250 word summary - Art and Activism-Gavin Grindon.

Article summary: Art and Activism-Gavin Grindon. Copenhagen crisis.

In Art and Activism, Gavin Grindon reports on the climate change summit in Copenhagen, and discusses how art is used to show political ideas. The summit lasted two weeks and public opinion went far beyond the political institutes of the summit, it influenced cultural life. A number of visual art projects by different organisations started appearing, stating their opinions. These institutions turned to art as a way of communicating quickly, the WWF created two ice polar bear sculptures that were melting whilst on display. Greenpeace installed a photography exhibition on the effects of climate change. ‘Hopenhagen’ was a project set up right in the centre of Copenhagen and gained great support from major companies with Coca cola offering ‘a bottle of hope’ and hosted an exhibition in which cabins of clear glass were lit with green neon lights. This involvement increased public interest in climate change; however the exhibitions only demonstrated the problems but gave no solutions.

 ‘The art which is most successfully engaged with the issues of climate change was that which has more affinity with extra-institutional activist practices.’Grindon,11,2009. Activism art in the last few years has become popular. The galleries do show pieces that raise issues of activism but without the consequences.  However this type of art can raise issues, bike bloc for example, an art activism project ran the real risk of social activism and galleries pulled out. This was because of new police powers. In the UK, the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit, started acting on non- violent climate activism with new anti-terrorist police powers. The same happened in the US, labelling the phenomenon as a green scare and invented the term eco-terrorists. Art activism has now been seen as a disturbing social and political issue and a type terrorism, but not in the way in which the Taliban or ISIS are, however it does this mean it is terrorism. Terrorism is defined as – ‘unofficial or unauthorised use of violence and victimisation in the pursuit of political aims’. 

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  Can activism art really be label as terrorism or just an annoyance to political and social wellbeing?