The thesis explores participatory art practice and the possibilities of translating it into a visual language. It is grounded in long-term authorial research conducted through workshops with diverse groups, primarily children from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. The core of the work is a reflection on participation as a process based on relationality, embodiment, empathy, and ethical responsibility, as well as a search for ways to transform these qualities into an autonomous artistic form.
The outcome is an object-based installation in the form of an interactive construction set, complemented by a series of abstract paintings. The installation operates with a system of four fictional entities that represent different methodological approaches to participation (touch, translation, space, boundary). Their “voice” is embodied by wooden blocks, which function as carriers of meaning and as tools for translating intangible processes into material form. The project employs speculative fabulation as a means of connecting analytical reflection with imagination.
At the same time, the thesis addresses the authorial position in participatory art and the conscious engagement with a multiplicity of roles (artistic, pedagogical, facilitative). It examines the tension between process and its visual representation and proposes a model in which participation becomes an artistic principle capable of functioning beyond its original context.