Micropolitics

The Micropolitics program has run continuously since 2005 in various formats, from lectures, discussions, and screenings, to thematic issues of scientific journals, collections, and books. The program gathers artists, curators, researchers, theoreticians, and activists, who introduce the local community to socially engaged art practices, critical curatorial positions, arts institutions, and initiatives that insist on democratization of art distribution and production. A special section of the program is directed towards new readings of historical examples of socially engaged art at local and global levels, and research of their relationships to social movements. The program is designed as an alternative to the circumstances in which the dominant form of art is that which is insensitive to the conditions of its own production. Therefore, we have attempted to introduce new theoretical instruments, broaden the discussion, but also question again certain generally accepted postulates (autonomy of art, politicization of art, institutional-independent, participation, etc.) through a different modality of discussion. In times when austerity measures hit art institutions hardest, pushing them toward total commodification of services and resources, sensibilization of the field to systemic insight becomes the only way of their preservation.