The aesthetics of care; creation as attitude and commitment

Abstract

This article sets out to analyze the ethics and aesthetics of care in relation to collaborative art practices in which life experience is fused with the artistic creation. This close link between the intimate and the social sphere leads us to the slogan “The personal is political” (1969), of the feminist Carol Hanisch, which serves as the starting point for numerous artists, focusing on what has been traditionally protected in the field of privacy. These premises will be articulated from various initiatives –from artists like Eulàlia Valldosera, Marga Ximenez and Nora Ancarola– that explore relationships in social and family structures. We conclude, based on the analysis of specific cases, in pointing out how creation could become a tool to increase critical thinking and a way to politicize social malaise.