Social artifact

The term of art in the social concerns both back to anthropological concepts of anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner has designed under the concept of the threefold social order, as well as on developments in the visual arts that shaped in recent history, especially by Joseph Beuys and his expanded concept of art are. The concept art is based here on the design of social development and social relations.

Basics

Rudolf Steiner introduced the threefold social organism as a model for the development of society after the First World War. He distinguished between the social sectors spiritual life, law of life and economic life, which the ideals of the French Revolution: correspond to liberty, equality and fraternity.

Joseph Beuys builds on the concept of the threefold social order and brings him into a relationship with an expanded definition of art: "It remains basically this is that it is very important to develop this concept of art, where every living man can be a designer of a living substance. This is the social organism. "He sees the image of the threefold and its link with the ideals of the French Revolution at the same time something " Therapeutic ", through which the social organism comes out " from all the tangles, knots and misalignments. " On this basis, developed Joseph Beuys the image of a new society as social sculpture, whose design he sees as a social art. way relates to the art in the sense of an expanded concept of art social systems and social developments. artistic work relates Beuys "on all forms in the world. and not only on artistic design, but also to social forms, [ ... ] or to other design issues and education issues. "In These ideas of Steiner and Beuys build on various current anthroposophical concepts of social art.

In contemporary art, there are trends that are related to an "art in the social ". For such flows of fine art not the product but the plot, the movement, the performative and the staging is in the foreground, which include the Rezepienten in the creation of the work: "Instead create works that bring artists increasingly events produced in not only themselves, but also the recipient, the viewers, listeners, viewers are involved. "This development is initiated in the 1960s by the performative turn, which in the 1990s, the institution designated by the image Science as Iconic Turn ( Iconic turn ) followed. With this development, the bound on the traditional arts art and image understanding is extended to communication and social processes. She has her predecessor already when Alexander Mikhailovich Rodchenko proclaimed in the art of the early 20th century: "Work for life and not for palaces, cathedrals, cemeteries and museums. Working in the middle of everything and with everyone. "

Practice

As art in social to understand different forms of educational, therapeutic or political practice. They usually have an anthropological or art historical background:

• The foundation of the Waldorf schools are anthropological assumptions of Rudolf Steiner in context. In them, the teachers not only impart knowledge, but devote themselves in the broad sense of the care and education of the students. The training includes doing - following the anthroposophy - the development of the intellectual- cognitive ( "thinking" ), the artistic and creative ( "feeling" ) and the artisanal and practical ( " wanting" ) skills of the students. Education is seen here as a social art: " All that we can do artistically ," says Rudolf Steiner, " it only really becomes a Supreme when we can enter it into the largest art [ ... ] in the us unfinished the living man is passed, should we make artistic, educational, the perfect man to a certain degree. "

• On the promotion of man in the sense of a social art of the pulse of the married couple Rose- Mary and Siegfried Puetz goes back to start 1967 in Otter mountain a " liberal arts study center" for the "social work of art". Here are the courses " art therapy " and later " theater education " was introduced, which set their sights on social margins. Meanwhile, the art study site is a University of Applied Sciences, the world's largest training center for art therapy and recognized by the state. Since 2007, here are the courses "Art in the social. Art Therapy and Art Education "," fine arts "and" theater in the social "is introduced.

• In systemic concepts go other art-oriented forms of coaching and the artistic work back in social change processes. Methodically they relate to the expressive arts as a form of inter-media art work in the social sphere. Appropriate courses are in the German-speaking world at the MSH Medical School Hamburg ( " Expressive Arts in Social Transformation" and "Innovative processes of change - coaching and system development").

• As art in the political sphere, the movement for direct democracy is to be understood, which goes back to the work of Joseph Beuys. 1971 based in Dusseldorf, the " Organization for Direct Democracy through Referendum ", among other things, leads to the establishment of the project Omnibus for Direct Democracy, which has made the promotion of direct democracy by popular referendum on the task in the context of the expanded concept of art.

• Also, some entrepreneurial initiatives were inspired by the ideas of Rudolf Steiner and Joseph Beuys and relate elements of a social art in their corporate management. These include, inter alia, Companies such as Wala, Weleda and the dm drugstore.