The aim of these sessions organised as project exchanges is to analyse and debate the different paths taken and ones to be taken regarding art which influences the public area through experiences that make certain programmes and specific strategies possible. The city and the land in general are today areas that attract growing interest and a desire to expand and experiment new forms through multiple projects which belong to and are considered as possible in the world of art. The complexity of influencing public areas shows the need to take to take a multidisciplinary approach that can incorporate new aspects of interaction with the public, that can incite a critical spirit, that can propose new meanings to the public area by using existing infrastructures, than wan open work processes that can be retaken by other people involved in the transformation of the social space, that can be turned into an active element of the construction and comprehension of its surrounding area.
The transient and fugacious nature with which most artistic practices are promoted show its two sides: on the one hand the fact that all interventions don’t have a permanent effect on he urban landscape and is thus a transitory experience, but on the other hand, it can be taken as yet another event in the urban landscape, or the city museum, a stage dominated by the incredibly high consumption rate of all that is new. Competition between cities foments the proliferation of cultural events which should be consumed in a short time. This leads to the need to continuously programme and often forget to reflect on the project or the design of the strategies in the long term. It is necessary to ensure that cultural policies promote proposals that foment production, diffusion and articulation of networks. A balanced mix if these ingredients may very well contribute to the progressive development of projects with attainable objectives and which could have a more consolidated effect.
Where possible, and where the artistic projects taking place in the public space can be moved between the “processing” and the “tuning” or a wide range of intermediary nuances, some times promoted by the artists themselves, and on other occasions by the existence or creation of programmes that promote them. In this sense in which art acquires a relevant role, and gives us enough room to suggest different subjects for debate, a series of questions which can be viewed or analysed based on the different experiences of the participants is proposed, and thus open the debate.
Consolidation of programmes: What factors influence continuity, growth or the disappearance of a public art programme?
Circuits and specialisation: Can projects be adapted to any context from which they are invited to participate in? Under what conditions do these practices require a level of implication and connection with the specific context? What strategies can be articulated to improve on the biennial model?
Networks: How can one foment network structures with enable feedback from experience?
Participation, art: New production formats, presentation and diffusion. Dissolution/Integration of cultural practices in community strategies. Can they be looked at from the tools and concepts of art to activate cultural participation and production?
Authorship: Does authorship become less strong or disappear when the work is based on cooperative projects?
Cooperative projects with people who work in other disciplines, or when the artists uses strategies of anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, journalist, documentary maker… is it necessary to define the differentiating role when certain practices are proposed in the institution of art? Is it relevant to cause these methodological confusions, this dissolution of the purest artistic practise? What roles do the organiser, artist, mediator, producer of projects acquire?
Art & city: What does public art give the city?
Coordination of the Madrid Abierto 06 programme of debates and exchanges: Ramon Parramon. Director of Idensitat and co-director of the Master’s course in Design and Public Space, Elisava-Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
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