Milli mála - 2020, Blaðsíða 197
Milli mála 12/2020 197
ANGELA RAWLINGS, LARA W. HOFFMANN, RANDI W. STEBBINS
10.33112/millimala.12.7
While the aforementioned studies show a positive link between
artistic projects and migrants’ involvement in the host society, inten-
tion and outcome of artistic projects aimed at migrants are not always
aligned. Claire Bishop has emphasized that just calling artwork par-
ticipatory does not mean that participation has necessarily occurred.28
The Rise Manifesto, written by refugees and asylum seekers in Aus-
tralia, is aimed at artists wanting to work with refugees or asylum
seekers. Their statements can be transferred to other groups of mi-
grants and vulnerable groups as well. One of their statements is that
“[i]t’s not a safe space just because you say it is”, emphasizing that the
groups targeted by specific projects are the ones who should have a
say in whether a project has reached its aim of being, for example,
inclusive or safe for vulnerable groups.29
The structures behind participatory and co-produced works of art
or literature, are, therefore, important to consider. Dewey’s30 idea is of
participatory democracy as a social way of being that requires in-
formed and open communication. In it, he included “liberation of
powers” and “widening the area of shared concerns.” Dewey argues
that democracy is not an abstract. Instead, democracy takes place in
a community, one that is always in the making.31 It could be said,
though, that democracy takes place in multiple communities inside a
wider society and access, often controlled by gatekeepers, to those
communities is not equal.
Informed and open communication is the antithesis of gatekeep-
ing. It was perhaps Dorothy Smith32 who first talked of gatekeepers
in academia, people and organizations that set standards of taste and
knowledge and monitor who gets accepted into the systems they
keep. Dale Spender built on Smith’s observations to talk about the
28 Bishop, Claire, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, London: Verso,
2012.
29 Rise, “10 things you need to consider if you are an artist not of the refugee and asylum seek-er
community looking to work with our community”, Rise, Refugees, Survivors and Ex-detainees,
http://riserefugee.org/10-things-you-need-to-consider-if-you-are-an-artist-not-of-the-refugee-
and-asylum-seeker-community-looking-to-work-with-our-community [accessed April 30, 2020].
30 Dewey, John, Democracy and Education, Holywood, FL: Simon & Brown, 2012 [1916].
31 See Greene, Maxine, “Diversity and Inclusion: Toward a Curriculum for Human Beings”, Teachers
College Record, 2/1995, pp. 211–221.
32 See Smith, Dorothy, “A Peculiar Eclipsing: Women’s Exclusion from Man’s Culture”, Women’s
Studies International Quarterly, 4/1978, pp. 281–296.