Circostrada Publication

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Contemporary Creation as a Tool

/September 2008

Art in the Urban Space:Contemporary Creationas a Tool

Anne Gonon

Jean-Pierre CharbonneauDragan KlaicAlix de MorantJoanna OstrowskaRamn ParramnChristian RubyStphane SimoninCorina Suteu & Cristian NeagoeYohann Floch (coord.)

CircostradaNetwork


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Presentation ............. ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ........ p. 3Stphane Simonin

Town Planning and Street Arts .............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ...... p. 4

Jean-Pierre Charbonneau

Spectator in abula What Street Theatre Does to Spectators ............. ............. ... p. 6Anne Gonon

Public Art: between (street) spectacle and the spectacular ............. ............. .......... p. 9Christian Ruby

Nomadic Creations ............. ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ............. ... p. 12Alix de Morant

From the Street Theatre to Theatre in the Public Space ............. ............. ............. ... p. 15Joanna Ostrowska

Artistic Interventions Afrm Public Space ........... .............. ............. ............. ............. ....... p. 18Dragan Klai

Arts Dont Have to Know How to Behave A Commentary on Street arts in Contemporary Urban Surroundings .......... p. 21Corina Suteu & Cristian Neagoe

Art, Public Space and Creation Centres ............ ............. ............. .............. ............. ........... p. 26Ramn Parramn

Arts in the Urban Space:Contemporary Creationas a Tool

Summary

Acknowledgments to our coordination assistant Sanae Barghouthiand the translators David Ferr, Gille Maillet, Amber Ockrassa and Brian Quinn.

Cover Florence Delahaye - Graphic design Marine Hadjes

This project has been funded with support from theEuropean Commission. This publication reectsthe views only of the author, and the Commissioncannot be held responsible for any use which maybe made of the information contained therein.


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Since 2003, Stphane Simonin has been Director oHorsLesMurs, the French national resource centre orthe circus and street arts. HorsLesMurs is one o ourFrench resources entirely dedicated to the perormingarts (along with the National Theatre Centre, the NationalDance Centre and the Inormation and Resource Centreor Contemporary Music). In 2003, HorsLesMurs createdCircostrada Network, which includes 32 partners romthroughout Europe. The Circostrada Network is a platormor inormation, research and proessional exchange. TheNetwork contributes to the development and structuring

o the street and circus arts on the European level.

Throughout the 1970s, artists ventured out into public spaces insearch o new perormance ground and direct contact with thepublic. They surely did not imagine that by taking art out o itscultural institutions they would incite so many questions and meetwith so many dierent dimensions o social lie.

This is because public space is the physical and symbolic place whereall the contradictions o a given society come to light. It is also theembodiment o all the solutions (or non-solutions) put into place

by the political body. Social, economic, environmental and culturalissues come together at this exact spot where our common spaceand ramework or living are created.

Artists can help us to understand the major issues o this complexreality, and can act as whistle-blowers to certain evils o modernsociety. Street artists tend to go much urther than those whopractice their art within identied cultural locations. Their physicalpresence in public spaces makes them not only privileged witnesses,but also direct actors within this public sphere.

Politicians, who are always looking or solutions to resolve theseproblems or relieve social tensions, quickly understood the potential

useulness o the artists presence in underprivileged spaces. Politi-cians expect the artist to undergo more than just an artistic process,and hope that in his or her own way the artist will also contribute tothe improvement o ellow citizens lives through an artistic gesture,overall creativity and work as a mediator. Can the artists interven-tion aspire to other objectives than that o the completion o hisor her artistic perormance? Should we worry about the possibleexploitation o artistic creation towards political or social ends?

At a debate o proessionals scheduled as part o the estival VivaCit in Sotteville-ls-Rouen, an artist gave a surprising answer tothis question: I dont mind being exploited. Quite the contrary, as

long as it opens up a ree space or me where I can say what Iwant to say the way I want to say it. Ater all, i artistic creationis respected as such, could it not serve other interests as well andrestore a sense o utility to the work o the artist within society?

The subject o this publication is to urther question the eectso artistic intervention in public spaces. We have asked Europeanresearchers rom varying elds (Cultural Policy, Theatre Studies,Philosophy, Urban Planning, Inormation and CommunicationStudies) to analyse within their respective domains o compe-tence the impact o artists presence on the public space.

They have, each in their own way, revealed artistic and aestheticissues as well as the dierent roles that contemporary creation canplay as a tool o development and improvement or our modernsocieties. Jean-Pierre Charbonneau explains how street artists can

contribute to urban transormation by questioning habitual usages,revealing new practices or giving meaning to places. Anne Gordondecodes the way in which street artists break the barrier betweenactors and spectators, and allow or the beginning o a process thatmakes the city theatrical. Philosopher Christian Ruby examines theartistic genre and its ability to oer an urban tale apt to encou-rage cohesion within the city, while Joanna Ostrowska reminds usthat street theatre sets goals or itsel that are more social thanaesthetic in their interrogation. She also supports the creation o aconsulting tribune within the urban space. From urban arts exam-ple, Corina Suteu and Chrsitian Neagoe analyse the social unctiono the arts in contemporary society and Alix de Morant addresses

the new orms o artistic nomadism, proving artists desire to redis-cover a pertinent usage o the modern world in order to becomeits geographers, cartographers, and at times even ethnographers.Finally, Ramn Parramn describes how art in public spaces isrenewing traditional schemas o management and cultural orga-nisation, and Dragan Klaic describes how the presence o artworksand artists in certain public spaces can contribute to making themvisible, dierent, and alive

This publication shows us the wide range o possible approachesregarding this question. It is the rst to bring together so manycontributions rom European researchers o varying disciplines onissues o art in public space. Through this initiative, the members o

the Circostrada network wish to create a common research spaceon the European level or this theme, which has up until now gonelargely unexplored. It does seem to us, however, to be undamentalin order to contribute to the knowledge and recognition o theseartistic orms.

