Abstract
The subject of this paper is an inner city artist-run gallery called Eastside Projects. As part of an historical trend in artistrun spaces, Eastside Projects have innovated a strategic approach to post-industrial space, their location and role within the city of Birmingham, UK. This paper outlines their approach in the context of the recent cultural policy frameworks impressed on publicly funded city-based art organisations. It attempts to extend the conceptualisation of contemporary art in the city within urban studies generally, specifically investigating the theoretical potential of Eastside Project’s curatorial strategy. How can we define public agency for art in the neoliberal city? For Eastside Projects, agency is defined principally through space and the aesthetics of space. This paper proposes a theoretical framework for articulating the political aesthetics of new public spaces for art.
Highlights
Since the 1980s, a substantial amount of research has emerged on the politics of art institutions, museums and galleries, as well as the contemporary art markets (Lind 2010 O’Neill 2012; Rand, Kouris 2007)
This emerging scholarship and criticism coincided with the English-language reception of the work of Bourdieu and of Foucault, both of whose influentual conceptualisation of power allowed for the term ‘politics’ to be routinely applied to every human institution or social activity (Bourdieu 1984; Foucault 1972)
I will not be concerned with the politics of ‘art’, whether exhibitions and the display of knowledge, art world systems of commercial exchange and distribution, or the power of the European and American art elites that hold power of governance over the global art economy (Buddensieg, Belting 2009)
Summary
Since the 1980s, a substantial amount of research has emerged on the politics of art institutions, museums and galleries, as well as the contemporary art markets (Lind 2010 O’Neill 2012; Rand, Kouris 2007). It is housed in a large brick-build industrial unit, providing one main exhibition hall, office and social space, and one adjacent smaller gallery space It was initiated in collaboration with Arts Council England and Birmingham City University, and managed by artist-curator Gavin Wade, artists Simon & Tom Bloor and Ruth Claxton, artist and architect Celine Condorelli, and designer James Langdon. While an historical anachronism to some, more and more artists have become concerned with the ‘political’ relationshiop between art and ‘public’ culture (public funds, public space, institutional resources and the right to petition authorities) In their publications and publicity, EP continually articulate a conviction that contemporary artistic culture is a ‘public good’ necessary for the health of the city. Our task is to theorise the complexion of public agency for contemporary art in the neoliberal city
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