Seeing Citizenship in Contemporary Art and Visual Culture

Ariella Azoulay, in The Civil Contract of Photography, writes: "When and where the subject of the photograph is a person who has suffered some form of injury, a viewing of the photograph that allows a reading of the injury inflicted on others becomes a civil skill. This skill is activated the moment one grasps that citizenship is not merely a status, a good, or a piece of private property but rather a tool of a struggle or an obligation to others to struggle against injuries inflicted on those others, citizen and noncitizen alike." Citizenship, far from being a "natural privilege," is contingent on the performative bond between the citizen and the nation-state. This civil and cultural contract is fragile. The ruling power uses ideological mechanisms to maintain divisions between citizen and noncitizen which assists in maintaining the hierarchy between the nation-state and the governed. Another civil contract exists amongst those who are governed whether they are recognized by the state as a citizen or not. This alternate conception of citizenship is based on a shared duty to others that defies the borders enforced by the nation-state.

This panel seeks to explore the role contemporary art and visual culture play in problematizing/establishing citizenship. What is the future of socially engaged art that anchors spectatorship in civic duty? How do emerging technologies play into these questions? Papers are welcome that explore these and other questions related to global, cultural and legal citizenship across a variety of media.