‘Art as social practice: language and marginality’: Special Issue of Applied Linguistics Review

The present collection of articles draws on the anthropological concept of art of the ordinary from Raymond Williams' book Culture is Ordinary (1989).In this sense, art is like culture, both in terms of the meanings shared by society and in terms of those new ones that are created and tested.Therefore, art is integral to 'the process of discovery and creative effort' (1989: 93) of a culture.The notion of ordinary art is combined with that of a socially engaged community art, although the term has a radical ring to it, or resonates with 'participatory' art from Matarasso's A Restless Art 2019.We are therefore talking about forms of art that live with us, are integral to our existence and come from within us.In all these cases, art is the product and the process that involves not necessarily professional artists but ordinary people and communities.More importantly, as this collection of essays has the additional focus of 'marginality', art can be the expression of people and groups who have suffered the effect of economic crisis and bourne the consequences of social, ethnic or racial exclusion.As is well known, in art history many examples of art extol the ordinariness and the essentialness of life; an example being the Italian Arte Povera (Poor Art) movement of late 1960s which brought simple and humble materials to the viewers' appreciation.In addition, the art we investigate here has a performative meaning in that it aims to create situations and contexts in which marginalised and powerless individuals take centre space and are heeded.In almost all the contributions, art is therefore 'doing' and carrying out actions.In this sense, it involves people and the artistic product emerges from the actions of the individuals and groups.These actions are not necessarily aimed to be exhibited to the public as they are integral part of that ordinary culture to which they belong or which they are trying to create.