Projects tagged "Europe"

BP protest at Tate Britain
Practitioner:
Good Crude Britannia
Date:
Jun 29 2010
Protesters bathed an entrance to the Tate Britain in mock oil provoking anger from guests attending a party to mark 20 years of BP's sponsorship of the flagship gallery. A dozen veiled artists, angered by the Tate's continuing involvement with the oil giant, spat vats of treacle before covering the area with feathers as guests arrived.
Red Square Performance "Fixation"
Practitioner:
Petr Pavlensky
Date:
Nov 10 2013
Petr Pavlensky, a Russian performance artist, sent a nail through his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square in Moscow (on a holiday in celebration of law enforcement). He was later charged with hooliganism. Pavlensky, as quoted in the Guardian: "The performance can be seen as a metaphor for the apathy, political indifference and fatalism of contemporary Russian society."
Feast
Practitioner:
Voina
Date:
Aug 24 2007
Voina conducted a wake for absurdist poet and Soviet-era dissident Dmitry Prigov, featuring a table with food and vodka, in a Moscow Metro car. Originally, they had planned an action involving Prigov but he died before they were able to implement it. They later carried out a similar action on the Kiev Metro. As an art collective, Voina is testing the boundaries of performance art. As activists, they are testing the patience of Russian authorities.
You’d Better Watch Your Step In Madrid
Practitioner:
Luzinterruptus
Date:
Feb 20 2015
Luzinterruptus turns their art activism towards the overabundance of dog doo littering the city’s streets. The studio inflated 500 poop-scoopin' plastic bags and placed a lightbulb inside each one. Installation lasted nine hours.
Orca whale light/drone performance in Russia
Practitioner:
Greenpeace
Date:
Feb 17 2023
A performance in support of a bill banning the catch of cetaceans for cultural and educational purposes in Russia. The bill was supposed to pass readings in the lower house of parliament but unfortunately it was postponed; this activity is meant to help generate support for it to pass. The action was timed to coincide with the World Whale and Dolphin Day (Feb 19).
First Hologram Protest in Spain against Gag Law
Practitioner:
Holograms for Freedom
Date:
Apr 11 2015
Spanish citizens held the first hologram protest in history in order to protest without violating the new draconian guidelines of the National Security Act, the new amendments to the Penal Code and the Anti-terror law. Thousands of people marched past a Spanish parliament building in Madrid over the weekend weekend to protest the new law that they say endangers civil liberties. But none of them were actually there.
Slashing the Rokeby Venus
Practitioner:
Mary Raleigh Richardson, WSPU
Date:
Mar 10 1914
On March 10, 1914, Mary Richardson slashed Velasquez's "Rokeby Venus" with a small axe during public hours at the National Gallery in London. A militant suffragette protesting the force-feeding of imprisoned suffragettes in prison (and the Cat and Mouse Act which released the starving women only until they were slightly healthier only to imprison them again), Richardson released this statement after her arrest:
Sheep Storm Paris’ Louvre in Farmers Protest
Practitioner:
The Farmers Confederation
Date:
Mar 28 2014
Sheep stormed into Paris’ iconic Louvre museum on Friday (March 28) as farmers protested against reforms to the common agricultural policy (CAP). A dozen sheep ran into the museum’s entrance underneath its famous glass pyramid, baffling tourists and aggravating museum staff.
In/on The Way: Story Time
Practitioner:
SKART
Date:
Oct 12 2017
"Story Time" emphasizes the significance of knowing the cultural histories of various nations and milieus, for it is precisely this knowledge that represents the first common point on the way towards understanding other cultures arriving in Europe with migratory flows. The invited artists will reinterpret cultural histories and cultural contexts from both European and Arabic worlds.
Thinking About Tea
Practitioner:
Claire O'Brien, Tommy Lysaght, Jenny Dungan, Cathy Martin
Date:
Apr 28 2018
We built a conversation space where members of the public were invited to enjoy a free cup of tea. We used a vertical garden which spelled out the word 'TEA' in easily available plants and herbs that can be used to make tea.
3 Billboards Outside Grenfell, London
Practitioner:
Justice 4 Grenfell
Date:
Feb 16 2018
Activism imitated art when Justice 4 Grenfell protesters drove three provocative signs through the streets of London. In a clever nod to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the Oscar-nominated film directed by Martin McDonagh, the billboards were bright red, with black letters that read: 71 DEAD AND STILL NO ARRESTS? HOW COME?
