Reviews
BOOK REVIEW
I
The Art of Public Space: Curating and Re-imagining the
Ephemeral City
s there something compelling
that a series of cutting-edge art
interventions exploring public
space in Johannesburg can tell us
about cities, imagination and the
public sphere?
Kim Gurney reflects upon ‘New
Imaginaries’ to explore the
connection: curated through
walking, the politics and poetics of
migration; via gaming, punk technologies
and play; and performance art activating
transport lines.
The projects link city space to the public
sphere to render otherwise illegible
urban forms and flows. In so doing, they
suggest public space as common space
instead, with public art towards an art of
the commons. This musically inflected
book includes a snapshot of recent
performance art in central Johannesburg,
a silo-breaking chapter on artists and
uncertainty and a closing track to place
the author in situ.
The account ultimately positions itself
as a public policy riposte in favour of
economic invisibility- that art counts
even when it cannot be counted.
EDITOR: Kim Gurney
PUBLISHER: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781137436894
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