Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable (ATSA) is a group of socially conscious artists with the goal of a counter-industrial revolution. Based in Montreal and co-founded by artists Annie Roy and Pierre Allard in 1997, ATSA is a non-profit artist-activist organization, creating urban interventions for the public to experience as a means of promoting positive change and reflections of how each lives in the current world. In their work, the aesthetic and symbolic properties of "art" are used as tools in advocating social change. ATSA addresses a range of current socio-political issues from globalization, homelessness, ecological deterioration, pollution, over-consumption to terrorism. The group's name Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable (which translates literally from the French into English as Socially Acceptable Terrorist Action) suggests the nature of the group while clearly stating its position regarding terrorism. Although it may seem easier to ignore acts of terrorism, ATSA, calls attention to these destructive offensives by offering change and action as an alternative measure of response.

ATSA's works are urban interventions such as in situ, installations, and performances. Their ephemeral work offered in the public domain (i.e. busy streets, urban parks, etc.) can be readily accessed by many. By taking art out of the gallery, ATSA creates a public forum that is both inviting and available to a wide range of people of all classes, ages, gender and/or race. It is important to ATSA co-founders Roy and Allard that the art is inscribed within a public urban territory, ensuring there is contact with the public at large. This contact is a crucial aspect of the work of ATSA because it allows the viewer to reflect on the issue at hand, and asks them to respond accordingly as citizens.

These conceptually driven pieces offer the public an experience [of art] that, it is hoped, will promote a positive change within, whether it is kicking bad habits or stopping destructive thoughts and behavior, ATSA challenges the viewer to make positive changes by taking action in their own lives. The mandate to all of ATSA's work is the following:

To create urban interventions that investigate and transform the urban landscape and restore the citizen's place in the public realm, depicting it as a political space open to discussion and societal debates. ATSA promotes an open, active and responsible vision of artists as citizens contributing to the sustainable development of their society1.

It is valuable to look at the work of ATSA within the context of the time it is being produced (1997-present) because it challenges the media's promotion of 'individuality'. The individualized, autonomous self is an image that the media is constantly promoting, leaving little emphasis on the collective community. By recognizing the importance of 'community' and community actions, ATSA creates ephemeral experiences enabling viewers to question individual actions which contribute to the health of the collective whole and its present conditions. In works such as Industrial Park (Parc Industriel), August 17 - September 4, 2002, and Attentat #! Series (nos. 1-9 since 2003), viewers were confronted with an inventory of how individual decisions/actions can affect the public at large. In Industrial Park, viewers were invited to visit an archaeological site (viewing remains from an ancient civilization) however viewers were confronted with a large structure built out of recycled materials reflecting today's society. Such a piece offers a reflection on society's current driving forces and its consumptive values wherein ecological consequences are ignored.

Footnotes:
1 http://www.atsa.qc.ca/document.asp?v=a&id=47