ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses problems and possibilities of participatory and community-based art practices with people with disabilities. Community-based art situates the reciprocal relations between art, artwork, and the audience to be reassessed. The chapter examines how the agency of people with disabilities has been discriminated against throughout history as objects of treatment, isolation, control, and regulation in societies. Collaboration has become characteristic of many contemporary art practices in the 21st century. Jean-Luc Nancy developed his ideas of community with Maurice Blanchot, stating that the notion itself is suspect and that efforts toward democracy within a community are impossible. Community art-based projects rely on an existing idea of community or presuppose that the act of making art collaboratively might build a purpose for community. Miwon Kwon pointed out how community-based art projects usually address the concerns of marginalized community groups focusing on social issues in order to strive toward developing politically aware community events or programs.