Mejor vida/better life and day-to-day exchanges: Networks of social exchange in contemporary arts practice

Unrestricted The current economic crisis has brought attention and criticism to a dominant global economic system that is characterized by the goal of exponential expansion in pursuit of private monetary profit. In this thesis I explore the possibility for social and participatory art to invoke, inspire and mobilize action towards alternative sustainable systems of economic exchange. Generosity and non-monetary exchange as a social practice and artistic strategy provide a space for artists and audiences to perform models of alternative economies in the social/public sphere. While they also cultivate a network of social and cultural capital that values shared time and resources for mutual benefit. Using tactics evocative of feminist artists of the 1970s, the art projects considered in this text experiment with ways to live independent of, and in resistance to, the corporate market. My discussion focuses on the socially engaged art projects of artists Minerva Cuevas and Carolina Caycedo, and the Time/Bank initiated by artists Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda of e-flux. I reveal how their art projects perform creative models towards an economic paradigm shift, while positioning social and participatory public art practice as models towards sustainable lifestyles.