191 pages Text(s) by Stéphanie Lemoine and Samira Ouardi Designed by Quartopiano, Paris 28 x 22 cm Language: French Paperback or Hardback Publisher: Éditions Alternatives 2010
Altered billboards, street interventions, performances, collective celebrations and online disruptions populate this illustrated survey of art as political action. Stéphanie Lemoine and Samira Ouardi examine practices that use humour, spectacle and participation to challenge commercial imagery, institutional authority and the organisation of public space. Squats, temporary autonomous zones and digital networks emerge as places where artistic experimentation meets everyday resistance.
Examples range from Banksy and JR to Critical Art Ensemble, the Billboard Liberation Front and the Yes Men. Performances by Steven Cohen and Oreet Ashery, Reverend Billy’s theatrical preaching and the interventions of pie-throwing activists reveal different ways of turning protest into an imaginative act. Photographs, documents and commentary connect these varied approaches, exploring how artists and collectives enlist play, disruption and shared experience in cultural struggle.
