Interrupting the City
Artistic Constitutions of the Public Sphere
- How do artistic interventions constitute the public sphere?
- Connects artistic practices with theoretical perspectives on the city and public space
- Antennae series: Award Dutch Best Book Designs 2015 by the student panel of judges
Editors: Sander Bax, Pascal Gielen, Bram Ieven
Design: Metahaven
Series: Antennae, Arts in Society
2015, Valiz | supported by Mondriaan Fund, University of Groningen | paperback | 327 pp. | 21 x 13,5 cm (h x w) | English | ISBN 978-94-92095-02-2
Table of contents (pdf)
Introduction (pdf)
About the authors (pdf)
Interrupting the City looks at how artistic practices and interventions constitute the public sphere. To interrupt the city (be it digitally or materially) means to arrest the flow or circulation of the urban system. The tactics by which this interruption is achieved may vary, ranging from a media offensive to street riots, but each and every time these activities affect the public sphere, they make the public sphere. Thus, the public domain is constituted by a combination of social, political and media forces, in a continual flux that is constantly being interrupted.
This book attempts to chart the conditions for developing a voice in the public sphere, and to ask in what way these conditions may be altered by means of artistic interventions. Its contributions delve into the relations between artistic practices and public space, including the urban relations between art and politics.
Contributors: Sander Bax, Bojana Cvejić, Lieven De Cauter, Pascal Gielen, Odile Heynders, Bram Ieven, Vanessa Joosen, Jennifer Miller, Tessa Overbeek, Gerald Raunig, Gregory Sholette, Erik Swyngedouw, Rennie Tang, Sarah Vanhee, Geertjan de Vugt, Sara Wookey