Partisan social club: ART-STUDY-ACTION

Partisan Social Club: Art-Study-Action represents a body of artworks that are presented in two solo exhibitions, (Beaconsfield Art Gallery and Edinburgh Printmakers) and one group exhibition (Coventry Biennial). A series of methods for study, collaboration and production were developed to produce participatory artworks and events.

Participatory art projects programmed by government funded arts institutions are designed to develop new audiences for art rather than evoke citizen participation as a social function of art practice. Outreach programmes tend to include specific groups rather than recognising people as complex subjects. Another criticism of participatory arts projects is that the authorship of the project can automatically revert to the lead artist overlooking the collaborative aspects of the artwork. So, although participatory art projects constructed by galleries and museums aim to achieve democratic conditions and outcomes, there are limitations to existing practices.

To address these concerns, as well as understand art’s potential for social change, we made artworks that use a framework of care, commoning and collectivizing.

We create temporary public spheres in the art gallery, which use the production of artworks to engage citizens. Membership, shared study, tagging and publishing together are used as new methods for including others in art projects. Through membership we enable the coming together of those with shared interests, creating a temporary institutional framework to debate political issues, leading to the production of creative outputs. Shared study supports skilling, develops ideas and confidence and provides knowledge on agreed topics. ‘Tagging’, allows members to work together to design and produce their own authored public events. These ‘tagged events’ call forth new participants who can become members. Thus, membership of the Partisan Social Club changes with each collaborative event.