Oral sources for Documenting Socially Engaged Art: Applications and Theoretical Reflections from the Case Study of Contenuto Rimosso

Abstract

This study examines the possibility of incorporating participants' voices into the documentation practices of socially engaged art (SEA), using the interview as a tool to record and convey narratives that reflect the dialogical nature of these experiences. The analysis arises from certain critical issues observed in current documentation practices: on one hand, artists often struggle to keep track of participatory, context-specifc and long-term processes; on the other, critics must rely on data and testimonies that are frequently fragmented, while the theoretical debate on the subject remains marginal. In this context, documentation tends to be reduced to photographs, videos, or descriptions of the method – materials that rarely succeed in fully including the perspectives of stakeholders, who are both active agents in the creative process and its primary audience. This study thus proposes the interview as an epistemological device capable of capturing subjective viewpoints, offering a tool to explore the intersections between personal, collective, and public memory, and contributing to a more nuanced historicization of SEA practices. Supporting this thesis is the case study Contenuto Rimosso, a community art project initiated by Chiara Trivelli in 2012 in Lorenzago del Cadore. Through an archive of thirty video interviews later made public, the project illustrates how including participants' perspectives becomes a central element in achieving a polyphonic and participatory form of documentation – one that activates collective memory and redefines the boundaries of artistic authorship.