Volume 3,Issue 9
The Multiple Paradoxes of Participatory Art: Power, Emotion, and Autonomy
This study examines the core tensions within participatory art, analyzing how its foundational mechanisms, audience participation, emotional interaction, and market integration, simultaneously generate constructive possibilities and inherent contradictions. The article first analyzes how shifting power structures reconfigure artistic creation, noting the evolution of the artist’s role from organizing social collaboration to guiding individual inner experiences. It then explores the dual nature of emotional healing, proposing that immersive environments designed to provide emotional release may also subtly guide and influence participants’ affective responses. Finally, it considers how market forces absorb participatory art practices, often transforming critical engagement into consumable cultural products. By tracing these ongoing negotiations, the study investigates how participatory art navigates the balance between its social aspirations, psychological dimensions, and the conditions of contemporary cultural production.
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