PresentationStphane Simonin


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Town Planningand the Street Arts

Jean-Pierre Charbonneau is town planner, urban andcultural policy advisor. He was nominated or the NationalBig Prize o Town Planning 2002. He is currently technicaladviser o the cities o Saint-Etienne, Saint-Denis,Copenhagen, Lyon and Grand Lyon.Author o numerous articles and books on public spacesand urban policies (Espaces publics, espaces de vie, Les

lumires de Lyon, Arts de VillesHorwarth editions), he alsoparticipated in various conerences on those thematics inFrance and abroad. (www.jpcharbonneau-urbaniste.com)

It is revealing that although the same term, street arts, is used inboth town planning and the domain o theatrical creation in publicspaces, the meaning o the term varies. In one case, it indicates theway in which a street, a public area, or its composing elements arelaid out. In the other case, it indicates outdoor artistic activities, andespecially those by theatre perormers.A single word with two distinct meanings or two dierent proes-sional milieus: are the disciplines o the street arts and town plan-

ning so ar removed rom each other that there is no possible bridgebetween them? One is o a temporary nature and reers to thecreation o celebrations and events or a wide audience. The other,however, aims or the long-term construction o a city, and is consi-dered the austere, obscure matter o a specialist. But the apparentestrangement between these two dierent timerames, sympathiesand worlds actually hides several common points, revealing a para-dox that surely merits urther explanation.Although town planning deals with the construction o new territo-ries, it also essentially deals with the transormation o the existingcity. For beyond the speculations as to what the city o the uturemight look like, one hardly makes the mistake o believing that it isalready here, with its buildings, streets, public spaces, history, inha-

bitants, networks, liestyles, culture and tensions.So what change has taken place to allow the street arts and townplanning to have points in common, and what are they?

It is precisely because city lie is now, or a large part, an acceptedact. We are no longer in mourning or the rural liestyle, and desireto live well and to live ully within our city-dweller experience, hereand now. Town planning no longer has or its only role to developthe inner city, construct housing, encourage activity, or to createnew inrastructure. People are now asking public authorities ornew acilities and current answers to issues dealing with qualityo lie, dynamism, culture, hobbies, collective lie experiences, and

the expression o belonging to a local society. Town planning mustbe aware o certain sensitivities, lie experiences, and eelings, andcannot hold on to the pretentious ideology according to which it iscapable o planning the uture. It must deal with atmospheres, andaccompany urban lie as it evolves, instead o obstinately clingingto its role o great, order-giving authority. This is more the sign o

earned relevance than that o a loss o power or a discipline thatcontinues to discover its role daily within urban society.Yet, one o the territories wherein the sensitive nature o urban liecomes to play is the public space, that is, the theatre o activity orthe street arts. I we aspire to nd airer, subtler, and more complexanswers to this issue, we now have every interest in creating aruitul level o complicity between this discipline and urban trans-

ormation. A ew examples taken rom policies carried out withindierent cities will illustrate the central points o this research.The street arts allow us to experiment with sites, to test them, andto put them in movement beore they are denitively converted.Thus, the Festival des Jardins de Rues in Lyon (2004, 2007) consistedo colonising what was the excessively wide reuse areas in avouro square gardens, all o the same dimension (5m x 5m), and liningthem up along the sidewalks. For a moderate cost they allowed thequick creation o wide, comortable promenades, making or a cheeryand welcoming landscape, each garden having been conceived by adierent creator (designer, artist, architect, graphic designer).

Conventional development is oten a heavy, complex and long actin that its results must be permanent in relation to the harshnesso the urban space and its usages. On the contrary, such provisorypractices, which do not aim or long-term results, give way to acertain light-heartedness that is missing in urban development,where everything is discussed at length (legitimate as this may be)and everything is surveyed and calculated to endure (although thismight be good as such). And in this way new and as o yet unusedproposals (o material, management techniques, space creation)can emerge, as can practices that are not simply the result o thatwhich is known and has been long proven.

The street actors message is, o course, an artistic one. It aims to

bring poetry, a unique approach, and an out-o-the-ordinary ormo expression. It also intends to conront creation with the public,in all o its diversity and contradictions, as well as its occasionaltensions, and to conront it with the public space, as well as itscomplexity and richness. In this way, beyond the artistic message,the desire or an exchange between the artist and audience, and thesometimes expected educational message, all contribute to givingthe place a meaning, bringing it to lie in some other way, buil-ding a common history among the city dwellers and questioningold customs. Is it normal to still see cars crossing this street whenthe theatre company has shown what a wonderul gathering placeit can be or out city? Did you notice how, all o a sudden, you see

our neighbourhood in another light, and you see how it can be livedin dierently?

City lie is a given act, and celebrations and creation in the urbanspace are practices that a city must allow. Developments mustthereore make them possible (with certain streets very apt or

Jean-Pierre Charbonneau


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hosting events, along with possible crowd evacuation toward thenearest metro). In this regard, the example o the Saint-Denis citycentre is an interesting one.

A memorable parade, Carnavalcade, was organised or the98 world Cup, and it went rom the North to the South o the city,which was made all-pedestrian, and brought together thousands opeople. When it was time to renovate the centre, and particularlyits urban spaces, the memory o this event inspired authorities todecide that making the territory a large urban stage would be oneo its goals, allowing a place or these kind o events in the uture.Since the end o construction, a ull-fedged seasonal programmehas been put into place, giving a sense o coherence to the sche-duled cultural and sporting events, and making a ull acility out othe central spaces.Most city councillors were aware o this, having made celebrationsand street cultural events key moments in their neighbourhoodslie, and they even included such events in the strategies o their

political platorms.The Parade or the Danse de Lyon biennial event is indicative othis joint existence since, every two years in September, it bringstogether, in the very heart o the city, dance schools trained byproessionals and coming rom dierent underprivileged neighbou-rhoods o the Rhne Alpes. For this, it is in perect coherence withthe town planning policies carried out or years in Greater Lyon,which aims to give these peripheral neighbourhoods the quality olie, the service and the dignity to which all neighbourhoods o thesurrounding area are entitled.So, why not have a peaceul, domestic relationship between crea-tors and developers, as well as creators and politicians?

