Rethinking Socially-Engaged Art Practices: Possibilities and Challenges — Keynote by Pooja Sood
About Pooja Sood
Pooja Sood is a founding member and Director of Khoj International Artists’ Association, a not-for-profit society committed to experimentation and exchange in the visual arts in India. Under her stewardship, Khoj has grown from an annual event in 1997 to a vibrant building-based institution which plays a central role in the development of experimental, interdisciplinary and critical contemporary art practice in India and South Asia.
About This Event
Kicking off the third iteration of Per°Form Open Academy of Arts and Activations — a live gathering of Per°Form Fellows, intersectional practitioners across diverse disciplines of curation, research, education, visual culture, and performance, presenting their strategies for activating contexts and communities — is The Mentor Series. It features eminent thought leaders from the global artistic and cultural landscapes in-conversation on trends, negotiations and directions in their respective fields.
What can art do? What should art do? What can art be?
These questions sit at the heart of socially-engaged art practices. As a form that prioritises participation, community, and lived experience, socially-engaged art operates beyond traditional aesthetics, often responding to urgent social, political, and economic realities.
Over the past 15 years, Khoj has actively worked with and within its neighbourhood, Khirkee, using art as an intervention to address urban inequality, marginalisation, and the complexities of transient communities. These long-term engagements have shaped Khoj’s curatorial approach, and inspired us to consider new ways of thinking about the role of art in public life. However, this comes with inherent tensions — questions around sustainability, economic viability, authorship, and ethics.
There is a need to critically examine the potential and limitations of socially-engaged art. Can such work exist outside institutional support, or does it inevitably require resources from galleries, museums, and funding bodies? How do we measure its impact when its effects may be intangible or long-term? And most importantly, how do we ensure that socially-engaged practices will foster genuine, non-extractive collaboration with communities, rather than reinforcing existing hierarchies of power?
Donation Ticketing
Inclusivity is a core value of Per°Form Open Academy. Tickets to The Mentor Series and Workshop programmes at Per°Form Open Academy will be on a donation basis, starting at a minimum suggested donation of $5 per ticket.
If you are in a position to give more, please consider further contributions towards this and future iterations of Per°Form Open Academy. Your contributions, no matter big or small, help us mount Per°Form Open Academy and enable a gathering of international arts practitioners and cultural innovators in Singapore. Details are in the donation portal below.
Admission Rules
Rating / Age Limit
- No age limit for registration.
- All other admissions are subject to valid registration tickets produced at the entrance.
Photography / Video Recording Rules
- Please note that photographs and videos of patrons may be taken at the event for use in our archival and publicity materials.
Refund Policy
- All donations are non-refundable.
Wheelchair Users
- 72-13 is wheelchair-accessible and includes limited wheelchair seating. Please contact us at 6737 7213 to book wheelchair seats.
Contact Us
- For more information on Per°Form Open Academy of Arts and Activations, visit performfellowship.org.
- For any enquiries, please email perform@tworksasia.org or call at 6737 7213.
About Per°Form Open Academy of Arts + Activations
Per°Form Open Academy of Arts + Activations (POA), T:>Works’ pioneering platform on thought leadership in the arts, returns 7–28 February 2025. POA 2025 brings together some of the most respected and renowned figures at the intersection of arts and social responsibilities. Drawing on their decades-long practices to address issues of minority, disability, gender, sexuality, cultural representation, and stakeholder and public engagement, they challenge conventional perceptions on what is possible today.
Banner and portrait: Image courtesy of Pooja Sood.