Artivists (Artist-Activists), or, What’s to Be Done?

Artivists (artist-activists) use performance to intervene in political contexts, struggles, and debates. This chapter gives four brief examples: the role of the body in performance activism; the boundaries between art and activists; evaluating the “efficacy” of performance; and the power of performances mediated through video and the internet. The chapter engages specifically with the work of the Argentinian collective H.I.J.O.S.; the U.S.-based Guatemalan artist Regina José Galindo; Fulana, a Latina performance and media collective from New York City; and the Yes Men.