Archive | 2019
INTRODUCTION: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Land Use
Abstract
A groundswell of art since the turn of the millennium has engaged the politics of land use, addressing topics from the widespread privatization of public spaces and resources to anthropogenic climate change, borderland conflicts, the Occupy movement, and the rhetoric of “sustainable development.” Some of the most compelling artists today are forging new representational and performative practices to reveal the social significance of hidden, or normalized, features inscribed in the land. Their work pivots around a set of evolving questions: In what ways is land, formed over the course of geological time, also contemporary, or formed by the conditions of the present? How do environmental and economic structures correlate? Can art spur more nuanced ways of thinking about and interacting with the land? How might art contribute to the expansion of spatial and environmental justice? Certain artists negotiate the legacy of 1960s and 1970s Land art or the conditions of the global art world, while others actively eschew art-world reference points, choosing instead to position their work relative to disciplines such as cultural geography or urban planning, community-based activism, or even official land management agencies. This critical mass of land-focused practices, keyed to the geopolitics of the past two decades, constitutes a significant strand of contemporary art that has occasioned a likewise important body of scholarship, itself often borrowing ideas and methods from diverse fields. INTRODUCTION Contemporary Art and the Politics of Land Use