#agitpropbkm

At key moments in history, artists have reached beyond galleries and museums, using their work as a call to action to create political and social change. For the past hundred years, the term agitprop, a combination of agitation and propaganda, has directly reflected the intent of this work.

Agitprop! connects contemporary art devoted to social change with historic moments in creative activism, highlighting activities that seek to motivate broad and diverse publics.

From an initial curatorial team of 4 Brooklyn Museum staff, Agitprop! has snowballed to include 92 artists (60 living and 32 deceased), 41 collectives, and 41 co-curators (both individuals and collectives). The works in the exhibition span 23 countries and 105 years of history, each representing an urgent struggle for social progress.

Political art is often examined in museum exhibitions; the Brooklyn Museum in particular has a long history of engaging with material related to activism and social justice. With Agitprop! we have ventured into the less familiar terrain of directly addressing the politics of museum practice through a re-thinking of the curatorial process. Inviting such an array of artists to act as co-creators of an exhibition can be a messy venture, though each additional wave of nominations yielded exciting new points of entry and cross-pollinating dialogues.

Over the past eight months of the exhibition’s run, we have also witnessed the ways current events can offer fresh perspectives on historic and contemporary artworks, reminding us that the battles artists waged a century ago endure today. A 1916 photograph of suffragists campaigning for the right to vote marks a century of progress leading to the first woman earning the United States presidential nomination. Likewise, the recent national Black Lives Matter outcry and artist Dread Scott’s Impossibility of Freedom in a Country Founded on Genocide and Slavery (pictured above) emphasize the continued struggle for racial equality, especially when viewed alongside documentation of the flag flown from the NAACP’s offices to announce lynchings between 1920 and 1938.

Ultimately, the exhibition may present more questions than it answers, both about the role of art in social change and alternative models for curating. What does seems clear is that the embrace of collaboration, complexity, and chance is, at its core, a feminist gesture and an example of the modes of thinking feminism has made space for within museums. 

Catch Agitprop! in person before it closes this Sunday, August 7.

“Stones and words cannot be taken back” reads the title of Manuela Ribadeneira’s 2006 participatory art piece. A glass pane, an array of rocks leading to a pile, and an instruction manual on how to throw said stones were placed in an open square a few blocks from the presidential palace in Quito, Ecuador. This intervention encourages the public to break the glass, invoking political engagement with a somewhat open-ended metaphor. Participants hurled rocks at the transparent medium until it shattered and fell, an act of playful resistance with an emphasis on the irreversibility of the action.

SAHMAT, meaning “in agreement” in Hindi, was formed after the deadly beating of the socialist street theater activist Safdar Hashmi by a ruling-party candidate and his followers during a performance in 1989. Responding to such sectarian violence, the organization advocates for mutual respect within diversity through creative curatorial, performance, and publishing platforms.

One of SAHMAT’s earliest efforts took advantage of existing street culture to maximize visibility for their message. The group invited Delhi’s taxi drivers to redecorate their rickshaws with commentary on the theme of communal harmony. After the official competition for best design, many rickshaws kept these painted slogans in circulation for years.

Common wisdom tells us that talking the talk is easy, walking the walk less so - but what would it mean to walk the talk? Los Angeles Poverty Department, or LAPD—a play on the other LAPD, the Los Angeles Police Department—founded in 1985, is a performance and activist group based in Skid Row, Los Angeles. Their Walk the Talk parades honor Skid Row community members with music, banners, dancing, and storytelling. At stops along the route, individuals tell their stories in their own words, making connections between poverty and larger social and political structures.

To educate the public about the growing economic inequality in the United States, artists Ivan Cash and Andy Dao created Occupy George. Formed at the height of the Occupy Oakland protests in 2011, their ongoing project features a series of fact-based infographics stamped onto dollar bills which are then returned to circulation. Taking full advantage of new media platforms, the artists put the project into the public’s hands by offering the stamp templates for free download.

Nominated for the 3rd wave by Andrew Tider and Jeff Greenspan.

In 2011, Shani Peters and an assemblage of volunteers took to the streets wearing sandwich boards for the public art project We Promote Knowledge & Love: Parade Day in Harlem. Using pawnbroker street advertising strategies, the group distributed flyers with empowering quotes from prominent African American thought leaders such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., and Harriet Tubman and engaged in conversations intended to build pride and self-love among the parade audience and general Harlem community.

Nominated for the 2nd wave of Agitprop! by Otabenga Jones & Associates

#FeesMustFall is a student led protest/movement against rising tuition and decreasing public investment in South African universities. Following the student protests in October 2015, this poster by Faith47 appeared throughout the streets of Johannesburg. Based on an original painting made by the artist in solidarity with the movement, the poster adopts the hashtag used to unite at a national level. The poster was made available on South African news site, Daily Maverick for free download and non-commercial use.

Nominated for the 3rd wave by Lady Pink.