We are living in a strangely apocalyptic moment where a perverse logic runs the machinery of public life while insisting everything is just fine. Around the world, political systems are tightening control over commerce, education, culture, and communication. Independent critical thinking is increasingly treated as subversive rather than a civic virtue. Public space, once the laboratory for egalitarian expression, is shrinking under surveillance, privatization, and corporate branding. So where does socially engaged art fit into a world progressively hostile to independent thought? There is a peculiar naïve optimism embedded in the history of social practice art. It assumes that art, when placed in the public sphere, can help communities imagine themselves differently, more equitable, more attentive, more present. For decades, artists have stepped outside the safe space of the white cube gallery to work directly with people, neighborhoods, and public life.…