Mobilizing Pedagogy: Two Social Practice Projects in the Americas by Pablo Helguera with Suzanne Lacy and Pilar Riaño-Alcalá

2018·34.4 MB·English

by  Elyse A. Gonzalez and Sara Reisman

MOBILIZING
TWO SOCIAL
PRACTICE
PROJECTS IN THE
AMERICAS
BY PABLO HELGUERA
AND SUZANNE LACY
WITH PILAR RIAÑO-ALCALÁ

EDITED BY
ELYSE A. GONZALES AND
SARA REISMAN
A
PEDAGOGY:
B
MOBILIZING
TWO SOCIAL
PRACTICE
PROJECTS IN THE
AMERICAS
BY PABLO HELGUERA
AND SUZANNE LACY
WITH PILAR RIAÑO-ALCALÁ

EDITED BY
ELYSE A. GONZALES AND
SARA REISMAN
01
PEDAGOGY:
amherst college press
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PR MS
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The editors acknowledge with gratitude the support of the Shelley and
Donald Rubin Foundation and the Art, Design & Architecture Museum of
the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Creative Direction & Graphic Design by Oliver Dickson.
ISBN 978-1-943208-12-8 paperback
ISBN 978-1-943208-13-5 electronic book
02
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018950898
INTRODUCTION 04
S
by Elyse A. Gonzales and Sara Reisman
T THE SCHOOLHOUSE AND THE BUS 06
by Elyse A. Gonzales
N
THE SCHOOL OF PANAMERICAN UNREST 16
E Project Description by Holly Gore
DOCUMENTATION: THE SCHOOL OF PANAMERICAN 18
T
UNREST (2006)
N
JOURNEY NOTES OF PANAMERICA: 25
O THE SOCIAL PRACTICES OF ART
A conversation between artist Pablo Helguera
C
and Adetty Pérez de Miles
DOCUMENTATION: THE SCHOOL OF PANAMERICAN 34
UNREST (2006) CONTINUED
OBJECT LESSONS: THE ROLE OF MATERIAL  42
CULTURE IN SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART
by Sara Reisman
SKIN OF MEMORY 48
Project Description by Holly Gore
DOCUMENTATION: SKIN OF MEMORY (1999) 50
DOCUMENTATION: SKIN OF MEMORY (2011) 62
RELATIONSHIPS, MATERIALITY, AND POLITICS IN THE 68
SKIN OF MEMORY
A conversation between Suzanne Lacy
and anthropologist Pilar Riaño-Alcalá
PEDAGOGICAL PUBLICS 74
by Shannon Jackson
DOCUMENTATION: THE SCHOOLHOUSE AND THE BUS, 78
AD&A MUSEUM (2017)
ON SOCIAL PRACTICE 82
A conversation between Suzanne Lacy
03
and Pablo Helguera
DOCUMENTATION: THE SCHOOLHOUSE AND THE BUS, 88
THE 8TH FLOOR (2018)
BIOGRAPHIES 91
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 94
MAP 96
INTRODUCTION
BY ELYSE A. GONZALES
AND SARA REISMAN
0044
Mobilizing Pedagogy: Two Social Practice Projects in the Americas by
Pablo Helguera and Suzanne Lacy with Pilar Riaño-Alcalá is the result
of conversations about the nature of art’s role in society. Related to
this publication is an exhibition, The Schoolhouse and the Bus: Mobility,
Pedagogy and Engagement, which highlighted two projects by the
artists that serve as the basis for this book. Though our audiences
and settings are incredibly different— with one at a university in Santa
Barbara, a regional seaside city, and the other in New York City, a major
urban art center— both of our institutions are focused on the belief
that art and artists can transform individuals and communities. These
transformations may not always be immediately visible, but we regard
artists as having the potential to be catalysts for change, especially
through dialogue that fosters mutual understanding. Our audiences, with
their vantage points from the east and west coasts, largely comprised
of students, faculty, activists, practicing artists, and other cultural
producers, are eager to understand the means and methods of utilizing
art to affect change in these particularly unstable and challenging times.
Focusing on the work of two social practice artists was a
natural outgrowth of our conversations, considering the field’s emphasis
on engagement, with a goal of affecting positive outcomes in relation
to social and political concerns. The more we talked and listened, the
more we understood the book and exhibition as an opportunity for
broader audiences to experience the work of important artists in this
genre. Suzanne Lacy and Pablo Helguera represent two generations
of socially engaged artists who have also built their careers and work
on pedagogical engagement. Their transcribed exchange “On Social
Practice: A conversation between Suzanne Lacy and Pablo Helguera,”
serves as a terrific record of the artists’ overlapping concerns and guiding
