The Study On The Aesthetic Paradigm Of Engaged Art

Engaged art has taken place since the early 1990 s, and been in a multitude of global locations. It emphasizes the artistic intervention into specific social sites with a series of critical dialogue. The form of this multimedia event-based art aims at a collaboration between artists and participators. Getting involved in the social sphere, engaged art currently goes under a variety of social functions, such as rebuilding social band, encouraging dialogue, shaping people’s identity and so on. In a word, engaged art refers to a brand new tendency of contemporary art- art is the place that produces a specific sociability. Current critical discourses of engaged art often draw a perspective on the external context- the relationship between art and society, and lack attentions to the internal context related to an analysis of its aesthetic paradigm. In order to fill in the research gap, this thesis is based on the study of the aesthetic paradigm of engaged art.(1)Chapter 1 focuses on a chronological research of engaged art practices. The early form of engaged art can be dated back to the historical avant-garde in the early of the twentieth century as well as neo-avant-garde in the 1960 s. These artistic engagements showed how art could intervene into the society as a tool of social critique. Compared to the artistic engagement in the modern period, contemporary engaged art concentrates on transforming the representational relation between art and life by blurring the boundary between the two, and emphasizing a collaborative relationship between artists and participators. However, the critical discourses of engaged art, “relational aesthetics” and “dissensus aesthetics”, merely focus on the social perspective of this artistic phenomena. This external scope veils an in-depth study, which I refer to the aesthetic paradigm, of art and its social engagement.In Chapter 2, I explore the aesthetic paradigm of engaged art from an internal scope. After a discussion of aesthetic principles of engaged art, which refers to “the divorce of art and beauty”, “art as nomination”, and “art as event”, this chapter firstly concentrates on the term “theatricality” to explain the genealogy of theatrical aesthetic paradigm of engaged art, including “the veil of theatricality”, “the unveil of theatricality” and “the establishment of theatricality”. Then it explores several traits of theatrical aesthetic paradigm, such as de-centralization, anti-homogenization, inter-subjective and dialogical. Finally, this chapter goes under a series of analysis on three diagrams of the theatrical aesthetic paradigm and argues that the theatrical aesthetic paradigm of engaged art is an dialogical-based and inter-subjective paradigm.Chapter 3 explores the aesthetic turn of engaged art, which is shaped by two of its aesthetic characteristics- “anti-aesthetic autonomy” and “ethic turn”, from social and cultural perspectives. Through comparisons between engaged art and avant-garde art, this chapter firstly concludes that engaged art is anti-aesthetic autonomy. Additionally, in light of its social functions which refer to promoting dialogues, rebuilding community and so on, engaged art signifies an ethic turn in contemporary art as well.