A monument to whom? Artist positionality in community art-based projects

2022

Artistic interventions in the public domain are often legitimized as opportunities for the empowerment of local communities. However, the nature of such interventions is complex and cannot be inferred from stated intentions. The interaction between agents of cultural and artistic interventions and local communities is shaped by power relationships that are seldom made explicit, let alone negotiated. Here, we analyze The Gramsci Monument, a site-specific project by Thomas Hirschhorn that took place in the Forest House neighborhood (Bronx, New York) in 2013. The project has been celebrated as an example of an emancipatory practice that involved a disenfranchised local community. We show that …