It is not a matter o that, but is rather about the necessity, in a demo-cracy, o having the street serve as the theatre or public, protest,estive or creative expression. Furthermore, we must come to accepttransgression and the seizure o space, which are also actors o adynamic and lively society. Would it not also be a danger to showonly an ethereal vision o urban society, and to erase its opposi-tion? On the other hand, allowing or open expression, and brin-ging tensions and contradictions to light could actually be ruitul,healthy, and possibly a sign o true inventiveness. It is then up tothe local society to regulate conficts and to occasionally protectitsel, according to the rules o democracy, against possible excessesreached during the practice o this legitimate, expressive custom

in urban spaces. From this viewpoint, we can dene actors o thestreet arts more as legitimate partners to the authorities than asinstruments or the use o politicians and their platorms. This is soeven i there may be a concordance o interests, which is not in ando itsel a problem.In Lyon there is also current research on the citywide level tohave uture developments aim to create, within a not-too-distanttimerame, territories that would be comortable and welcomingto all. To accomplish this, heavy renovation has been planned aswell as low-cost usage changes to quick-access spaces. Within thisramework, the street arts could be solicited (the project is currentlyunder review) as an experimental tool dealing with how a city o

today could live within the city and its neighbourhoods, as opposedto being a city-museum, or a copy o 19th century urban lie. Are wedealing with exploitation or a common search?

There are a certain number o similarities between the skill setso urban and street art proessionals. Thus, or example, places o

celebrations lay out a geography o use or a city and its practicesthat oten intersects with town planners analyses. We here ndthe central street, but also the hearts o neighbourhoods, river-banks, special sites, pathways between neighbourhoods and mainlocations A better understanding o the locations, tensions andruptures is thus constructed. Also, urban development and theorganisation o street events mobilise approaches and skills thatdeal with the same complexity involved in the use o public space.The location must remain accessible to remen as well as delive-ries to local businesses. Permission must be obtained rom all whohave their say over use o the space. There must be a guaranteedlevel o saety, and material must be used that can meet the manydierent needs o the public space. Distances travelled by oot mustbe crossed under good conditions. Public access by car or by publictransportation must be organised on a much wider scale, involvingthe unctioning o the entire city We are dealing with the centralcomplexity o the urban, and seeing it is enough to convince oneo the large number o steps involved, as well as the multitude o

obstacles to be overcome in order to bring about any temporary ordenitive change.

The street arts can serve as one o a town planners tools regardingthe use o public space. We have started developing this approachin a more systematic way through anticipatory developments thatconsist o temporarily bringing to lie places o movement (aterbuildings have been demolished, and while waiting or new acilitiesand new constructions). It is a matter o constructing proposalso both urban usage and communal activities by relying on localgures (educational, cultural, social) as a way to mobilise them toparticipate in the present state o their territory and anticipate its

uture. We do not immediately set anything, but we experiment andwait and see. However, we also mobilise people, and thus empha-sise both the importance o the temporary and the decisions thatshould, in any case, be made.

This is not an intangible method, but rather a momentary practicein one territory and under certain circumstances. For there are lessbridges to be built than there are to be imagined or the actors oeach place. However, we thus see the creation o a nice oer omeaning or uture projects, as well as exciting possibilities or thevitality o urban society.


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Ater having worked with French theatre companies,in 2007 Anne Gonon deended a doctoral thesis inInormation and Communication Sciences on theunction o the spectator in street theatre. She oversawthe editorial co-ordination o the publication La Relationau public dans les arts de la rue, which appeared in theCarnets de rue collection, published by LEntretemps in2006. She regularly publishes articles or the scientic andlay community on her research subject (http://agonon.

ree.r).

The omnipresence o the audience in artists discourse is the tip oan iceberg. This iceberg is the complex relationship they maintainwith the audience. Two crucial tendencies orm it: on one hand,there is the attempt to renew the means o distribution. This takesplace out o a desire to meet the other, and especially to meet thosewho are denied access to art and culture. On the other hand, thereis the desire to include the spectator as a central part o scenicauthorship. This initial integration o the audience is one o thepre-eminent motors o the artistic act, and translates the altruistic

ethic that characterises the eld. Through a multitude o devices(scenic, ctional, interactive), the street theatre2 generates neworms o theatrical relationships, which must be examined alongwith their eect on spectators. Such a refection must be placedin the wider context o contemporary creation, which is stronglymarked by the question o the audience3 . Indeed, we abundantlyevoke, and not without some occasional conusion, the relationalaesthetic, contextual, or even contactual art5, interactive proposalsor the participative theatre, etc., all the while maintaining a simpli-ed dichotomy between the seated spectator passive, and thespectator in movement active. The analysis o the audiences rolein street theatre allows us to examine these questions and, in doingso, provide some perspective or the audience crisis currently expe-

rienced throughout the artistic and cultural sectors.

