An invented community in the neighborhood towards engaged artistic mediation

Abstract

From community art to engaged artistic mediation, dialogical and reflexive processes are activated as an approach to a social vision of art. Under this challenge, one Participatory Action Research analyzed the projects carried out between the learning community of Fine Arts students at the University of La Laguna and the community as place of the Taco neighborhoods (Tenerife) within the framework of the global citizen action CONviveTACO. An invented community is thus configured, where the neighborhood is offered as a learning and participation site for students through an engaged artistic mediation. The interventions reveal synergies between students and the neighborhood community, fostering the exchange of knowledge and experiences and encouraging artistic processes with a critical approach to the territory. The results achieved have a significant impact on the academic, artistic and personal dimensions of the students and consequently transcend the classroom. This experimental research concludes after two cycles, taking on the challenge of moving beyond an instrumental conception of art by fostering creative and reflective processes that highlight its transformative potential. Participation is consolidated as the methodological core of the research, in alignment with mediating practice, and the invented community is strengthened as a context for social intervention