The Practice of Public Art

A page with a few publications about theory and practice of public art.
1) Book: No Room to Move: Radical Art and the Regenerate City
2) Book: The Practice of Public Art
3) Publication : Open

1) No Room to Move: Radical Art and the Regenerate City

Copied from: mute

As the Creative City model for urban regeneration founders on the rocks of the recession, and the New Labour public art commissioning frenzy it triggered recedes, Anthony Iles and Josephine Berry Slater take stock of an era of highly instrumentalised public art making. Focusing on artists and consultants who have engaged critically with the exclusionary politics of urban regeneration, their analysis locates such practice within a schematic history of urban development’s neoliberal mode. Breaking down into a report and collection of interviews, this investigation consistently focuses on the possibility and forms of critical public art within a regime that fetishises ‘creativity’ whilst systematically destroying the preconditions for it in its pursuit of capital accumulation. How, they ask, is critical art shaped by its interaction with this aspect of biopolitical governance?

Content:

1. No Room to Move: Radical Art and the Regenerate City
2. Interview with Alberto Duman
3. Interview with Freee
4. Interview with Nils Norman
5. Interview with Laura Oldfield Ford
6. Interview with Roman Vasseur

subject: Art | Cultural Industries | New Enclosures | Patronage | Site-Specific | Socially Engaged

2) The Practice of Public Art

A recent anthology about the fine art discipline of public art. A very good resource for theory, practice and history, although many essays are about the United States.

Cartiere, C. and Willis, S. (2008). The practice of public art. London: Routledge.

A Public art definition  (p15) or working definition: “there are recognised directions within public art practice that serve to define the field:
Public art is art outside of museums and galleries and must fit within at least one of the following categories:
1. in a place accessible or visible to the public: in public
2. concerned with or affecting the community or individuals: public interest
3. maintained for or used by the community or individuals: public place
4. paid for by the public: publicly funded”

I would consider the University grounds a semi-public place, but taken that aside, the SoundUnit ticks 4 boxes!

3) Open

Cahier on Art and the Public Domain

A critical platform for discussions of theory and practice:
Published by SKOR, a Dutch organisation which develops and realises art projects in public space.
Some articles are online available:

http://www.skor.nl/set-635-en.html

“Open is a cahier that reflects upon contemporary public space from a cultural perspective. Through a thematic investigation into the changing conditions of public space and through new ideas relating to this space, Open aims to make a structural contribution to the development of theories about these subjects and to function as a platform for reflection on socio-cultural and artistic practices.

Open wants to create and stimulate autonomous and experimental ideas concerning art and the public domain. Theme issues have featured such subjects as security, memory, visibility, sound, tolerance, hybrid space, cultural freedom, the rise of informal media, art as a public issue and manufacturability. In addition to essays and more project-related texts, Open also includes book reviews and interviews with artists and theorists.”

Photo op

Yesterday while it was still dry and sunny Bob Marshall and I had a look at the SoundUnit from a photographers point of view. From extreme distorting wideangle to flattening tele.

Pavilions and Biennales

In my proposal statement I mentioned that I wanted to create a sort of pavilion. I saw this in terms of a satellite, as something that is on the periphery of something else but is at the same time dependent on  it. A site somewhere between the ‘artworld’ and the rest of the universe. A place where artists can experiment with what it means to bring your work out into the open, the public sphere. The physical and organisational context behind the exhibited work are a vital ingredient in our experience of art. Today it is easy to publicise your work on the internet but how does it relate to the physical world?

Lets take a leap in scale and have a look at the biennale as an exhibition platform. Biennales are an exhibition format that bring many satellites, many pavilions from a global artworld, together in what is perceived to be a centre of culture. These centres, usually the big cities, become exposed to the vibrant new ideas from the outside, the underground or sub-cultures. They transform, modify and integrate these new ideas into the mainstream. At the same time the satellites take something from the mainstream back home. A cross pollination or is it a way to manure the field, to stay in an agricultural analogy. Today the internet plays a vital role in bringing these events together, and to distribute its content and experiences. It is the multilayered aspect of the digital and tactile experience that makes art today what it is.

Have a look at a current biennale:

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Amsterdam Biennale 2009

Because it wasn’t there before… http://www.mediamatic.net/page/97484

The Amsterdam Biennale 2009 presents the underground art scene from all over the world. More than thirty international curators from the Mediamatic network provide their view of contemporary art in their city.

The Biennale is an exhibition in progress. At the opening, the 16th of October at 20.00 hrs, the pavilions of Kabul, Naples, Amsterdam, Melbourne, Belgrade, Tallinn and Brooklyn will be on show. Till 13th of December every week new city pavilions will be built. So during that period, there will be an opening every week.

16 Oct 2009 13 Dec 2009

Mediamatic Bank Mediamatic Bank Vijzelstraat 68 1017 HL Amsterdam, +31206389901 www.mediamatic.net (view on map)

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Mediamatic Foundation Mediamatic Foundation