Week Of Contemporary Art 2021. Contextus Temporary Artistic Interventions In a public environment

INTRODUCTION

Art, or more simply, "artistic interventions" in a public urban environment are among the earliest forms of human artistic activity. Practically, the paintings in the caves (the great-great-parents of today"s graffiti) were a form of public communication through art. Chronologically, they precede the gallery and museum formats considered as classicstoday. The modern or more precisely the contemporary understanding of the concept dates back to the middle of the 20th century. Two of the main characteristics of this type of projects are their democracy and social commitment. In this context, the terms democratic and social should be understood in their broadest sense. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the most influential and significant artists of the 20th century Joseph Beuys. Beuys"s basic concept-idea can be summarized as follows – 'regardless of their origin, culture, sexual orientation, education or profession, everyone is a creative person by birth, they can form and transform their own life and the society in which they exist…'
As idealistic as these thoughts may seem today, artistic interventions in public space directly and/or indirectly influence and change the social environment. It is this characteristic that underlies the idea of the CONTEXTUS project.

THE PROJECT

CONTEXTUS includes a series of art installations and actions of contemporary artists. The project does not aim to put the authors in a narrow formal or conceptual framework. The aim is for artists to develop their projects in the context of public space (architectural, social and temporal). The Latin word CONTEXTUS, which can generally be translated as "connection, coherence", illustrates the interdependence sought in the project between the environment (as an architectural and social fact) and intervention-art. Another important aspect that again refers to Beuys is the inevitable "interactivity." Placed in the public space, the art object/action provokes a reaction. These reactions can be of different nature:
- direct, when the spectator with his actions directly participates in the artistic process,
- indirect, when changes in the environment lead to a change in behavior,
- on a mental level, when the given art object provokes certain thoughts beyond the object-intervention in its aesthetic sense, etc.