Socially Engaged Art after Socialism: Art and Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe

This is a groundbreaking text in an underserved but growing field focusing on socially engaged art in former Communist Europe

Izabel Galliera is Assistant Professor of Art History in the Department of Art & Design at Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania, USA. Her research has been published in the Journal of Curatorial Studies and appears in the forthcoming collections Collaborating Now: Art in the Twenty First Century (2016) and Redefining Creativity: Multi-Layered Collaborations in Art and Art Historical Practice (2016).

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction1. Points of Contention: Socially Engaged Art Practice in Contemporary Theory 2. Civil Society, and Social, Cultural and Political Capital3. Historical Antecedents: Participatory Art under Socialism, 1956-89 PART I FROM SECOND SOCIETY TO CIVIL SOCIETY 4. Civil Society in a Period of Post-Socialist Transition 5. Antipolitics: Exhibitions at the Soros Centres for Contemporary Art6. Sofia: Participatory Public Art and Emerging Contemporary Art Institutions PART II FROM LOCALIZED PUBLIC SITES TO EU TRANSNATIONAL PUBLIC SPHERES 7. Place-Making: Framing Art in Public Spaces Curatorially8. Representing Counterpublics in Bucharest, Budapest and Sofia9. Contesting the Politics of Belonging in the Post-1989 EU CommunityPART III INSTITUTIONALIZED AND INSTITUTIONALIZING 10. Institutionalized Community Arts Programmes 11. Big Hope: Reviving Leftist Activism in Budapest12. Self-Institutionalizing as Political Agency Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Socially Engaged Art after Socialism is the first comprehensive scholarly treatment of the important new forms of socially engaged art that emerged in Central and Eastern Europe following the demise of the USSR. Its publication represents an important intervention in the emerging critical and theoretical debate around socially engaged art, and will allow us to further broaden the geopolitical scope of this important research.