principles.
The works we have chosen to highlight are seminal for not
only Helguera and Lacy as artists, but also the field itself. Helguera’s The
School of Panamerican Unrest (2006) and Suzanne Lacy/Pilar Riaño-
Alcalá’s Skin of Memory (1999–2017) are focused on local conditions,
from the broad perspective of twenty-nine communities in the
Americas to a single neighborhood in Medellín, Colombia, respectively.
Additionally, linked by their mutual emphasis on mobility, both artists
are attendant to the ways in which geographic location informs the
possibilities of social and political transformation—a concept addressed
in essays by Elyse A. Gonzales and by Shannon Jackson, UC Berkeley
professor and a leading thinker in social practice. Another incentive
in organizing this exhibition and publication was the opportunity to
delve into questions and concerns that revolve around exhibiting
social practice works, which are made for a specific time and
place. Sara Reisman’s essay unpacks the complex nature of
0055
representing these live, audience-based works through the
objects that remain and the projects’ more ephemeral, lasting
impacts.
We see Mobilizing Pedagogy not only as an essential record
of these artists’ projects and contributions to the field, but also as a lens
through which readers can examine the issues raised therein. Just as
importantly, we see the relational and experiential nature of these works
as a means of highlighting the essential aspects of social practice, an art
form that is increasingly bridging the divide between art and activism.
THE SCHOOLHOUSE
AND THE BUS
BY ELYSE A. GONZALES
0066
Suzanne Lacy and Pablo Helguera are Genre Public Art (1995), the most well known
social practice artists, representing two of her books, was the first definitive collection
5). ook generations, who have helped shape the of essays devoted to explaining the field with
9b
19nd field through their influential writings, her own selections, as well as those by other
s, Ha
ess teaching, and artworks. Over the past two artists and curators.1
y Prque decades, many contemporary artists have Helguera (b. 1971, Mexico City)
ani
e: Bech increasingly sought a way for art to foment represents the next generation of social
(Seattlblic ArtMaterials and T lteeaonmr ggspoaehcrg aiseasodl icps—i reoaatncar ttpli ,cc ewherf—ahonicragmhles aio.s nT knchnoeiost,a whabacnltse ai v gfsiosi vsrme oitnc,s iar ainslldey pmiFnro eadrtci aththloiocedge slu,a eaos nfwt dptitw uhhbe iLslni acwtc yeoy ny’rskeg s aahergmases ihm neeave loh nslattvr seta hdtmea ugats idaeinerseg.
PuA
nre Art: often non-object-centered art making. This work that addresses a range of subjects
Ged field is reliant on audience participation including anthropology, museums, pedagogy,
w ge
ea generated through time-based events sociolinguistics, ethnography, memory,
ain: Ny Eng011). such as performances, conversations, and and the absurd. Helguera, like Lacy, has
ping the Terron for SociallBooks Inc., 2 wfbuyor ttrkhhseehr f oiadpcestn. tLthiafiacaty bt’shle ea ayn sdr e sHsopecloiganuldley r teaon’s cg wualogtruekrdsa laa rret conofu snmoterciribaoulu tpser aadrc tetixicctleees:n isonin va etdhldyei tt sioou ntbh jteeoc dpt iuosbfc lsoisouhcriisnaegl
apatio and political concerns, promoting the practice, his book Education for Socially
uzanne Lacy, ed., Mablo Helguera, EducNew York: Jorge Pint fTecwoomhorme rptkihrmo tepwou ac enbiorriietmmni egcmes ainn.tu t Iatnn haly isitnssih deteoss xt r horitnai,fb tnpwihtsoiheofsonyici t riihmisnv tbteaeha tcnesihdoeya dnfwn o ooogrnf ret kah . e ir eoEHtesfnax tsgnato adbwcgbliiiestoahhdol ie pknAd r (rta 2tahc:0n eAtd 1ifi c1 Mlee)al ,adib dEt.e e 2doc rWuuaiactml hasthie tlaeie oan Lnnndaa fTiocsnecyrfl ce’Ssuhn eobntnc oitqtioeaiuarklrel lyi st o ry
SP(
number of connections and intersections Engaged Art is the first social practice primer
between their respective practices. to offer practical advice for making socially
12
Lacy and Helguera have taught engaged art that is both artistically and
together, conducted public conversations ethically sound. Furthermore, the book raises
with each other, and even collaborated on a issues and questions related to assessment
