Recognizing the Political Activism of Contemporary Environmental Art with the Approach of Recognizing in Critical Theory (Case Study: Activism of Liberate Tate and The Blued Trees Symphony)

The politics of exploiting the environment and environmental commitment represents a global concern about the categories of social philosophy which has recently turned into a critical theme in artistic activism within the sociopolitical art approach. In social sciences, the idea of the third generation of critical theory concerning normative principles is to determine a moral grammar of social contradictions to explain the model of recognizing. With this in mind, the present study investigates the opinions of the third generation of critical theory in this regard and compares them against the moral aspect of environmental contradictions in artistic activisms. Supposing the resemblance of the direction of attempts to recognize the social reality of environmental crisis in artistic activisms and recognition theory (according to Axel Honneth’s reading), we adopt a descriptive-analytical method to study the discourse and reading of the representation of the concepts of environmental justice in contemporary subject-oriented art. Thus, we should admit that the social competence of artistic activisms in pursuing social demands is in agreement with the attempts to recognize (legal relationships and demand for social respect) within the framework of third-generation critical theory. It is thus assumed that artistic activisms propose a social agency for recognition in the field of environmental justice which conforms to the demand model of recognition in the third-generation critical theory. As a result, in order to realize public and meta-generational good, it seems necessary to explain the contemporary art in terms of environmental justice as an analytical approach which leads to conflicts between power inequities in understanding and challenging environment injustice. Given this, we shall adopt a descriptive-analytical method and describe the concepts of critical theory, Honneth’s reading of the issue of cognition, and the notion of cognition in environmental justice. Next, we will discuss the situation of contemporary art and eco-art and elaborate on activism in contemporary art in two cases, namely, opposition against an artistic institution and a petroleum company and interventions in the actions of gas pipeline companies.  In Honneth’s theory, ‘cognition’ in the sense of ‘social solidarity’ can be extended to art activisms that are presented collectively, which will be identification of disrespect and demand for social responsibility. In art activisms, a form of collective will complaining of ‘lack of recognition’ represents the dimensions of environmental degradation in the social, cultural, artistic, and economic structure of societies under the banner of hegemony and power. In the actions of the Liberate Tate, recognition of social conflict in the legitimation of the sponsorship of the artistic institution and the environmental degradation from the Deepwater Horizon disaster is represented in the form of disrespect and abuse of nature with interventions performed by activists. In the performance of the Blued Trees Symphony, too, the demand for recognition through legal registration of the work of art is pursued in environmental support. On the one hand, it questions the moral consequences of human being’s exploitation of nature and, on the other hand, it pursues the desire to be emancipated from the power system by targeting and criticizing the dominant ideology.