The theatrical irruption hic et nunc

The street theatre perormance is a oray by the theatre into theeveryday lie o urban space, or into a space that is not intended orperormance use6. Its appearance brings to lie a range o dierentpossibilities: the theatre suddenly becomes conceivable here andnow, hic et nunc, and thereore everywhere else. This elusive situa-tion temporarily undermines the rules associated with the publicspace. We sit on the side o the road, we climb the bus shelter, wefock together, we get closer, we look at each other The specta-

tors placement and displacement strategies as passers by attestto a practice that is dissonant to their living space7. This seizureo physical reedom engenders a shit o perspective with regardsto the invested environment. Denis Gunon calls this revelatoryprocess the principle o the double view. Through a techniqueo superimposition, the spectator simultaneously sees two things:

that which is ctitious superimposed on that which is real, thatwhich changes and varies against that which is held in place.8 Thisreality racture provokes a disruptive eect; the space suddenlyseems open. Jean-Jacques Delour remarks that The act o openingconsists () o taking possession o a place that is not intended orthe theatrical eect, and creating theatre there through the use otools, signs and techniques which are not undamentally oreign tonormal theatre.9 As such, artists begin a process o theatricalisa-tion o the city and allow or a multi-level enjoyment o place10.

This is precisely what Herv de Laond and Jacques Livchine, the co-Artistic Directors o the Thtre de lUnit, were looking to do whenthey ran Montbliards Centre dart de plaisanterie11: The idea isnot to simply ll the theatre o Montbliard, but to ll Montbliardwith theatre.

This act o seizure o the public space and the establishment oa theatrical situation ex nihilo requires the audiences complicity.That is where we nd one o the principal variations o the rela-tionship to the street theatre audience. Perormances, includingthose taking place in a theatre, are only made possible through aconvention between those who watch and those who are watched.

There is an agreement tacitly governing all behaviour considered tobe tting or this ephemeral situation. This contract is constantlybeing renewed in theatrical street perormances, where the termso the encounter are repeatedly reinvented. Emmanuel Wallon thuspoints out that the revision and suspension o the contract areat play within a permanent negotiation. Amendments, additions,improvements, codicils, post-scriptum: on the subjet o decidingwhat is ction and what is reality, the perormers and assistantsseem to be like the duettists o a comedy o notables, such as thoseo Corneille and his contemporaries were able to throw togetherendlessly.12 The reedom o movement and o the audiences reac-tion, the possibility o leaving the site where the show is takingplace, or even to disturb it, all make the encounters ragility palpa-

ble. Actors and spectators nd themselves in play in the theatri-cal sense o the term, but also in the mechanical sense when theperormance designates the interval between two plays allowingthem to move about reely.

A multi-parameter play

The street theatre has broken through the border between actorand spectator, and has thus abolished that ourth wall which wasso characteristic o the theatrical conguration and nearly cameto be a scenographic imperative. This systematism tends to alle-viate the transgressive impact o the juxtaposition, or o the usion,

o the now-classic spheres o those watching and those watched.Despite the critique put orth by some regarding the structurallayout o so-called conventional theatres (with all the pejorativeconnation this term carries in their mind), street artists themselvesdo not escape rom a certain number o codes. The code, whichis intrinsic to perormance, allows one to establish the rules o a

Spectator in fabulaWhat Street Theater Does to Spectators

Anne Gonon Why am I in the street? It is because I like people and I want to speakto as many of them as I can, without any restriction. 1


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contract, a condition sine qua non o the theatrical invitation. Thestreet theatre makes use o many o them and thus shows that, arrom being ossiying, these codes generate a geometrically variabletheatrical perormance. The relationship with the public and thepropositions reception by the spectator are, in all logic, directlyinfuenced by these codes, here compiled and named parametersunder simplied orms.

The context of distribution> The estival / The season / The one-time event

The temporalities> The non-convocation / The convocation / The residence

The theatricalisation of the spectator> The containment the opening / mobility immobility / The

actor relationship attendance / Local areasThe dramatisation of the spectator> Hidden ction / Speaking to the spectator / The spectators

involvement

Each parameter comes in smaller variables13. A show oten combi-nes several o them, giving birth to a scenographic, symbolic, andat times original place laid out or the spectator. Throughout thecourse o a single perormance, the parameters and synergy betweenthem can vary, shiting the spectator rom one role to another,thus dramatically increasing the postures and receptive eects orthe spectator. The 26000 couverts companys show, Le Sens de lavisite14, which was created in 1996, constitutes an illustrative casestudy. The inhabitants o a residential neighbourhood are invitedto attend a street show oered by an elected ocial running oroce in the next municipal elections. In alternation with phases

o wandering, the set sequences ollow one ater the other, alonghouse aades, or in the middle o a crossroads, and then on to theneighbourhood square or the nale. At any moment, two acetsare open to view: the show and its backstage area. This show, whichis oered or several hundred spectators, can be perormed in esti-vals, as part o a programmed season, or distributed as a one-timeevent. From the perspective o the theatricalisation o the spectator,it oers a wide array o variations, which are oten simultaneous.The show is in a state o openness, and is permeable to the fow othe street. It is characterised by an explosion o perormance hubsin that actors develop, along with the central action, small scenesor one or several spectators.All orms o relation between the actors and the attendees are

explored, rom being side to side with the wandering mass, to themore classical rontal approach in a hal-circle, and to the usionbetween areas o play and o reception. In terms o proxemicsall variants are used, rom the close proximity o an interactionbetween an actor and a spectator, to the arthest distance romthe group o actors acing the audience. The spectators, seen asneighbourhood residents who have come to see the show (whichis, in act, true!), nd themselves integrated dramatically. There areseveral kinds o interaction with the spectator: speaking directlywithout expecting any kind o response, actor-spectator dialogue,solicitation, interactions, etc. This results in a proound involvementrom the spectator, who must play along and sometimes help an

actor in a certain action, or answer a question, etc., and therebyensures the continuation o the show.

