Louvel, Romain

Creating an Opening - 2011.


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This paper defines important mechanisms revealed during artistic actions performed in social space. This kind of art shows the links between artists and social workers. It opens heterodoxical yet operational perspectives that play on social reality. The most important aspect is not to keep mentioning the same problematic situations of people living in poor neighborhoods, but to introduce the individual specificities and competences of these people into an artistic experience of breaching. This approach came from the ethnomethodological practice and consists of disturbing the social routines. It is a new way to reveal the structure of daily life, which is produced by individual acts and stored in the moral, cultural, and institutional background of the social reality. Based on two recent art projects, this paper shows the fragility of this reality, the experience of being in doubt, and how the mastery of common sense is essential for public institutions.