“History of Simple Things” – a Cartography to Think about the Ethical and Political Dimension in the Practice of Artistic and Cultural Mediator in Processes of Subjectivation

Abstract

“I love Art!”. To compose this gesture-emotion, expressed by a passionate child, during an artistic-educational workshop, pieces of various origins are assembled. There is what results from an art educator’s practice; there is what results from constant reading; there are conversations with friends; there is, in short, what comes from affection; from situations in the world lived.

We propose a reflection on the autonomy and social responsibility of artistic and cultural mediators, and not an analysis. Moments are cut out, in which a listening-situation around emotion and the notion of “encounter” is assessed. In this interpretation, mediation outlines a “function”, which places in mutual relation the phenomena, their social manifestations and society and imposes a system of appeal to collective praxis, of ethical and dialogic reach. It has, in the end, not only to reveal and create a social space, in which it is instituted, but to make the object available to the time of fruition, representation and questioning.