PRODUCTION OF ARTISTIC SPACE IN COMMUNITY ART

Text topic: Culture and Democracy - 50 Years of the Review Kultura

Text author: Драган Ћаловић

The text analyses influence of artistic space on community building processes. Collaborative art projects offer to the neighbours an opportunity to debate different visions, attitudes and suggestions that define their community. Community art projects provide not just any way of connectivity among community members, but a connectivity that strengthens their creative potentials, liberates their way of thinking and opens new perspectives. Besides this, through art, community members can communicate not only on a rational but also on an emotional level. They can learn about each other and define mutual visions through creative collaboration. Community engagement and gathering through art can be an effective tool for overcoming contemporary lack of vision, lack of faith and lack of willingness to act. Haas&Hahn’s work is a good example of how art can influence people’s values and beliefs, and how production of artistic space can influence the society. Haas&Hahn have brought new, more optimistic and more creative dimensions to the communities they had worked in. Through construction of artistic spaces, they have powered creative energies of the residents, and at the same time they have increased their faith that they can bring welfare to the community through joint work.