[eBook] [PDF] For Art in the City, the City in Art 1st Edition By Elisha Masemann

[eBook] [PDF] For Art in the City, the City in Art 1st Edition By Elisha Masemann

This Book examines an interplay between discourses on the city that stress the

need for rational-functional order and art’s imaginative deviations from the topdown

structures of urban life. Moving between theory and praxis, the book

situates the city as both a concept and physical construct through which lives and

possibilities are shaped or defined. In response, certain modalities of art create

spontaneous, non-rational and playful interludes that risk escape from the urban

apparatus and a hyper-valorisation of rational order. A three-part framework is

used to discuss this push-pull dynamic and to assess the strategies of shock,

performative embodiment and intervention that emerged in post-war art

movements and in contemporary performance and participatory art practices.

The book examines how the disturbances introduced by artists throw the city

construct into sharp relief, making it visible and activating momentary encounters

where new modes of expression can emerge.