work at the College Art Association’s annual of socially engaged art, advocating the use of
conference in Los Angeles (2012), staged as tools from other fields of study as a potential
an impromptu class about social practice. means of addressing this concern. This is an
Despite this history, their contributions to the increasingly important discussion topic that
field have never been specifically addressed Helguera has spearheaded, considering social
in relation to each other. Their deep affinities practice’s growing popularity, and the fact
include the means and methods by which that this genre, by its very nature, eschews
they have influenced socially engaged traditional notions of success—that is, the
art, not only through their works but also expected formal and aesthetic parameters
through their extensive and ongoing writings established by the mainstream art world.
and teachings about the field, all of which These artists also share a keen
continue to contribute to the implementation understanding of pedagogy and an
and interpretation of socially engaged art. incorporation of pedagogical principles
Lacy (b. 1945, Wasco, CA) is a into their work, which is to be expected
pioneering social practice artist, and her work considering social practice’s roots in
07
dates to the early 1970s, through her initial learning and teaching techniques. From
involvement in the feminist art movements. early on, Lacy has incorporated fundamental
Highly influential, her unique artistic vision pedagogical tools into her practice, of which
is related to social issues such as class, the most essential are conversation and the
mass media, violence, and racial and gender act of listening. As she often states, these
inequities. Many of her earlier artworks serve two basic tools guide her throughout the
as primary exemplars of what was then called research, development, and implementation
“new genre public art,” a term Lacy coined phases of her projects, with the hope of
in her influential writings, which preceded changing cultural attitudes by informing
“social practice.” Mapping the Terrain: New and engaging diverse audiences.
Helguera is perhaps best known professor of art at USC’s Roski School of
for works that are overtly about and based Art and Design, where she continues to
on principles of pedagogy, works that influence and train scores of artists in the
collectively incorporate standard learning field. Simultaneous to his practice, Helguera
elements such as lectures, symposia, works as a museum educator—currently
workshops, and games. Education for as Director of Adult and Academic
Socially Engaged Art articulates his Programs at the Museum of Modern Art in
investment in pedagogy, arguing that New York. Like Lacy, Helguera has helped
educational tools are not only useful the public, artists, and students learn about
but also essential for producing socially and understand how to produce socially
engaged art.3 Although Helguera was engaged works through his own museum
already invested in this methodology, he education programs, as well as numerous
credits Lacy—a reader of the book’s early international adjunct teaching positions.
drafts—with helping him to realize that (For more in-depth information about both
pedagogy should be more of a focal point.4 these artists please see their artist biographies
The incorporation of pedagogy on pages 91–92.)
08
and pedagogical methods is less surprising Rather than conduct a broad
when one considers that both artists have survey in the form of a book or exhibition
taught social practice. For over thirty years —an impossibility considering their
Lacy has influenced the study of social equally extensive bodies of work, and the
practice at the university level, by helping expansiveness of their working methods—
to establish academic programs devoted Mobilizing Pedagogy focuses on one
to socially engaged art, most recently in significant project by each of these artists,
2002 as Founding Chair of the MFA program demonstrating their affinities and reflecting
in Public Practice at Otis College of Art a conversation about art and the artists
and Design. In 2016, she was named a through the development of social practice.