Sometimes the artist acts like a director or instigator, designing a situation that invites reaction. In Tatlin’s Whisper #5 (2008), Cuban artist Tania Bruguera had mounted police perform crowd-control techniques inside Tate Modern, London. Visitors’ confusion, discomfort, and compliance became the artwork itself. Yet Bruguera remained the sole author, as she conceived and directed the experience. In these types of works, however, only the documented performance and artistic staging are copyright-protected, not the underlying idea of public interaction or the spontaneous responses of the crowd.
Other artists, like Rirkrit Tiravanija (Thailand/USA), take on the role of a host. Since the early 1990s, Tirvanija’s performances of cooking and sharing Thai meals in galleries, beginning with Untitled (Free) (1992, 303 Gallery, New York), have turned social interaction into art. The idea of sharing a meal is free for anyone to use, but his specific expression – the installation design, materials, and documented event – can be protected.
Community-based art introduces another situation. Projects such as murals created by Artolution, working with artists and youth in Colombia and Brazil since 2017, involve shared creation. These projects use art for storytelling or connection. The final work can qualify as joint authorship if contributions are original and clearly identified. Without written consent or clear records, ownership can become unclear.
Who Owns What We Create Together?
Collective forms of art often blur the line between artist and audience, raising questions about authorship and ownership. Who is the author when everyone contributes? To avoid confusion, it helps to document participation clearly through a release form or a short written note explaining how contributions fit within the project.
In legal terms:
protectable – the artist’s tangible expression, such as scripts, sketches, installation layouts, recordings, or photographs;
not protectable – the general concept, method, or idea of participation, and the spontaneous acts or emotions of the public.
Participatory and community-based art reminds us that creativity does not always happen in isolation. Sometimes, the most powerful works are born through connection, where meaning is shared, even if rights are not.
Image credit: Jithu M