Collectivity

Rethinking Collectivity: Re-/De-Collectivizing Art in Action

Abstract

Rethinking “collectivity” aims at carving a methodology and standpoint to deconstruct the rigid forms of collectivity and to build different possibilities of reconnection. The term “to de/re-collectivize” is coined by Hyperimage Group to interpret contemporary artistic practices that intervene in social realities. This essay focuses on three representative artists from Hyperimage’s exhibition project “Why Collectivity?” for the Guangzhou Image Triennial 2021: Kidlat Tahimik (the Philippines), Koki Tanaka (Japan), and Daniel G. Andújar (Spain). Their practices respond to the core concern “re-/de-collectivize art in action,” which seeks to examine the changing modes of collective memory and visual heritage as they are confronted by the ongoing expansion of global capitalist markets and competing (geo-) politics, as well as the ways in which the imagination of a utopic social order becomes communal (artistic) practices of ad-hoc assemblies and temporary collectivities.