Abstract

This article critically reworks the issue of the social impact of art in terms of its ‘effectiveness’. The study shows art’s general economy by taking into account a number of ambivalences, difficulties, and deficiencies related to art activities that turn towards the social, political, economic, and cultural exterior of the field of artistic production. Finally, it tries to mount a careful, complex, and balanced defense of their potentials. Reframing and grounding the discussion on artistic activism in selected concepts from political theory, the author argues that if artistic practices are to be socially effective, art needs to be understood and practiced as a politic of redistribution. A way of practicing such a politic is to be sought in understanding and performing action as susceptible to interception. This entails responsibility for the usage of an action, for co-actions that accompany it, and for potential alliances with intercepting subjects.

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