A desired scandal. Anti-bourgeois Activism in Art as Cultural Citizenship Practice.

The conception of cultural citizenship requires an interrogation of notions of culture and citizenship. The role of culture as symbolic production needs critical inquiry that exceeds the realms of its institutionalized forms. Cultivation of the self seems to succumb to the fabrication of signs and meanings by governments operating as cultural industries and providing various resources that enable contextualization of cultural citizenship. By acting like a context provider governments and institutions create new myths that infuse citizens with standard ideas of identity, membership and participation. However, it becomes increasingly difficult for governments and institutions to maintain their status of expert as society is being reshaped and redirected by processes of postmodernization and globalization. In this paper we will analyze some of the contemporary theories on cultural citizenship that elaborate on the confluence of culture and politics. Furthermore, we will question the role of education in the cultivation of the self in terms of good citizenship. It is argued that the conception of citizenship needs to be founded on everyday practices and originates through interaction between citizens. These practices might well be adequate means for citizens to conceive and more importantly to learn how to conceive ideas of cultural citizenship by using their own intellectual integrity and conscientiousness.
A crucial element in this process is creating the awareness, toleration and respect for the notion of the other. Finally, we will elaborate on the critique that the conception of citizenship is still being conditioned by bourgeois assumptions. We thereby consider the role of contemporary artists as mediators, refuting the bourgeois through critical activism.