ABSTRACT
A prominent aspect of the contemporary art world in the context of a digitally connected culture is the way in which the work of the gallery has overflowed the confines of its walls. Arguably, in a multi-mediated and multimodal contemporary culture, the forms of participation in the ‘discussion’ that Nicolas Bourriaud (2002) identifies go beyond an exchange of words to engagements in activities across different media and modes of communication. He claims: ‘it is no longer possible to regard the contemporary work as a space to be walked through. … It is henceforth presented as a period of time to be lived through, like an opening to unlimited discussion’ (p. 15). Various kinds of engagement in ‘art worlds’ (Becker 1984) are made possible, engagements that unfold over periods of time in diverse spaces. In such a process of opening out, Bourriaud argues, there is a shift in emphasis away from (art) object/person relations towards greater emphasis on the place(s) of art in the development of social relations. A manifestation of such an efflorescence of deeper concern with social engagements in art galleries is a shift in emphasis of galleries’ educational activities towards the production of participatory and collaborative art projects in which concerns of social relations and the development of social action are deeply interwoven. It is the work of one such participatory educational programme, ‘World Without Walls’, operating out of the Serpentine Galleries in London that is the subject of this chapter. It is evidence of a ‘social turn’ in arts practice that raises problematic issues for some (e.g. Bishop 2006). Increasingly operating outside of studios and galleries, artists are actively engaging with their publics with the avowed intent of applying arts practices to work towards social action and change. In essence, the problems are those of balance and purpose – what is the balance between arts practice, pedagogy and socio-political action?
