Episode 1: Stephen Wright

Our first guest is Stephen Wright, an inspiring thinker on artistic activity.  Stephen redefines cultural practices in response to permaculture and ecological thinking. We hear his take on the curious case of Raivo Puusemp, where art becomes a truly political act. He shows us how to approach art-making as an everyday practice and defy past century's expectations from Art. His thoughts ask us to reimagine the field anew; potentially as a tool to empower ourselves, strengthen our bonds within communities, and much more.

“Are exhibitions the supreme way for art to instantiate itself in the world, or are there other possible art sustaining environments?”

Stephen Wright is a writer and gardener based in France. He currently teaches the practice of theory at the European School of Visual Arts. As the title of his book "Towards a lexicon of usership" suggests, his writing focuses on the politics of usership, as well as other modes of cultural production that do not necessitate artworks, authorship, or spectatorship. 

Episode Notes & Links

Stephens’s extensive vocabulary deserves further reading. To learn more about piggybacking, 1:1 Scale, Artworlds (art-sustaining environments), Coefficient of art alongside many other mind opening concepts you can download a free copy from Arte Utils website. 

Raivo Puusemps mayorship at Rosendale, New York resulted with the dissolution of the town and its amalgamation with a larger municipality. The documentation regarding the process of this work compiled in a publication and was published by Highland Press in 1980’s iniative of Paul McCarthy.  http://makinguse.artmuseum.pl/en/raivo-puusemp/

Episode recorded on Zoom in April 2020. Interview by Can Altay.

Produced by Aslı Altay & Sarp Renk Özer. Music by Grup Ses.

Released from MÇPS Studios.