Project disintegration, an examination of art as protest and protest as art

Abstract

This dissertation explores the uneasy relationship between protest art and a capitalist or neoliberal art market and examines the tension between more radical art practices that move outside the established art world and the art world itself. Through a discussion of various models and art practices, it questions whether political art can bring about enlightenment and social change, and asks what, if anything, the effect of political art on its audience and the world as a whole should be. The practical section of the dissertation describes a project which puts forward a fictional premise that as a result of a two-tier European Union, Malta undergoes a cultural reworking and historical revision in order to persuade its citizens to leave identify with the culture of the Arab Region more than that of Europe and to eventually leave the EU.