play as a team

Le Sens de la visite represents a paragon o street artists ability totake hold o all parameters inherent to a street perormance. Theperormance contract is negotiated in situ and in vivo, and theperormers expose themselves to the behaviour o spectators, whowill more or less play along with the game. In this case, we witnessa particularly harmonious association15 between actors and theaudience. This association urther establishes the tangible role othe spectator in scenic authorship. The spectator is the missingpiece that completes the puzzle in this elusive time or peror-mance. Here we nd an explanation o the process-making that() is proper [to the theatre] and its unpredictable nature16. Thisspectator unction, which could be considered incomplete, bringsabout a eeling o added value to the presence o the audience. Thespectators sense this strongly, as a emale spectator states hersel:Perhaps it materialises something that is true or the theatrewhich is that you have to be there. Even i its a presence through

our imagination or that isnt concrete. Perhaps that materialisesthe participation rom the spectator, which is necessary in order tohave a show.17The co-presence nds itsel all the more intensied seeing as thestreet theatre acts like an observatory prism, a magniying glassrevealing part o the mystery behind the theatrical relationship.By giving the audience an involved unction, street artists aresuggesting that they create a team, in the gomanian sense othe term. Erving Goman denes the concept o a team as agroup o people whose very close co-operation is essential to themaintaining o a given denition to a situation18. The memberso a team behave in such a way as to insure the stability o the

interaction that unites them in a given time and place. Through thispoint o view, the theatrical perormance constitutes an interac-tive situation, governed by existing codes that are decreed by thedirector (whether or not the audience can move around, speak, orconverse with the actors). At the time o perormance, adjustmentsare constantly made between the proposed rules and the behaviouro the spectators, who either accept them or break them. One o thestreet theatres particularities is that it oers the spectators beha-vioural rules that go against those governing daily social interac-tion, as well as those governing the indoor theatrical perormancesconsidered by spectators to be conventional. A level o complicitymust thereore arise between the actors and spectators in orderor the perormance to, like a orce eld, nd its balance. The thea-

tre is thereore more o a shared experience than a transmittedexperience19, this intense eeling o participation expressed by thespectators is thereore clearly explained, as is the recurring ree-rence to a ully-lived experience.

Benets o mediation as a means o thwarting someexpedients

The street theatre grounds itsel in the basic values o the theatre:the encounter, the sharing, and the exchange20. In doing this, itparticipates in the reactivation o a cultural democratisation thathas been judged as being out o breath21. Although it is certainly

nave to think that the convocation o the theatre in the publicspace is enough to x problems o access to art and culture, thedistribution o outdoor artistic proposals, a ortiori or ree, deni-tely allows us to reach new audiences that are reactive to the newrelational orms oered22. Although the threshold eect is greatlyreduced by this easy accessibility, the unhesitant practise o street


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shows does not take place without some expedients. Zapping, lowattention spans, browsing, partial listening, etc., the state o thestreet theatre spectator is oten characterised by a certain amateu-rishnish. Accessibility tends to demystiy the perormance and theactors, and might then lessen the eeling o apprehension gene-rated by the theatre, especially or sections o the population thatdo not engage in cultural practises. It can, however, work as a trap,weakening the established relationship with the perormance.By choosing to work in the public space, artists take on a heavyresponsibility, which is to take up the challenge o a aultless artisticstandard, all the while respecting the ethical imperative they hadoriginally set or themselves constant openness toward new terri-tories o art and public gathering, and new audiences. Programmersare not exempt rom an equally crucial responsibility. They mustremain ambitious in their programming choices and imagine newand innovative means o mediation. I street creations, by investingin the public space, have or a long time been considered artworksthat integrate their own mediation, it is time to rehabilitate the

virtues o proound, community-based work carried out alongsidethe populations. This work alone, pursued in the long-term, allowsus to reap what has been sown at the local street corner, the ruitso the ephemeral.

1 La Vie, cest simple comme Courcoult. Entretien avec Jean-Luc Courcoult. LeBulletin de HorsLesMurs, 2005, n30, p.4.

2 This article is on the street theatre, but the thoughts expressed here apply tothe entirety of the street arts eld in as much as most of its artistic proposals,including those that are not directly rooted in the theatre (dance, music, etc.),organise a performance time, that is to say, a moment of confrontation betweenthose who are watched (the performers) and those who are watching (a passer-by, a spectator, a resident at his or her window, etc.). This performance layout,which is convoked almost systematically (with extremely diverse formats),allows us to afrm that the street arts are, in fact, rooted in the theatre.

3 On the emergence of the audience as a question within the theatrical eld, seeMarie-Madeleine Mervant-Rouxs work, Figurations du spectateur. Une rexion

par limage sur le thtre et sur sa thorie

, Paris, LHarmattan, 2006.4 cf. Nicolas Bourriaud, LEsthtique relationnelle, Dijon, Les Presses du rel,1998.

5 cf. Paul Ardenne, Un art contextuel: cration artistique en milieu urbain, ensituation, dintervention, de participation, Paris, Flammarion, 2002.

6 We know that the street arts are a difcult eld to delineate. What do we mean bystreet, or urban space? Companies work in conned spaces (from a schoolto a supermarket, from the backstage of a theatre to a fairground stall) whileothers perform in country villages, or even in the countryside (elds, beaches,etc.). We suggest using the broad and non-limiting working denition referringto the smallest common element to all of them: the space is not intended forperformance use.

7 On this point, see Catherine Aventin, Les Espaces publics urbains lpreuvedes actions artistiques. A doctoral thesis in Engineering Sciences, with aconcentration in architecture, directed by Jean-Franois Augoyard, Ecole

Polytechnique de Nantes, 2005.8 Denis Gunoun, Scnes dextrieur, conference-debate n1 of the conference-debate cycle on the street arts, Scnes Invisibles, Thtre Paris-Villette, Paris,30 January 2006.

