Performative Citizenship: Public Art, Urban Design, and Political Participation

In 1995, in Chicago, Mary Jacob curated Culture in action , an experience of participatory Public Art which left a mark on the contemporary artistic research and criticism. Over the last twenty years, this new genre of public art (Lacy 1995) has developed. In these dialogical and connective aesthetics (Kester 1999, Gablik 1992), public artists have involved citizens in creative performances that aim to modify citizens’ perceptions of the places where they live, to create new relations within and toward the territory, and to transform (often temporarily) the physical spaces. The book moves from the first outcomes of a two-years interdisciplinary research programme on the Italian contemporary Public Art, funded by the Sardinia Region (Italy). Moving beyond the traditional ladders of formal citizen participation to territory governance, the research investigates how public artists have involved citizens in creative performances that aim to modify citizens’ perceptions of the places where they live, to create new relations within and toward the territory, and to transform (often temporarily) the physical spaces.