DescriptionMy thesis identifies and analyzes the effectiveness of a particular mode of politicized art praxis: radical pedagogical initiatives launched within specific art communities in the region from 1980 to the present. My research addresses a newly integrated Europe, a region currently shaped by the economic crisis, growing social inequalities and the rise of nationalist rhetoric. I focus on three artists' groups, (IRWIN with Marina Gržinic from Slovenia, Chto Delat? from Russia, and Lia Perjovschi and Dan Perjovschi from Romania) who created new practices around suppressed topics during periods of political duress. The issues their art raised included gender discrimination, the false construction of national and ethnic identities, the corrupt nature of political power, and the ethics of working under socialism, and capitalism. I show how these artists realized their concerns in the social sphere in an era when they were repressed or crudely denounced by conservative officials. My strategy addresses the broader question of why, and how, artists who came to maturity under repressive political regimes continued to question the transition from socialism to capitalism.