François Matarasso

Autumn has always seemed a time of new beginnings for me, probably because of the coincidence of the start of the school year with my birthday. In France, it’s called la rentrée, the return or coming home even, as habitual duties are resumed after the long summer holidays. I like the sense of possibility offered by such moments, the hope that this time I might be able to accomplish the tasks I set myself, even if experience makes me cautious. So, in that spirit, I’ll share two things today, an old project and a new one.

The first is the latest episode of ‘A Culture of Possibility’, the podcast I’ve been doing with Arlene Goldbard for nearly five years now. This one is a conversation about the limits sometimes put on community art and the responsibilities that come with creating art with others. It follows conversations with writer Jeff Chang and muralists Amber Hansen and Reyna Hernandez, both of whom have recently faced censorship. As usual, Arlene and I have different but complementary experiences. She has seen her work cut by institutions when it became to challenging: I have only had to grapple with the moral dilemmas that come from co-creation with vulnerable people. I’m grateful though to have done all my work face to face, before social media enabled strangers to intervene in situations of which they know nothing and in which they have no real interest. You can listen to the episode at MIAAW.net and all the usual platforms.

The new project is more ambitious, more risky and more unformed. I have spoken before about working on a new book called ‘A Selfless Art’. I’ve made several attempts to write it over the past two years but they have all run into the sand as overwhelmed by difficulties. But that is not a good reason to abandon the project. On the contrary, it is when the night is darkest that we most need light. And in co-creation, the process is itself enough. Yes, there needs to be a product to share at the end of that process, but the journey is sufficient: as in life, there can be no guarantees of a successful arrival. Perhaps ‘A Selfless Art’ will never make it as far as being a book but I can still begin to share its thinking online with those who might be interested. Because it feels like a significant departure, I feel it should have a new home, separate from this one. I plan that the new site will go live before the end of September, at this time of new beginnings.