I wrote a blog about social sculptures created by Rick Lowe, inspired by Joseph Beuys, a few months ago. This month, I have had an opportunity to work with a group of indigenous San youth from the San Language School in Upington, South Africa. We worked on social sculpture. First, we engaged the youth in creating posters that conveyed their message to their communities. Their messages were strong: “Never look down on everyone, unless helping them up!”, “Alcohol destroy”, “Stop child abuse!”, “Stop child rape, they are leaders of tomorrow!” Then, as a group, we walked together to set up the posters in the Rosedale community.

Social sculpture works on two levels: the personal empowerment and expression level and the community intervention level. In this case, the posters provided a tool for San youth to have a voice and share it with the community. The act of intervention, walking into the community and putting up the posters, was liberating, collaborative, and a way to form togetherness around a joint message: “Do good for yourself and our community.”

This experience was one of the best and most empowering collaborative artistic interventions so far. It felt precious and valuable to work with this process and this group of youth. I’m happy that I’ll be able to continue this process and think about ways to scale up the commitment and respect that the youth have for their community. Our next effort is to think about ways to convey the message of the San to the local administration and officials.

This social sculpture was constructed as part of the PARTY project with Hanna-Riina Vuontisjärvi and Essi Kuure. The use of posters was inspired by the Ministry of Truth and Typography.

By Satu Miettinen