"When starting, one should not undertake any complicated or politically sensitive actions. The more unambiguous, the better. An action must be understood on its own merits. If one has to go to great lengths to explain it, then it is far too unstable to succeed in the face of state and media harassment."

The ongoing reduction of democratic rights, the increase of institutionalized discrimination against fringe groups, the dismantling of social welfare legislation with a parallel worsening of the economic (world market) situation, the privatization of previously public spaces etc. all mark out a social environment in which artists and artist-groups dedicate themselves to socio-political questioning.

Artists are preoccupied with "extra-artistic" themes such as racism, sexism or ecological matters, and are trying to bring these across in artistic contexts. Activists and leftwing groups often collaborate and are offered a forum in the art world. For those works where the discussion, research, analysis and criticism of already existing material or the publication of texts gives them greater importance over the creation of products, the term "project" has become prevalent. Interdisciplinary cooperation with various groupings and "issue"-exhibitions in the context of art are the outward markings of an artistic practice whose reception and social influence however mostly confine themselves to the "aesthetic field" now enriched through political content. It is all too often ignored that the targeted public does not increase through the involvement of communities and groups or the treatment of themes from a perspective which is not perceived by the broader public.

The question demanding to be answered is whether the shifting of political issues into the context of art could not already be termed a political policy. Strategies are also worked on to address a broader public, just as an explicit political art in "non-institutionalized space", that is mostly in so-called public space or the media, can be realized. The attitude of expectation connected to art, that this is to be as open as possible in relation to the possibilities of interpretation, retreats here in favor of a political unequivocalness and clarity of expressed criticism. The commonplace conviction in democracies for the freedom of art will have its validity tested when art now suddenly appears as a political position.
One problem which presents itself when working in public space is the following: what is a generally comprehensible language like which allows a political commentary or demand to infiltrate into a public debate without a too extreme oversimplification of the complexities?

A further problem lies in the existing balance of power. The radical questioning of social realities or agreements only too often implements repression or censorship.
The introductory quotation to this text is not a set of instructions for a politico-artistic action. It is derived from the "Revolutionäre Zellen", which have been at loggerheads with the (mostly Federal German) public and executive since the eighties with their military actions. Their activities were deemed terrorist by that public and the members of the RZ in living in underground were persecuted.