The Place of Public Art in Social Change

Abstract

The main focus of this paper is the implementation of social committed public art projects in urban renewal actions. It seeks to explore the democratic potential in urban artistic interventions and to challenge the view of public art as a collective good, by examining the role of public art works in terms of urban governance. It takes into account the first public art projects realized in Italy within the Nuovi Committenti Programme and it shows how recent practices of public art are intended both to design the physical appearance of the city and to rebuild the relationship that underpin urban life. Nuovi Committenti, promoting citizen participation in the patronage and production of contemporary art project that acknowledge a concrete demand for a better quality of life, seems to take into account a change in the relation between art and the society and it shows how public art can laid the foundations for more integrated urban regeneration projects.