Introduction

In contemporary Europe, art functions as a mechanism of social exclusion, contravening Article 21 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is embedded in exclusionary narratives that associate certain artistic expressions with issues such as dementia and criminality.

Western culture has introduced terms like “Outsider Art”, alongside other patronising labels, to marginalise artists from minority groups, asserting that their work does not belong in conventional museums or galleries. Through what may be termed Exclusionary Arguments, the traditional art establishment challenges the legitimacy and value of such art in comparison to academically recognised forms.

ArTguments project — seeks to address this problem by developing an automated method to identify Exclusionary Arguments in artistic discourse, with the aim of reducing entrenched narratives that obstruct equitable representation. It is based on the hypothesis that these arguments can be computationally detected due to their consistent cognitive structures and identifiable linguistic patterns. Accordingly, the research employs Argument Mining techniques to analyse such discourse.