10,000 reasons to believe in the power of art in public space

An inspiring TEDxTalk by Yazmany Arboleda about the power of art in public spaces to engage, drive people to reflect and lead them to believe in themselves and in their communities.

Yazmany Arboleda a multimedia artists a based in New York City, his practice merges painting, photography, film, sculpture, installation, and participatory actions in order to highlight phenomena that lie just outside our collective field of vision. His preoccupations with social, political and moral issues in a culture ever more driven by the media draw our attention to slight, often overlooked but extraordinary facets of the man-made world we inhabit today.^[7]Arboleda deconstructs the contemporary human experience by using the very same media prism that shapes our perspectives from childhood to adult life. His work considers how nature and culture combine to define standards of human beauty common across time and geography. He explores the way the growing ubiquity of information has been accompanied by a crumbling of faith in news institutions, government and business.^[8] The work depicts and analyzes inter-connections and influences, and often engages the viewer, knowingly or not, to become a part of the art itself. Arboleda’s installations include commentary on politics, current events, racism, and sexism, sometimes provoking controversy.^[9]

Watch the TEDxTALK video under the following link: