Art in Public Space: A Country’s Political Barometer

Video Interview With Claudine Dussolier and Jean-Sébastien Steil

By drawing a general overview of arts development in France’s public spaces, Claudine Dussolier and Jean-Sébastien Steil underline how tightly this art is connected to the political, economic and social contexts. It is fabricated in a transnational common issue that charts the evolution and specificities of this artistic field.

Artistic initiatives in public spaces seem to always start on a small scale and carry an experimental aspect before expanding progressively. They are derived from a need to build up a common space with the other, influence the surroundings and share imaginations, but they are fundamentally political. Thus, the ethical motivation and political implications they carry keep on fluctuating depending on the country’s political atmosphere and emergencies. We have witnessed, for instance, in Egypt, Tunis, Lebanon, France, and others how transformative contextual events have been triggering a kind of awareness reflected in the artistic form produced in public spaces. Dussolier has been reflecting for many years on art in public spaces in some Arab countries. More than understanding why such emulsions are occurring, she observes that there seems to be a need to think about the structuration of this artistic field on local and broader regional levels. This is to support its sustainability, share tools and use the collective knowledge practitioners have been accumulating for more than a decade – which is what Mahatat Co-writing Lab is initiating.

Reference
Claudine Dussolier “Politique et art dans l’espace publique dans le monde arabe” in Revue Z.A.T (zone artistique temporaire) n°4, Avril 2012 – Penser la ville artistiquement.