Why Are We 'Artists'?

Why Are We Artists? is a new anthology encompassing 100 years of manifestos by artists, filmmakers, and architects from across the globe.

"Art is not a luxury. Art is a basic social need to which everyone has a right."

This extraordinary collection features 100 artists' manifestos from around the world, spanning the past century. It brings together political activists, anti-colonialists, surrealists, socialists, nihilists, and many more diverse voices. From the Negritude movement in Europe, Africa, and Martinique to Japan's Bikyoto, from Iraqi modernism to Australian cyberfeminism, the manifestos are by turns personal, political, utopian, angry, sublime, and revolutionary.

Some manifestos are being published in English for the first time; others were written in climates of censorship and brutality. Several contain visions of a future still on the horizon. What unites them all is the belief that art can change the world.