Dario Azzellini, Direct Democracy
Creative Time's Chief Curator Nato Thompson sits down with documentary filmmaker, writer and political scientist Dario Azzellini in a discussion about community organizing and social movements.
Beginning with Azzellini’s experiences as an activist in Latin America, and specifically Venezuela, the pair's conversation traces the influence that political resistance in the region has had on recent movements such as Occupy and the uprisings labeled “the Arab Spring.” Azzellini and Thompson discuss alternatives to today’s representational politics, considering how practices like neighborhood assemblies and cooperative workplaces can transform states into direct democracies.
This program is part of a regular Creative Times series, Forms of Life, hosted by Nato Thompson and produced for their online magazine, Creative Time Reports. Guests are culture makers whose work posits new ways of looking at political realities.
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Creative Time is a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning, presenting and preserving the most challenging, pioneering and exceptional art of the contemporary period. Its prerogative is advancing and fostering the artist, creating a space where ideas are valued over economics and artistic and intellectual engagement with the public are encouraged over exclusivity. The goal is a democratic one: for the use of free space and a creation of dialogue in the public arena.
Creative Time was founded in 1974 and has, since its foundation, encouraged artistic and public discourse with the preeminent social, cultural, political and environmental issues and concerns of our contemporary period. It has encouraged artists to address timely issues such as the AIDS pandemic, domestic violence and racial inequality, including among its alumni community Vito Acconci, Diller + Scofidio, David Byrne, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Red Grooms, Jenny Holzer, Takashi Murakami, Shirin Neshat, Sonic Youth, Elizabeth Streb and a near-infinitude more.
In engaging with public spaces and ideas, Creative Time fosters and contributes to the eclectic and vibrant spirit of the city in which it was born.
