“Digitalization” of Art Activism. A Case Study of the Cluj-based Collective MindBomb Mara RAŢIU, Bogdan IACOB Abstract: Critical attitudes regarding controversial social contemporary issues could take the form of art activism. The Clujbased collective MindBomb is a hybrid critical voice, combining political art and activism. Initiated in 2002, following the model of the San Francisco Print Collective, it reunites professionals from creative industries, who refuse to reveal their individual identity. MindBomb has conducted a series of public actions in the city of Cluj-Napoca, and also in various other cities in Romania, on topics such as democratization of the public space, aesthetics of the public space, corruption practices of the political class, as well as ecological matters related to the cyanide extraction of gold in the Apuseni Mountains. If the first series of actions consisted in the production of visually poignant posters illegally scattered all over the city, the last actions took place mostly – and legally – in the digital world, on social networks such as Facebook. Keywords: art activism / activist art, art activist practices, political activism, digitalization, Internet, social media, contemporary social movements, social change, appropriation, recycling, detournement, cultural jamming |