10/24/2006

Art and Public Sphere



This is a new book entitled What does Public Mean? publisehd by the new publishing house Torpedo, based in Oslo, and edited by Tone Hansen. We have contributed (Leire Vergara and I) with a fragmentary text written a duo that focuses at the experience of D.A.E. Donostiako Arte Ekinbideak in San Sebastian. The text mixes reflections about structural and ethical conditions for a possible art organisation based on some grassroot ground. It also contains a large section of footnotes describing some of D.A.E. projects as well as contextual information about changes in cultural policies in the San Sebastian of the post-Manifesta era. The question of a participative Public Sphere or Public Arena it has been pretty much discussed in the last years in the context of contemporary art. The Habermasian concept of Offentlichkeit has been used in the light of some new developments in the organisation of space that offers a reconsideration of previous ideas of the "public", "publicness" and "publicity". The genesis of our contribution in this book comes from a presentation we did at UKS in Olso, late 2004, in the framework of Gadar Eide Einarsson's Come and Take it exhibition. Since then we have a productive intelectual exchange with artist Tone Hansen developped with the ocassion of We Rule the School workshop in Arteleku, San Sebastian. The result is a kind of resumé or re-assesment of the brief history of D.A.E. Donostiako Arte Ekinbideak. Besides us the book contains contributions by Ina Blom, Gardar Eide Einarsson, Geminidas and Nomeda Urbonas, Stian Grogaard, Tone Hansen, Marianne Heiner and Cornelia Sollfrank.