Projects tagged "Shifts (culture)"

Shifts the cultural landscape in order to imagine and enable change.

Inside Out Project
Practitioner:
JR
Date:
Mar 2 2011
After winning the TED Prize on March 2, 2011, the French-artist JR launched the Inside Out Project, in his first TED Talk. Using his own artistic practice as inspiration, this participatory platform helps individuals and communities to make a statement by displaying large-scale black and white portraits in public spaces. Through their “Actions,” communities around the world have sparked collaborations and conversations.
Break Down
Practitioner:
Michael Landy
Date:
Feb 11 2001
Michael Landy made an inventory of every single thing he owned: every item of furniture, every book, every work of art, every article of clothing and one Saab car. Cataloguing all his possessions took a year to complete and the final list comprised 7,227 items.
21-Day Survival Challenge
Practitioner:
Artist Zou Yaqi
Date:
May 1 2021
In her 2021 graduation project from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Chinese performance artist Zou Yaqi staged a provocative social experiment titled “21-Day Survival Challenge.” For three weeks, Zou assumed the persona of a wealthy socialite, using counterfeit luxury items, strategic self-presentation, and social engineering to access elite spaces in Beijing—such as five-star hotel lobbies, first-class airport lounges, and high-end restaurants
American Born Chinese
Practitioner:
Gene Yang
Date:
Jul 6 2006
American Born Chinese is a graphic novel published in 2006 by the American author and illustrator Gene Luen Yang. Through three interweaving stories that span from the 16th century to the present, the novel explores issues of Chinese American identity, anti-Asian racism, and assimilation. American Born Chinese is the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award.
Tanzanian Cartoonist Has a Stick for Every Powerful Eye
Practitioner:
Gado
Date:
May 3 2020
Godfrey Mwampembwa, popularly known as Gado, has been holding politicians accountable for nearly 30 years. Now, his concern has shifted to the coronavirus. In a quiet office on the third floor of a building in Nairobi’s central business district, the cartoonist known by his pen name, Gado, was sketching a satire about the coronavirus.
Act ii: COWBOY CARTER
Practitioner:
Beyonce
Date:
Mar 29 2024
Following her sensational first ablum dedicated to the Black queer community via house and dance music, act i: RENAISSANCE, Beyonce released act ii: COWBOY CARTER in late March . The album is speculated to have come from her 2017/2018 performance of "Daddy Issues" at the Country Music Awards with the Dixie Chicks where the artist felt "unwelcomed".
Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda
Practitioner:
netflix
Date:
Mar 5 2024
Following the backlash of Netflix's support of Dave Chappelle's "The Closer" comedy special, which featured racist transphobic "jokes", Hannah Gadsby took a deal with Netflix to create a comedy special featuring genderqueer comics. The show, titled 'Gender Agenda', was tapped in the Alexandra Palace Theatre in London and released on Netflix on March 5, 2024.
Monument #1
Practitioner:
Erka
Date:
Mar 22 2017
MONUMENT #1 is a series of sculptures by the Bulgarian artist and designer Erka, created in collaboration with Fine Acts. The work seeks to raise awareness about the lack of monuments honoring notable women in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria - a EU member state. The brightly-coloured busts were placed at some of the most central locations across Sofia during a covert early-morning action on Wednesday, March 22.
Zone à Défendre, or “zone to defend” (ZAD)
Practitioner:
local community groups
Date:
Jan 26 2017
The ZAD (zone à défendre, or “zone to defend”) in Western France is 4000 acres of wetland, farmland and forest that was originally intended to be built into an airport in 1965 but is now an autonomous territory occupied by 40 different collectives looking to reclaim the land. There are around 200 people living permanently on the zone, in addition to some 2,000 people coming and going.
'0 to 1939 in 3 seconds’: Why Anti-Elon Musk Satire Is Flourishing in Britain
Practitioner:
Center for Political Beauty and others
Date:
Apr 5 2025
The mischievous posters began appearing all over London in the past two months. On the side of an East London bus stop, one of them shows Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, emerging from a Tesla’s roof with his hand pointing upward in a straight-armed salute. “Goes from 0 to 1939 in 3 seconds,” the ad reads. “Tesla. The Swasticar.”
A Viral Dance and ‘Happiness Campaign’ Frustrates Iran’s Clerics
Practitioner:
Date:
Dec 16 2023
It all started when a 70-year-old fish market stall owner nicknamed “Booghy” was grooving in public, in violation of Iranian law. A new form of protest against the government is rocking Iran: a viral dance craze set to an upbeat folk song where crowds clap and chant the rhythmic chorus, ‘oh, oh, oh, oh.’
STICK IT TO 'EM!
Practitioner:
@stickerit2em
Date:
Feb 7 2021
#stickit2em is an all-inclusive, anti-capitalist, & pro-planet justice movement, using the clever medium of stickers!
Harry Belafonte on His Artistic Values and His Activism
Practitioner:
Harry Belafonte
Date:
Apr 25 2023
Harry Belafonte, the singer, actor and activist whose wide-ranging success blazed a trail for other Black artists in the 1950s, died on Tuesday at age 96.
