Is 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 and the 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, 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. A journey through Johannesburg via three art projects raises intriguing notions about the constitutive relationship between the city, imagination and the public sphere- through walking, gaming and performance art. Amid prevailing economic validations, the trilogy posits art within an urban commons in which imagination is all-important.

The Art of Public Space: Curating and Re-Imagining The Ephemeral City PDF

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