Why Are We 'Artists'? 100 World Art Manifestos

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

This extraordinary collection of 100 artists' manifestos from across the globe over the last 100 years brings together activists, post-colonialists, surrealists, socialists, nihilists and a host of other voices. From the Négritude movement in Africa and Martinique to Brazil's Mud/Meat Sewer Manifesto, from Iraqi modernism to Australia's Cyberfeminist Manifesto, they are by turns personal, political, utopian, angry, sublime and revolutionary. Some have not been published in English before; some were written in climates of censorship and brutality; some contain visions of a future still on the horizon. What unites them is the belief that art can change the world.

Jessica Lack began her career at Tate: The Art Magazine before becoming preview arts writer at the Guardian and i-D Magazine. She scripted the short film season Unlock Art and has written for all the major art magazine publications. She co-authored the best-selling Tate Guide to Modern Art Terms.