In between, Femke took care of drying, baking and transporting the work. In this article, as a participant and author, I look back at the workshop and Special Database reflect on what it brought about. The starting point for this is the social artist's practice and the workshop as an art form . The social in art When we talk about art, the thought of a presentation institution, museum, gallery or white cube is not far away. In this more traditional form of presenting the work of art, the viewer has a certain distance from the work: you walk past it and move between it, you contemplate, marvel, reflect, but you are not a direct part of the creation of the work.
For philosopher Jacques Rancière, this distance is necessary to create involvement with the work. This seems contradictory, but because of that distance, he believes the viewer can take his own, well-considered point of view. This spectator is engaged. Yet this form of involvement between the artwork and the public is not enough for every artist; regardless of whether you agree with Rancière. There are all kinds of other forms of engaged and social art in which the artist wants to deal with the work and artistry in a different way. or collaborating with non-artists, or directly looking up social topics through the work – even activism – where the 'result' is not so directly aimed at the more traditional way of presentation.