9 Jean-Jacques Delfour, Rues et thtre de rue. Habitation de lespace urbain etspectacle thtral, Espaces et Socits, Les langages de la rue, 1997, n90-91,p.154.

10 Idem, p.155.11 The Thtre de lUnit managed the Scne nationale de Montbliard, renamed

then Le Centre dart et de plaisanterie, from 1991 to 2000. The company is nowimplanted in Audincourt (www.theatredelunite.com).

12 Emmanuel Wallon, La mobilit du spectacteur, Etudes Thtrales, n41-42/2008, pp.205-206.

13 For several details, see the typology developed in our doctorial thesis inInformation and Communication Sciences, Ethnographie du spectateur.Le thtre de rue, un dispositif communicationnel analyseur des formes et rcitsde la rception. Directed by Serge Chaumier, Universit de Bourgogne, 2007.

14 The 26000 couverts company, directed by Philippe Nicolle, is based inDijon. The show Le Sens de la visite is no longer in their current repertory

(www.26000couverts.org).15 With regards to the publics unique role in the Thtre du Soleils 1789, Marie-Madeleine Mervant-Roux suggests the image of association rather than thatof participation, which to her seems incorrect. See Marie-Madeleine Mervant-Rouxs, LAssise du thtre. Pour une tude du spectateur, Paris, CNRS, 1998,p.94.

16 Hans-Thies Lehmann, Le Thtre post-dramatique, Paris, LArche, 2002, p.92.17 Excerpt of an interview held with a spectator as a part of our thesis.18 Erving Goffman, La Mise en scne de la vie quotidienne. Volume I La prsentation

de soi, Paris, Minuit, 1973, p.102.19 Hans-Thies Lehmann, op.cit., p.134.20 For more on this subject, see Le Thtre de rue, Un thtre du partage, Etudes

Thtrales, n41-42/2008.21 See Jean Caunes, La Dmocratisation culturelle. Une mdiation bout de

soufe, Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 2006.

22 This has been demonstrated by the handful of statistic studies available. See:Les Publics des arts de la rue en Europe , Cahiers HorsLesMurs, n30, 2005 orNational Street Arts Audience, Independent Street Arts Network (ISAN), summer2003 (www.streetartsnetwork.org.uk).


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Doctor o Philosophy and teacher (Paris). His recentpublished works: Devenir contemporain? La couleurdu temps au prisme de lart, Paris, Le Flin Publications,2007; Lge du public et du spectateur, Essai surles dispositions esthtiques et politiques du publicmoderne, Brussels, La Lettre vole, 2006; Schiller oulesthtique culturelle. Apostille aux Nouvelles lettressur lducation esthtique de lhomme, Brussels, LaLettre vole, 2006; Nouvelles Lettres sur lducation

esthtique de lhomme, Brussels, La Lettre vole, 2005.

Ater 30 years o practice, it is now an established act, and a parto public custom. It is widely appreciated by the public. The muni-cipalities, the regions and the State are promoting street showsalong with an increasing number o shows expanding into urbanspaces. The audience assumes a relaxed orm, and is excited by theilluminating and convivial discoveries.This is precisely why this re-occurring and constantly renewedact calls or a political questioning, outside o the quality o theseshows (which is oten undeniable), but we must also examine their

unique way o engaging the dierence between artistic genres:

1 What hopes, be they aesthetic (aggregation or ascent) and/orcivic (ormation o a political body) do the political authoritieshave or the resulting public wandering?

2 As ar as the public arts are concerned, can we compare thepossible eects o street shows with those o public contem-porary art?1

The motivation behind this double-sided question, which is notartistic but rather aesthetic and political, is less rooted in theproblems posed by the content o these shows than it is in thelayouts they impose on the street and crowd in its relationship

with politics, as well as in the conrontation between the die-rent orms o public art, as o now unequally valued by the poli-tical authorities. So this is a two-sided question in that it callsor the ollowing refection: on one hand urban perormances, bythe very wandering they impose, reute the classical ideal o areceptor audience, both static and attentive in ront o the worko public art, approving in silence the benets o the communalvalues celebrated. On the other hand, although public contem-porary art may not carry out a critique o classical public art, itdoes arm that the shows o our time tend to separate us romourselves2. From this point, it simultaneously stands as the criti-que o street perormances, which oten comes against this trap,

surely mixing the structuring capacities o society and momen-tary aggregation.

The conrontation between these two artistic practices can beexplained as such: contemporary art oers the audience thechance to exile themselves rom the spectacular in order to arrive

at the conrontation o the spectators (intererence, interpretivecooperation) amongst themselves in order to better critic thespectacle, or show, while the street spectacle adds spectacle tothe show all the while believing that it can be contained? For lacko a solution, we here nd the wording o a problem.

So let us address street perormances (or example, Royal deLuxe, Transe Express, Pied en Sol, Retouramont3, or those thatwe know well) rom the aesthetic point o view, that is to say

the point o view o that which is or that which designates athing as public in these arts (being placed in public, acting inpublic, holding a public discourse, and being supported by publicunds4). These are arts in movement within public places, and theypose aesthetic problems dierently than how we may examinethe street arts, those which maintain only an immobile presenceon the sidewalk in xed locations, so much so that they ll theminstead o mobilising them and the crowd o spectators/listeners.These perormances do, in act, imply a momentary modicationo the joining (urbanistic) destination o the street, and a modi-cation o the relation between the crowd and the street5, as it isnow less about spectators standing in place, and in ront o whom

is perormed (theatre or stage) or laid out (procession) the show. Itis more about crowds moving with the show, and whose mobilityis a central element o the show.

