Saturday, October 13, 2007

Dias and Riedweg got it right!

Source

A good friend of mine and a fellow artist sent me this quote today. I initially thought she had written if for the project we are working on, then I realized it was by two contemporary artists I had not heard of. These guys are making video installations built around interaction with communities. I hope you find their artist statement as inspiring as I did:



"We consider interaction to be a form of artistic expression. We base our work in the philosophy that art, as a creative experience, has enormous potential as a communication vehicle among people. We work exclusively through interactive processes in which the representation of themes and issues directly involves concerned people or groups. Our work is not necessarily designed as community-oriented projects but as art realized with communities as part of the larger society, delving into the relationship between these communities and society.
More important than knowing or stating is asking. By exposing fragility or even ignorance we have a possibility of establishing contact with groups of people to which we ourselves do not belong....For us, art (especially contemporary art)...is the best tool for achieving communication and establishing interaction between disconnected territories in society. We work mostly with social groups that are left out of the art world; in this, we have a special interest in youth. Thus, we seek to reaffirm art as a necessary experience outside of the political and cultural definitions of society - art as a subversion of culture and politics."

-Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg

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