Late last year, the New York Times published an op-ed short film written and narrated by Jay Z. The clip was called “The War on Drugs Is an Epic Fail,” and that kind of title was explicit enough for everyone to grasp the entertainment mogul’s general argument, whether they knew anything about drug war or not.
Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, was first performed in Athens in 411 BC. The play, while fictional, can be read as an early example of creative activism. It is about Lysistrata's quest to end the war between Athens and Sparta. She gathers the women of Athens and makes them swear an oath to deny their lovers and husband sex until they end the war.
Neighbors in modern cities have less and less communication, and they all go about their business as soon as they close the door. In Switzerland, a woman dies every week as a result of domestic violence, so in an effort to get everyone to act, the charity has put up an interactive billboard in a shopping mall that shows a man in a family doing violence to a woman.
An anti-Nazi organization called Exit-Deutschland targeted a right-wing Rock Festival in a city called Gera. They got in contact to the festival organizers by using a fictitious name, and they distributed 250 trojan t-shirts with a writing “Hardcore Rebels” during the festival. When the recipients of the shirts went back home and washed them.
In this series featured in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, artist Alexandra Bell edited headline pages from the New York Daily News in 1989 concerning the case of the Central Park 5. Through redaction, highlighting, and censoring, Bell shows how the teens accused of this crime were painted as a pack of animals by the media.
In an effort to provide abused children with a safe way to reach out for help, a Spanish organization called the Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation, or ANAR for short, created an ad that displays a different message for adults and children at the same time.
"On Friday, March 15, 2013, for the launch of the 20th edition of the Bayeux-Calvados Award for War Correspondents, the theatre company Map performed Jusqu’au bout, a play directed by David Ropars based on a text by the photojournalist Eric Bouvet. It was a great success! The monologue was given a magnificent interpretation by the actor Jean-Pierre Morice.
For over 60 years, Colombia has been facing war between guerrilla groups, the State, paramilitary groups and drug dealers. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, raped, displaced and threaten by this armed conflict. The common trait of this tragedy has been the people being in the middle, the people that still today pay the consequences.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Francisco, California
Corrected Billboard Defends Transparency at Guantanamo Bay
The California Department of Corrections (CDC) has unveiled a new billboard campaign to assist the U.S. Navy with transparency at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
Shortly after the events of 9/11, a group of NYC women came together in protest of the Bush Administration's use of the terror attacks to justify war. Seeking out a new form of political protest, the women decided to respond to what they believed were the absurd reactions of Bush by attaching paper maché missile "dicks" and demonstrating in public.
A juried exhibition of fiber art created by the Artist Circle Alliance to protest the Trump administration’s actions and policies.
This is a traveling exhibition to 13 venues across the U.S. All work in the exhibition, as well as the nearly 560 pieces submitted for jurying, are shown on our website.
It is exceedingly difficult to organize peaceful protests in Russia. Since the Kremlin’s “Special Operation” began on Feb. 24, police have detained nearly 15,000 people across the country in connection with peaceful demonstrations. On March 4, the Kremlin expanded the scope of illegal activity with two laws that criminalize war reporting and antiwar protest. As of March 15, 180 charges have been lodged against protesters.
In Kiev, clashes between protestors and police have persisted since December. Blood has been shed, and the political stability of Ukraine remains uncertain.
During late January and early February, the opposition began to play music (from pianos) in front of riot police. These artists modus operandi has been to serenade protestors and police toward peaceful consensuses.
Pussy Riot are spreading their protests and activism beyond Russia. Away from Vladimir Putin’s censorship, they’re bringing their voices to Canada – a place where their message of resistance is resonating. On Nov. 1, as a chilling cold filled the streets of Montreal, Pussy Riot kicked off the North American leg of their Riot Days tour with a sold out show at the Rialto Theatre. The tension in the room was palpable.
On 7th December 2009, “Picha Mtaani” was launched at a colorful ceremony in Nairobi. “Picha Mtaani” in partnership with UNDP Kenya, was an initiative that seeks to create a platform for peace building, national healing and cohesion through street picture galleries, hosted dialogues and repertoire of the reflections and discussions.
A group of women arrested at the DSEI arms fair in 2013 have begun private prosecution proceedings against arms companies who exhibited illegal weapons at the fair.
ART COLLECTIVE LUZINTERRUPTUS has created an installation made up of 100 glowing “radioactive” figures for the Dockville Festival in Hamburg.
The human-size figures appear to be wearing special white protective clothing and marching, heads down, across the landscape. The eerie structures contain a number of lights which make them appear to glow ominously in the dark.
Media artist Joseph DeLappe announces the completion of “The Drone Project: A Participatory Memorial” on the campus of Fresno State University in California.
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.
Spanish organization the ANAR Foundation (Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk) releases a campaign that takes advantage of the process of lenticular printing to send an offer of help to abused children without alerting their abusers, even if they’re walking together.
Lenticular printing is a process that allows for different photos to be seen depending on the angle the image is viewed from.
A video campaign titled Sympathy Cards, initially released in 2018, is going viral again.
The chilling video depicts, via hidden cameras, shoppers walking by or browsing the greeting cards section at a shop. Shocked, confused, some visibly upset, shoppers freeze when they notice that, along with the traditional selection of greeting cards, is a section devoted to school shootings.
The Fourth of July is upon us, so it’s time once again to sing what is arguably our most baffling national ditty, “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Maybe you’ve noticed: Some of the lyrics seem like the work of a prankster on acid. Who else could have conceived a vignette as bizarre as a man riding a pony into town, then sticking a feather in his cap that, for unknown reasons, he insists on calling “macaroni”?