Home
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
PUBLIC ART AS A BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED PLACES
UCP – CITAR – R3iAP
17th and 18th November 2022
Universidade Católica Portuguesa – Porto
A monument of the city founder Duke de Richelieu is seen covered with sand bags for protection, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in central Odessa, Ukraine March 9, 2022. REUTERS/Liashonok Nina/File Photo
SUBMISSIONS HERE > Until 1st July 2022 [Extended]
During the last few years, public space went through a deep crisis. Anti-pandemic preventive measures have dictated severe restrictions to the use of public space. Access to everyday activities, as well as simple leisure moments, or even circulation, have been harshly restricted, both indoors and outdoors, including the access to schools, universities, museums or libraries during the confinement periods.
Nevertheless, can we say that cultural activity had ceased? Has, or has not, the restricted access to outdoors public space fostered a massive exploration of virtual public space? In fact, creating and sharing artistic work, attending and participating in cultural activities and online programs seems to have had a wide and general boom, expanding our notions of public space and public art.
Addressing these questions, the International Conference Public Art as a Bridge over Troubled Places intends to capture and debate the memory of the resilience of public art during pandemic times, as well as to reflect about the impact of the means and methods that were used during those periods.
What were the new possibilities explored by public art during the pandemic crisis? What were the most relevant and innovative approaches and achievements? Did those follow or reflect any common patterns? And, if so, what has characterized them?
In this perspective, the International Conference Public Art as a Bridge over Troubled Places intends also to stimulate new creative insights concerning the renewed possibilities opened by the recent extensions of the concepts and practices concerning public space and public art. How did the pandemic experience change our relationship with public space, and public art, and what dimensions of the latter are currently being explored?
Facing the most severe restrictions dictated by the militarization of the public and the mediatic space, how can public art become a safe bridge over troubled places?
Can public art express the spirit of resistance and aid? Can it be a space of care? A space for change?
Please send us your presentation proposals, considering one of these two areas, as follows:
1st Area – PUBLIC ART between MEMORY and IMAGINATION
Possible topics: virtual public art; virtual public sphere; augmented reality; new media art; soundscape immersive experience...
2nd Area – PUBLIC ART before PLACE and POWER
Possible topics: public installations; activism and empowerment; feminism and gender; religious beliefs; esoterism…
