This conference on art in the public domain and digital media was a part of the international Art Line project.
The role of art in the public domain is frequently discussed in the Tri-City artistic circles. One thing that has recently stirred up the discourse is the growing number of festival like projects with a more or less populist profile appearing in the urban space. The festivals vary in form and purpose, but what they all share is the common air of an ephemeral event. Often dubbed interventions in the public domain they aim to familiarize the average viewer with art.
What about the responsibility to local communities involuntarily exposed to and involved in such activities? What strategies, if any, could be employed to initiate cooperation with those locals who experience thousands of strangers flooding their streets in a quest for artistic projects? Should such interventions in the public domain be represented by institutions? Isn’t it then a contradiction? And last but not least, what is the public domain as such since it no longer belongs to an urban space alone?
The conference organized by the Gdansk City Gallery and the Baltic Sea Culture Centre adressed these and other issues. The curators and artists invited shared their experience of performing in the public domain. However, it is the inhabitants invited by the organizers who will remain at the centre of the discussion, both those accepting and rejecting such projects.
Programme (link to more information)


