Art contemporain et lien social

What is the function of art? Certainly to produce beauty. But it is increasingly to contribute to create a social link in the societies that have lost their traditional points of reference. In following this vein, Claire Moulène, who often writes in the magazine les Inrockuptibles, has prepared a diagram of current creation. This small, illustrated and easily handled book reviews actors such as the Atelier Van Lieshout or Spencer Tunick (known for his photos of naked crowds), whose work takes the individual, the group or a community as the main actor. The book underlines the work of interesting collective groups such as Stalker, the group of Roman architects , who during their long walks have taken over fallow land and empty urban lots; or «stars» such as Thomas Hirschhorn, who built his Musée précaire Albinet in Aubervilliers with wooden pallets, before filling it with real masterpieces. Jeremy Deller reliving the confrontations of Orgreave at the time of the miners’ strike in England, Malachi Farrell or Tatiana Trouvé inventing fictitious entreprises, are some of the artists reviewed, up to the most radical of all, Santiago Sierra, with his disturbing performances: to pay prostitutes to masturbate or African immigrants to dig holes in the desert of Almería, in Spain.

• Art contemporain et lien social, par Claire Moulène, published by Cercle d’Art, 2007, ISBN : 978-2-7022-0828-1, 19 €