New Orleans students showcase their creativity with iPad and Mac
Practitioner:
Ellis Marsalis Center for Music (EMCM)
Date:
Feb 3 2025
On a drizzly, overcast afternoon, all is quiet at the intersection of Bartholomew and Prieur streets in New Orleans’ historic Ninth Ward. The quiet neighborhood around the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music (EMCM) feel worlds away from the historic French Quarter packed with jazz clubs, bars, restaurants, and markets.
Moving Chains
Practitioner:
Charles Gaines
Date:
Oct 15 2022
Moving Chains is a monumental 110-foot long kinetic sculpture that evokes the hull of a ship, built from steel and Sapele, a tree native to West Africa commonly referred to as African Mahogany. Inside of the sculpture, nine chains run overhead: rotating on a maritime sprocket system, eight of the chains represent the pace of the currents in New York Harbor, while a ninth central chain moves more quickly, mimicking the pace of a ship in transit.
Reclaiming the Monument
Practitioner:
Black Lives Matter
Date:
Jul 28 2020
Text by Jessica Stewart - In Virginia, one artist is helping his community reclaim a controversial monument in the name of Black Lives Matter. The Robert E. Lee Monument now stands as the only remaining Confederate statue on Richmond's historic Monument Avenue. While litigation ties up the statue's removal, light projection artist Dustin Klein is using his art to change the meaning of this contentious monument.
Myanmar’s Artists Captured the Spirit of the Resistance. Now They’re Continuing the Fight from Abroad
Practitioner:
Chuu Wai Nyein
Date:
Jun 22 2021
Chuu Wai Nyein felt an overwhelming sense of guilt when she first arrived in Paris from Myanmar at the end of April. “I was pushed to leave the country, but it was not how I wanted to leave,” says the 28-year old. As an artist working for the last ten years, mostly in the central city of Mandalay, Chuu built up an international reputation for her expressive paintings of women.
Soundsuits
Practitioner:
Nick Cave
Date:
May 3 1992
Nick Cave is an American fabric sculptor, performance artist, and dancer. He was born on February 4, 1959, in Fulton, Missouri. Currently, Cave lives in Chicago, Illinois, where he works at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as the director of the graduate fashion program.
menstrual pad mutual aid boxes
Practitioner:
Chinese University Students
Date:
Oct 30 2020
Since 2020, university students across China have launched a grassroots initiative to combat menstrual stigma by placing “menstrual pad mutual aid boxes” in campus restrooms. These boxes, often accompanied by signs reading “Take one if you need it, donate if you can,” provide free sanitary pads to anyone caught off guard by their period—offering both practical relief and a symbolic challenge to the cultural silence surrounding menstruation.
How Serbian activists started a nationwide anti-authoritarian protest during COVID-19 lockdown
Practitioner:
Civic Front
Date:
May 1 2020
For the past few years around election time in Serbia, people have taken to the streets to protest government corruption, attacks on free press and voter suppression. This Spring, despite a nationwide lock-down to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, activists are finding new ways to protest the country’s increasingly-repressive government.
Mother Pigeon—Tina Piña Trachtenburg
Practitioner:
Tina Piña Trachtenburg
Date:
Oct 11 2014
Tina Piña, better known as Mother Pigeon (@motherpigeonbrooklyn), is an artist and self-described “high priestess of the pigeon religion,” whose passion for New York City’s often-overlooked bird has helped her carve out a unique creative niche centered around pigeons—as well as a lifestyle geared towards helping New Yorkers appreciate the misunderstood creatures.
Long Live Freedom
Practitioner:
Nicky Nodjoumi
Date:
Jun 6 1978
Decades of institutional corruption, elitist exploitation, and social abuses have been sewn into the political fabric of Iran’s dictatorial Islamic republic and have moulded Kermanshah-born fine art painter Nicky Nodoumi’s satirical motifs.
Mika Rottenberg: Cosmic Generator
Practitioner:
Mika Rottenberg
Date:
Jan 1 2017
Cosmic Generator presents a network of characters working in nonsensical, and at times absurd, economies. Artist Mika Rottenberg uses footage from actual discount dollar stores in Calexico, CA; Mexicali, Mexico; and Yiwu, China to recreate the imaginary “life” of a product, from its production in the factory to the moment it is sold.
“For People, Food is the First Necessity: Qiu Zhijie’s Writing in a Market”
Practitioner:
Zhijie Qiu
Date:
May 1 2021
During the public vacation of May Day, also called International Workers’ Day, “For People, Food is the First Necessity: Qiu Zhijie’s Writing in a Market” was launched at the crowded Sanyuanli market in Beijing.
Love Queer Cinema Week (aka the Beijing Queer Film Festival)
Practitioner:
Students of Beijing University, Beijing Queer Film Festival commitee
Date:
Dec 1 2001
Founded 19 years ago, the Beijing Queer Film Festival (aka Love Queer Cinema Week) is one of the grassroots film festivals in China focusing on independent queer film screenings and cultural exchange activities. We aim to expand public discussions on sexuality / gender identity / gender expression, we aim to give a platform to sexual and other minorities in China and the World, and we celebrate diversity.

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