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The first parts of this chapter trace the history of the Chinese national minority Uyghurs, the origins of their ethnic identity and their early art. It then describes the recent government's repression of Uyghurs and their attempts to resist the state oppression and forced assimilation through art.

Modern activist artists in their practices try to embody those ideal structures upon which they would like to see free society organized in the future. There are more and more artists who unite in groups without clear leaders, acting collectively and/or anonymously. Striving to overcome the framework of the field of art and reach a wide public audience, they are guided in their practice by the ideas of radical political philosophers who are close to them in spirit and proclaim a horizontal and decentralized system of governance, direct democracy, to the point of rejecting any power and state.

In the first part of this chapter, I will discuss the history and examples of the existence of a horizontal and decentralized control system in Russia and some other countries, as well as a theoretical rationale for the very idea of direct democracy. Then I will talk about modern collectives trying to apply the ideas of horizontalization and decentralization in their practice.

In the second part of the chapter, I will describe how activist artists try to build their ethics, based on the philosophy of modern anarchism, and to solve an important question – whether or not to participate in institutional and gallery activities.

In the third and final part, I will give the basic philosophical rules of activist art and speculate on whether the work of art activists corresponds to them. My conclusion is that, apart from the grass roots of the movement, from the connection with genuinely protesting and mass movements, the activity of activist artists is doomed to failure.

Art is a complex, multiform, fluid human activity that is subjugated to time-space-place contexts and dependent upon social representation and values. But what is it for? This introduction to the book Art in Diverse Social settings begins with a general characterization of Art as universal language. Unlike verbal language, art is primarily processed in the sensorial and emotional fields and only later rationally; unlike science, it does not aim at explaining or predicting the laws of the world's phenomena, instead it communicates by showing (in essence, it has an expressive meaning). In today's world, art became an accessible good and a valuable human creation because of this reappraisal of artistic practices; art is today expressive in domains such as politics, citizenship, economy, ethics, sustainability or public affairs.

The introduction to this edited book explains why it is focused on the role of art in today's diverse society. Art is part of the worldviews and mindsets from which it results and as a complex and ambiguous product of culture and perception, it must be understood from multiple perspectives. As such, this book includes in the first part seminal chapters with a theoretical scope, which highlight conceptual, contextual and cultural issues of contemporary art. The chapters in the second and third parts of the book are exemplary case studies, describing concrete intervention projects, which use some form of art or composed artistic expression as a medium for communication and intervention in the contexts of social and professional organizations, public spaces or the community. A summary of each chapter is provided and linked to the main goal of the book.