‘A striking action, a touch of humor, or an unexpected scene can attract attention.’
Originally published on Global Voices
An urban art piece called “The Post is fast, it's only the letters that arrive slowly” in front of the main Post Office in Skopje, North Macedonia.
This post is by Nikola Pisarev, an art historian and a pioneer of creative activism in North Macedonia, who serves as the program director at the Contemporary Art Center in Skopje. It is also part of Global Voices’ September 2026 Spotlight series, “Protest in Democracy.” You can support this coverage by donating here.
In recent decades, practices that bring art directly into people’s everyday lives have become increasingly common. They may be initiated by artists, activists, informal groups, or citizens who use creative means to draw attention to a problem, express disagreement, or call for change. Public spaces become a place where an action meets an audience, provokes a response, and starts a conversation. This approach, when artistic and creative means are used to press for solutions or encourage social change, is called artistic activism.
The “Monument to Diazepam” raised awareness about overuse of prescription drugs. Photo by Nikola Pisarev. Used with permission.
At their core, art and activism have different but complementary roles. Activism seeks to change a situation through strategic planning and advocacy; art, on the other hand, is not pro or against but can move people emotionally.
Art can change how people see and experience a situation. It opens up new perspectives and associations, and its effects are not always immediate or easy to measure. Artistic activism brings these possibilities together: It uses the emotional experience of art as a prompt for action and directs that action towards change.
Urban art actions in North Macedonia offer local examples for exploring this approach. Many actions were developed through direct engagement with specific problems, rather than as part of a broader methodology. They began with a desire to point out an injustice, raise a question, or help address a problem.
Urban art action “Fishing for Potholes” in Veles, North Macedonia, which included public performance and distribution of photo and video coverage. Photo by Nikola Pisarev. Used with permission.
What makes artistic activism compelling?
It does not always take a large crowd to draw attention to a problem. A striking action, a touch of humor, or an unexpected scene can attract attention even when it is created by a small group — or by a single person. This does not replace the power of mass organizing, but it makes action possible when resources are limited.
Additionally, amid the constant barrage of information, an unusual sculpture, a witty message, or an intervention in public space can interrupt people’s routine scrolling. They may photograph and share the action, extending its reach beyond the place where it took place through social media and communication platforms.
Still, a high number of views does not mean the problem has been solved. Visibility is an opportunity that needs to be connected to the action’s purpose.
Within high-risk or authoritarian contexts, creative action can also give activists greater room to act, even under pressure. Humor, metaphor, and unexpected forms can sometimes make a problem visible without direct confrontation. In some cases, the people behind an action can also remain anonymous. This does not make them immune to pressure: The level of risk depends on the context, the subject, and the way the action is carried out. But a creative form may allow organizers to absorb some of that pressure while keeping the affected community less exposed.
Likewise, a problem hidden in reports, procedures, or individual experiences can remain invisible to the larger public. An artistic action can translate a complex situation into an image, object, or scene that people can readily recognize. This can encourage citizens, experts and decision-makers to discuss the problem and possible solutions. The challenge is to make the message clear without distorting the substance of the issue.
Art also has a way of enduring long after it has disappeared from public space. A scene, symbol, or object can become a story that the media and the public continue to share after the intervention has ended.
The people behind an action do not need to specialize in every aspect of the problem. They do need to understand its core, use reliable information, and listen to those directly affected.
There are countless ways artistic activism can affect a community. It might prompt an immediate response from the authorities, change how people see an issue, or encourage other social actors to get involved.
Immediate response and problem-solving
Satirical plaque, supposedly from the Guinness Book of Records for the “World Record for the Longest Road Construction” for an street in Skopje that laid unfinished for years. Photo by Nikola Pisarev. Used with permission.
Some actions prompt the authorities to respond quickly. This most often happens with concrete local infrastructure problems: potholes, broken streetlights, faults in water or electricity networks, and smaller environmental issues.
North Macedonia has seen many examples: “The Guinness World Record for the Longest Road Construction”; rubber ducklings placed in the mud at the entrance to a kindergarten in Štip; “fishing” for potholes in Veles; a celebration of the first birthday of a landslide near Kratovo; and the swan lake protest in Orhid. These actions made the situation visible and helped bring about solutions.
However, street art actions can also address wider issues, such as personal data protection, disinformation threats, or corruption.
Changing views and perceptions
Some problems are treated as untouchable, while expert and activist explanations can struggle to reach a wider public. Artistic activism can bridge that gap through the accessibility of an artwork: A simple, readable form can make serious phenomena and policies easier to grasp, encouraging people to question views they may previously have accepted or failed to notice.
Simple Styrofoam fins simulated sharks in the Vardar River in the center of Skopje, next to buildings in the shape of sailing ships made as part of Skopje 2014 project. Photo by Nikola Pisarev. Used with permission.
Some famous examples of street art activism in North Macedonia include “Sharks in the Vardar River,” which commented on the Skopje 2014 project; “The Eyes of the Trees,” about excessive tree-cutting in Skopje; the “Monument to Diazepam” to raise awareness about overuse of prescription drugs; the Ohrid trout’s speech for St. Nicholas Day; the giant nest carrying a message from birds; and the campaign for the referendum to save GTC, the historic public City Shopping Center in Skopje.
Using different approaches, these actions invited citizens to reconsider their views on public policies and decisions.
Added art warns about the plight of the trees. Photo by Nikola Pisarev. Used with permission.
Encouraging public responses and broader engagement
Some actions aim to provoke responses and mobilize a range of actors. These include not only authorities and institutions, but also professional associations, specialist non-governmental organizations and other groups working on specific issues. At times, such groups may engage less often with the problems citizens face, because communication with communities is limited or because they are reluctant to leave their comfort zones.
The media play an important role in this process. Prompted by an action, they seek answers from different actors. When answers are not forthcoming, pressure grows on those actors to take the problem more seriously. In this way, public attention and media coverage can encourage wider engagement.
A “clean air cabin” ironically offering “fresh mountain air” in the city of Skopje, which suffers from excessive pollution. Photo by Nikola Pisarev. Used with permission.
Early actions on air pollution in Skopje in 2010 and 2011 are one example. With media support, the group “Urban Art Actions” pressured environmental organizations to take air pollution more seriously.
A similar approach appears in “Bread for All” about poverty; “How Many More Victims?” about cyclist safety in Skopje; and more recent actions on river pollution (featuring a mobile statue of floating feces). In these cases, public pressure helped bring the issues to greater attention among organizations and the wider public.
Some of artistic activism’s effectiveness comes from the way actions are made. Preparation often takes place in a studio or garage. It requires serious effort, but can also be an engaging and creative process. Working this way may help people avoid some of the burnout associated with sustained activism, although it does not remove the pressures that can come with public action.
Another source of artistic activism’s effectiveness — and one reason it is becoming more visible in public communication — is its ability to make a problem difficult to ignore. When that happens, the political cost of inaction can rise. Authorities may begin to view a problem in terms of its potential effect on voters at the next election. If the cost of addressing it is lower than, or comparable to, the possible loss of votes, a response and a solution become more likely.