The rst question is that o our classication. Which category bestallows us to consider these arts? Although they are presented inpublic places, beore a less restrained and more varied audiencethan in the stage arts, they are not simply crowd arts. These arealso arts o the route, o open spaces and potentially pre-politicalpublic events. Let us not discuss here the act o street-spectaclewhich is directly political and activist (regarding a neighbourhoodor a cause), or artist-activists (urban interventions intended todisturb public order with humour and vivacity, as we nd with

Les Voix de Bellevilleor Reclaim the Streets, which practice urbanactivism, a desire to reclaim the streets rom its ocial demons-trations, an unauthorised hijacking and occupation), the tributepaid to the neighbourhood is pre-political in that it keeps to thequestion: Who is entitled to the street, ater all? Who has theright to exhibit themselves there in ront o an audience, in evenjust a estive way?

The second question is that o the suitable verb to characterisethe mobilisation. Are we talking about an art o wandering? Butto wander is to walk without any precise goal, or according toones whims (almost to stroll). This, however, is not the case. The

crowd is linked to the show, and the wandering has a goal andew whims (aside rom aability, the press, or movements provi-ded by the show itsel). So is this an art o the route? We mustalso recognise other arts as arts o the route. But can this artorm be physically static (which would be the case or Mridiende Paris, by Jan Dibbets, this work that only totalises through the

Public Art:Between (Street) Spectacle and the Spectacular

Christian Ruby


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course o the walk) or dynamic in time6 (as would be the casemost notably with Stalker, in Rome, with its way o approachingthe urban which is all that remains when all the landmarks havedisappeared and nothing is certain, but which risks a certainuniqueness in its wandering). So, which verb would emphasisethe originality o these street arts?

The third question is regarding the status o the crowd, whichis, let us insist, integrated in itsel as a crowd. First, there is itsconcrete status. To employ the categories o Jean-Paul Sartre inCritique o Dialectical Reasoning7, is it a serial crowd (accom-plishing the passive synthesis o a simple sum), a group (expres-sing a collective liberty), or an organised mass (responding to thedouble layout o a internalised serial orm and a direction towardsmovement)? We will, o course, lean more towards a passage,through the course o the show, rom the rst category to thesecond. This is also what makes it acceptable or several orga-nisers to insist on producing anti-individualist shows. However,

we must examine which end is therein reached. Let us note thatcertain politicians are not displeased with the idea o attractingthese shows to the territory o their activity in order to encouragethe creation o a tale or the city, or example.

This tale would be communal to the inhabitants and avoura show open to the lack o dierentiation o the audiences, amemorial tale, and also an urban tale, good or avouring cohe-sion within the city, which, according to its need (or to the besto its ability) may rely on intersecting tales to create a consensualurban atmosphere. In this case, the tale o the maniestation isexpected to ederate locally (the city, territory, or region), because

it institutes an identity narrative that can coner meaning to whatis urban, or participate in the redening o a territory, which isoten neutralised or trivialised by architectural paucity.

In this way, art can pass or the symbol o local renewal. It isattracted in proportion to the implicit work o mediation carriedout within the local population that is meant to operate it. Ithangs this abstract mode o cohesion, with its elements o exploi-tation, over the people.

For this reason, a ourth question then becomes central, eventhough the answer has already been implied. How do you makesomething public when it ollows patterns o fux? The justi-

cation that these arts stand out in ront o the inhabitants is notan adequate response. It is also limiting to simply ad that they areperorming or all, especially i the argument is to somewhatvainly oppose the street arts and contemporary art around thecommon-elite couple. More deeply, these arts alter our unders-tanding o the public-attendee. This implies taking into accountother orms o sociability than that o the public as seen in the18th century. The question is, thereore, what is the conceivablerelationship between the crowd and the public, and what is themeans o structuring carried out by the urban perormance withinthe dierential relationships o the world o the perorming arts?And to come back to an essential given o classical aesthetics:

where is the communal aesthetic, where is the collective, what isthe role o the audience in these artistic orms?

Let us now remember that classical aesthetics correlates to thework an audience, which ervently communes around it. Theaudience, and this is easily justied by the aesthetic judgement8,

thereore puts to work a cognitive and physical structure o thecommon, by collective internalisation o its values: expectedwait or the communal celebration o the worthy-artwork, aurao the work and experience o the ceremony. We now are quiteamiliar with the unction o the gure o common meaning inthe relationship with the unique, static work. It calls or asci-nations, excitement, and acclamations during the ceremonies,or applause The rites o commemoration or inauguration aremoments o collective emotional awakening. They are more orless intense and contagious, and extremely standardised. In themunurls a eeling o integration, at least momentarily, to the groupthat is physically present.

However, the aesthetics o the street perormance relies on anaudience spread out in space, not too condensed and other-wise preoccupied, and it does not immediately call to mind theconsciousness or image o a whole to be ormed9. Although itis not a passive audience, and it even has a mass critical poten-

tial, it nonetheless remains invisible since it crosses over habitualboundaries by the reality o works sometimes putting the estivebeore the artistic throughout its route, and not always managingto invent a new sensibility or new exchanges o the sensible. Or,when they do, they take on all the same mastery o social codes inorder to make them eective.

Eventually, the elements, thus condensed, bring us to anotherproblem. On one side there is that o contemporary art, wherethere unurls a visible gesture, attempting to question a poten-tially political community or lack o coming into being. On theother side there is a dispersion that is seemingly euphoric, which

is reunited against another ormal separation (individualism)but that maintains its separations within the very context o thecrowd. O course, certain perormances avoid this, those takingthe collective cause, while certain public artworks let themselvesgo into this decoration10. But the most important thing is to comeback to our central question. I. in its history, public art withinthe Republic (or at least in that o France) had the vocation oorming a lively communal sense within public space (an identity,a national sentiment11); i, in the last part o its history, contem-porary public art were submitted to a progressive exploitation tobenet a renewal o the orm o communal unity, or times ocrisis, by juxtaposition o dierences12 (manuacturer o collec-tive emotion) ; i several contemporary art works have set out to

reute this viewpoint; the question is legitimate: what is at stakein the work o public perormance, and most notably in the art othe route, that interests politicians so much?

