Against Power

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Fixation, Piotr Pavlenski  Power or against-power what is the role of artists in the contemporary world?  This Russian performer had nailed his testicles on the sidewalk of the Kremlin (the Red Square) to protest against a state which he considers too polices. It is evident that by his shocking acts or even disgusting this artist aims to denounce the society by acts to challenge the viewer.  We have chosen Ai Weiwei and his works of arts because we have studied them in art class and Pavlenski because he began to be publicized.

Click on "lire la suite" to see the video.

Click on "lire la suite" to see the video. 

Click on "lire la suite" to see the video.

Reframe, Ai Weiwei Baptized "Ai Weiwei libero" ("Ai Weiwei free") his exhibition opened on September the 23rd , 2016 and continued until January the 22nd, 2018 in the prestigious Strozzi palace to which he hung lifeboats. He wants to show to people that those who fight for their freedom are the heroes of today and his job is to show them the respect that he has for them. The Chinese artist is in Florence to denounce by his way the calvary of migrants. Beyond the artistic gesture, a denunciation, a political claim. "If I have chosen Florence for this exhibition, it is also because Italy is the country that host better refugees, and it never rejects them as it is the case for other nations. I did not expect such criticism but that's fine, they have to make talk about us," said Ai Weiwei the provocative artist.

Carcass, Piotr Pavlenski In all these acts we see the subject of the impotence of man in the face of power, but especially in this one, which is called the carcass. That is to say, it is wrapped in wire or rather barbed wire. It was rolled up in barbed wire in March 2013. It is a performance to oppose the two laws against the promotion of homosexuality and offenses against religious feeling. Piotr said, "these barbed wire where I wound myself enclosing people in individual pens". The body itself becomes the device for the art of Piotr Pavlenski. The images of nudity and solitude chosen by the artist for his actions play roles of the connectors with the eventual spectator. The body is shown as the symbol of humanity, a physical form associated with the individual and not with society. From this perspective we see that the artist does not address certain groups of society, but it is an individual message for everyone who can feel compatible with this drama played by t...

The problemwe all live with, Norman Rockwell This painting was published in Look magazine in 1964. The painting represents a topical scene in this era: in 1960, Ruby Bridges became the first African-American child to join a white school in Louisiana. Because of the opposition of the whites to integrate the blacks, she needed the protection of the federal marshalls. There are two inscriptions: "Nigger" and another "KKK" which is an abbreviation which means Ku Klux Klan as well as the traces of tomatoes on the wall to show the white hate in front of her. This image shows the difficulty of imposing desegregation on a white man who does not want it and the difficulty for a black child to be integrated by whites into a school. The Civil Rights Movement is primarily a non-violent movement whose goal is to achieve equal political rights for every American citizen. It is symbolized by the iconic figure of Martin Luther King. In November 1960, the United Sta...

So we see that many artists use art as a way of expression in order to give their opinion. In the present case by criticizing society or some of its decisions to show their disagreement. It is easy to notice that no matter the period, in the 20th century with Rockwell or in the 21st century with Ai Weiwei and Pavlenski the artists have always sought to challenge the power. These artists have all given of their person that they live in a dictatorship or a democracy because they have the same goal: to make the spectator react, to push him to question himself but we also see that without the help of the media (by example twitter or the press) some of these artists would still be in the shadows and their efforts would be useless and unknown to the public. So we can ask another question: is their message heard by the viewer?