Mujeres de Maíz: A Lifetime of Social Praxis

Mujeres de Maíz: A Lifetime of Social Praxis

By Gilda Posada

January 16, 2018

Social practice has gained popularity in the last few years, as a medium that allows artists to “freely blur the lines…creating a deeply participatory art that often flourishes outside the gallery and museum system”.1 Social practice (or socially engaged art, or participatory art) has been defined as engaging with publics, communities, or institutions through curatorial practice, exploration of archives, activism, and other social forms in order to bring art into the public sphere.2 In her book Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, Claire Bishop outlines the emergence of “rethinking the artist’s role in society” and “democratizing art,” Post-World War II. However, this reevaluation of art did not include artists or communities of color in the U.S. at the time.3