Arte Util. We would be keen to rethink the implications of participation: the idea of co-authorship as theorised by Roland Barthes; the scale of real engagement; and the reasons for involving local communities and practitioners in the space of the extraterritorial reciprocity[1]. It is fundamental to underline the importance of the circumstances and the 'local knowledge' in bolster any project, action or a general socially engaged practice. Artists and Arte Útil practitioners are opening the possibility for collaboration and participation, transforming the idea of 'space' in 'time' of cooperation and intervention.
Temporary Art Review, 2016
Broadcasting the Archive is a project that arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archiv... more Broadcasting the Archive is a project that arose from the urgency to spread the Arte Útil archive, a project initiated by Tania Bruguera, beyond the institution which hosts the material. Being the initial archive researchers, we started thinking how to make visible the incredible potentiality that the archive (intended as a tool) has. Therefore, our desire is to re-activate and mediate the archive in different geographical, cultural and social contexts in order to test the effectiveness of the strategies we have been investigating so far.
Last September we started with some workshops and informal discussions, which led us to a more structured series of activities we proposed in Liverpool, UK – in collaboration with the Office of Useful Art and in St. Louis, US – in collaboration with The Luminary.
In both cases we spent some time meeting local constituencies, artists, curators, writers, urban planners and users, digging into the history of these places and tried to understand if a common ground could be identified between the two communities.
Visible Project, 2015
Alessandra Saviotti wrote a report on the #OnPedagogy program in Brussels, in which she tries to ... more Alessandra Saviotti wrote a report on the #OnPedagogy program in Brussels, in which she tries to highlight the common threads among the several contributions that have animated the public debate hosted by Visible project space.
Kitchen Blog , 2014
When in 2010 Charles Esche, Van Abbemuseum’s director, decided to invite Tania Bruguera for a per... more When in 2010 Charles Esche, Van Abbemuseum’s director, decided to invite Tania Bruguera for a personal exhibition, she came up with 29 different proposals. The event suggests some interesting clues
about Bruguera’s personality, either an artivist – as she calls herself – or a performer or again a political artist. However the final idea didn’t need so much time to emerge and in a short time the museum’s curators, Annie Fletcher and Nick Aikens together with the researchers based in the museum, decided to embrace her proposal which was the transformation of the traditional museum in the Museum of Arte Útil.
Exibart, 2014
Alessandra Saviotti racconta per Exibart la sua esperienza di lavoro con Tania Bruguera: «è tempo... more Alessandra Saviotti racconta per Exibart la sua esperienza di lavoro con Tania Bruguera: «è tempo di ricollocare l’orinatoio di Duchamp al suo posto, nel bagno», afferma, tanto per mettere le cose in chiaro.
Broadcasting the archive: the publication, 2019
'Broadcasting the archive - The publication' is a book that documents the series of workshops, ci... more 'Broadcasting the archive - The publication' is a book that documents the series of workshops, city tours, activities, and conversations as part of the 3 years project 'Broadcasting the archive' (2015-2018), curated by Gemma Medina Estupinan and Alessandra Saviotti in collaboration with museums, activist groups, artists, theorists, designers and students across Europe and United States. The book is conceived not only as a documentation of the process but also as a tool, where readers will find more questions than answers. Every iteration of 'Broadcasting the archive' has a dedicated chapter that functions independently from the others. It gathers the description of the activity, its participants, archive cards used during the workshops, images, essays and interviews.
Doctoral Thesis, 2023
This thesis examines the principles of Arte Útil and their application in art education to formu... more This thesis examines the principles of Arte Útil and their application in art education to formulate a new methodology for the composition of the curriculum as a tool for change in both museums and universities. I contend that, previous attempts to apply a change in curriculum planning that emerged in the context of socially engaged art avoided outlining a methodology to be employed in educational institutions. Therefore, this thesis’ overarching aim is to demonstrate how Arte Útil, in applying both art-based methods in tandem with educational methodologies - proposed by socially engaged art, feminist-engaged pedagogy and the undercommons – for the conception of the curriculum furthers institutional change on many levels. What emerged from applying a qualitative method during action research and from the case studies analysed for this thesis, is that artists often infiltrate the institution of education through their artworks. The institution typically welcomes their intervention as if it was ‘just’ art when, in fact, the implementation of curriculum changes. Hence, I argue how unconventional education models, framed as Arte Útil, could be successfully implemented within schools, universities and museums. The result is the development of long-term pedagogic sustainability through processes of participatory institutional hacking. Undertaken with multiple cohorts of students and communities of practice, this thesis situates across museum studies and education. It concludes in the production of a curriculum-as-a-toolkit – such as Hacking (Art) Education, available as a website - that includes a series of resources in the form of syllabi, scores for workshops, and exercises, a glossary and a timeline that can be used to infiltrate schools, universities, and museums through the application of the principles of Arte Útil that constitute a new educational methodology.