Participatory Art, Philosophy and Criticism

Abstract

The paper addresses the critical reflection of participatory art practices in light of the need to find new ways of analysing art that would no longer be associated only with the visual. Starting from the point of view that participatory art cannot be properly evaluated within the traditional framework of art criticism, which uses purely aesthetic and formal conceptual tools, the author is resorting to more general concepts within the field of philosophy. In this project Rancière’s rehabilitation of aesthetics and his critique of the ethical turn of aesthetics prove particularly helpful, as do the consideration of the historical failure of aesthetics as a philosophical treatment of art and its consequences for critical discourse on contemporary participatory art.