How can we understand the intersection between artistic research, an important and growing field of contemporary artistic practice, and care, a term that has become crucial for many artists as they endeavor to reckon with widespread crises and catastrophes—from wars, to the pandemic, to climate change, and beyond? To address this question, one must consider the current discussion about the concept of care, particularly within the domain of care ethics. This emerging field investigates the disturbed relationship between human beings and the world, a dynamic that appears to be a direct consequence of humanity being forced to confront certain psychological, political, and planetary limits. Such collisions manifest as a breakdown of democracy—wherein politics are no longer responsive to citizens—and eventual environmental collapse, caused by the widespread treatment of earth as an exploitable resource. These urgencies have prompted political scientist Joan Tronto to stress the importance of asking what should be done to “maintain, continue, and repair our world so that we can live in it as well as possible.