‘They’ve taken away my freedom’: the truth about the UK state’s crackdown on ​protesters
Practitioner:
Natasha Walter
Date:
Feb 5 2023
Melissa is a down-to-earth, friendly woman in her 50s, and it seems that she has always met life with a certain amount of courage. She grew up on another continent, and after early motherhood, then divorce and a first career in business, she moved to the UK with her second husband. She then built another career working with survivors of domestic violence, before setting up a climate emergency centre in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
Czechoslovakia’s two-hour general strike
Practitioner:
Czechoslovaks
Date:
Apr 30 2012
A general strike can be one of the most potent noncooperation methods in the repertoire of nonviolent resistance. It is a widespread cessation of labor in an effort to bring all economic activity to a total standstill. Although it is easy to broadcast the call for a general strike, it is exceedingly difficult to implement for the maximal impact that it potentially exerts. What’s more, a general strike must
Shining a spotlight on domestic violence – the Women’s House (Sunglasses) project
Practitioner:
Sanja Iveković
Date:
Jun 28 1998
Croatian artist Sanja Iveković started Women’s House (Sunglasses) in 1998 in collaboration with a women’s shelter in Zagreb and later with women’s shelters elsewhere in Europe and Asia. Iveković organised workshops with women in these shelters to produce plaster casts of their faces, as well as to give them the space to write their life stories.
Washington, DC climate protesters drag paint on glass cover of art sculpture
Practitioner:
Declare Emergency
Date:
Apr 27 2023
Climate protesters in Washington, D.C. were handcuffed on Thursday after they dragged paint on a glass cover protecting an art sculpture. The incident happened at the National Gallery of Art by the activism group Declare Emergency in an attempt to bring attention to climate change, according to the Washington Post.
La Radical Gai & Lesbianas Sin Duda: Spreading Awareness to the AIDS Epidemic in Spain
Practitioner:
La Radical Gai & Lesbiana Sin Duda
Date:
Dec 1 1994
On December 1, 1994 also known as World AIDS day, participating members from LSD (Lesbianas Sin Duda), La Radical Gai, and other allies sought out to protest against the push back of rejection that many of them were receiving from the medical and social perspective.
StopFake News
Practitioner:
StopFake
Date:
Feb 27 2017
To Battle Fake News, Ukrainian Show Features Nothing but Lies KIEV, Ukraine — The studio lights dim, and the anchor taps a stack of papers on her desk and directs a steely gaze toward the television cameras. What appears to be a nightly newscast is about to begin, only with a very Ukrainian twist: Everything is a lie, from start to finish.
7000 Oak Trees
Practitioner:
Joseph Beuys
Date:
Jan 1 1982
In 1982, for documenta 7, Beuys proposed a plan to plant 7000 oaks throughout the city of Kassel, each paired with a basalt stone. The 7000 stones were piled up on the lawn in front of the Museum Fridericianum with the idea that the pile would shrink every time a tree was planted. The project, seen locally as a gesture towards green urban renewal, took five years to complete and has spread to other cities around the world.
Carlota Guerrero's erotic photos celebrate a surreal sense of femininity
Practitioner:
Carlota Guerrero
Date:
Apr 27 2021
From intimate portraits to urban performance art, the through line of photographer Carlota Guerrero’s work has always been her stripped back sense of feminine reverie: rumpled sheets and broken shells, translucent tights and long braids, dusty floors and bare chests.
Avy Search and Rescue Drone
Practitioner:
Paul Vastert, David Wielemaker, Christian McCabe and Patrique Zaman
Date:
Feb 17 2018
A rescue drone for refugees in danger whilst traveling across the Mediterranean Sea. Last year alone, 3,500 refugees perished attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The Avy Search and Rescue Drone is specifically designed to help refugee boats. The drone is capable of flying long distances, detecting vessels, and can drop life jackets, life buoys, food supplies, medication and communication devices. Drones for Good Competition
A fashion protester crashed the dior spring 2021 show
Practitioner:
a member of Extinction Rebellion
Date:
Jan 25 2021
PARIS — At the end of the Dior fashion shown in Paris last September, a woman got up from the audience and walked down the runway carrying a yellow banner painted with the words “We Are All Fashion Victims.”
The Procession of the Holy Cunt: Feminist Activism during Holy Week in Spain
Practitioner:
Feminist Organizations
Date:
Apr 15 2014
Even though Spain is constitutionally defined as a non-confessional nation, the Catholic Church still holds great power. For example, the Catholic Church is exempt from paying certain taxes, and can reclaim certain buildings as their property. This often creates frictions and conflicts with the activist groups and organizations that would prefer a more secular political environment.
Turning a public toilet into a spa
Practitioner:
Ruben Santiago
Date:
Jun 14 2007
For three days, Ruben Santiago installed, without any official authorization, a hydro-massage shower in a public bathroom in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. The installation also made available to users bath gel, shampoo and towels that were regularly replaced.
Nazi control room reopens as Topography of Terror museum in Berlin
Practitioner:
Berlin Artist
Date:
May 6 2010
It was once the most feared address in Berlin, a place easy to enter but very hard to leave. Now the ruins of the former engine room of Nazi terror at Prinz Albrecht Strasse in Berlin have been preserved in a new exhibition space open to the public from tomorrow.
TEACHINGS OF DIOGENES
Practitioner:
Diogenes
Date:
Nov 18 2012
TEACHINGS OF DIOGENES (c. 412- c. 323 B.C )

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