It is no longer the rst communal sense (which has dissolved).Could it be just a matter o a prolongation o the juxtaposition(though this is not ecient in the long term)? Or is it the inventiono something else? What then? In any case, it is not the inventiono the collective, since it does not incite any collective action, andthere is certainly the presence o institutional control. In anotherway, we are witnessing a mix o collective emotionality, momen-tary communication and eortless conciliation. And sometimes it

even results in agitation (sublime or a bit wild).

But does that create an eective sociability? For us the issue is,above all, to know i citizens in these cases open contexts o poli-tical conversation within an exploited aesthetical sphere. Do theycreate a public discourse inducing signicance to their general


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situation? How is the person who ollows the route here trans-ormed? He perceives the situation as being public. But doesmovement within these situations lead to discourse and dialoguewith the other? How does the wanderer acquire a sense o thecollective? How does he play the game that is presented to him(or does he)?And this question is intensied by yet another. What is the roleo the politician within the unurling o these works? We maywonder i they are brought down to the streets in order to ampliycontrol o the space as well as o urban time!

1 For the denition of contemporary art, refer to our publication, Devenircontemporain ? La couleur du temps au prisme de lart, Paris, Le Flin, 2008.

2 This was the signicance of the Pompidou Centre exposition, 2000, Au-deldu spectacle: it developed how a major cultural phenomenon contaminatesartistic practises. The leisure industry affects our economy so deeply that thereis no reason to think that the cultural elds remains untouched, or wants to.

3 refer to our chronicle in Urbanisme, n357, Paris, 2007.4 refer to our article: Ce qui est public dans lart (public), LObservatoire des

politiques culturelles, N 26, Summer, 2004, Grenoble, p. 29sq.5 The bibliography on the street is now considerable. Let us simply refer to one

publication combining reection on the street and art: Collectif, LEsthtique dela rue, Amiens, colloquium LHarmattan, 1998.

6 About his work at the Grand Palais, 2008, Richard Serra points out: I do notsee this work as subscribing to any kind of theatrical tradition, or even asculptural one. It seem to have more to do with the way we move around andwith temporality. It should make one aware of time and the various speeds ofmovement around and through time. Consciousness of moving in time will be anessential part of the experience (Art Press, n 345, May 2008, p,32, Traverserlespace).

7 Jean-Paul Sartre, Critique de la raison dialectique, Paris, Gallimard, 1960.8 In the classical sense ofCritique du jugement by Emmanuel Kant, 1793, Paris, GF,

2008.9 With one objection: the case of festivals (Aurillac, Chalons), since the public

certainly expects this kind of wait.10 Incidentally, there is also a paradox here: in contemporary art, the activism of

the artists is blooming while a doubt persists regarding arts place in the work ofthe collective vis--vis oneself, while political themes are often placed in the

centre of the performing arts. So we will note a common point between the two: aquestioning of the sense of the collective.11 Cf. the historical synthesis established in the Dictionnaire critique de la

Rpublique, Vincent Duclert and Christophe Prochasson, Paris, Flammarion,2008.

12 Cf. the 4 volumes of Culture Publique, Paris, MouvementSkite and Sens & Tonka,2004.


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JDancer o education, graduate o the Jacques LecoqInternational School, Alix de Morant leads since theninetees researches on artistic nomadisms and aestheticexperiences conducted in public spaces, accompanyingsome choreographic journeys like those o DominiqueBoivin, Christine Quoiraud, Julien Bruneau, ChristopheHaleb or Valentine Verhaeghe and more collectivethinking like the one o Controversy Public O Avignon

in 1999 and 2000 or o the group Acte in the PacaRegion. Associate at the ARIAS CNRS laboratory, shenotably contributed to the books Des crans sur laScne, Buto(s), Tatsumi HijikataButoh and leda critical workshop entitled Reading and writingcontemporary dance in the University o Lyon II.

Over these past ew years, which took place within the fux thatpresides over a general state o mobility, and this was more otenthan not a result o the artists own initiative, new creative deviceshave appeared that have made circulation no longer just a distri-

buting vector or works, but also a deended issue o poetic andsocietal innovation. The proessional seminar and public gatheringon the Artistic nomadisms and new media: new artistic mobility inEurope, an event organised by the artistic network Conteners2 atthe Thtre Paris Villette on February 21-22, 2008, will have allowedus to identiy over one hundred nomadic projects throughout thecontinent, and also to question the motivation behind these newways o operating that are establishing themselves throughout theterritories in both an ephemeral and unexpected way.

Adjustable containers piled up in city squares in large lego-likeormations or transported by trucks, travelling theatres or river-bound stages, rom the portable studio to the virtual museum, rom

the donkey to the highway, rom the road to the walkway, usingtransportation networks as well as the traceability o new techno-logy (mobile phones, laptop computers, WiFi and GPS devices) thatnow allow artists to be, like navigators, ndable and reachable atall times), contemporary artists have, now more than ever, becomeull-fedged nomads. Including spectators in their approach, andrediscovering the meaning o a mediation that had once escapedthem, they consider themselves to be scenographers o the lands-cape, or surveyors o the territory. Geographers, cartographers, andsometimes ethnographers3, on the lookout or the latest signs oan ancestral or meteorological nomadism infuencing the real orctitious climates, they are the exact opposite o mass tourism. As

visionary travellers, they introduce an aesthetic (or even an ethic?)o displacement. Whether it is a bus, or caravans converted intomoving stages or travel simulators, infatable galleries, or raids intourban territories, their methods take place within a landscape omulti-polar and relatively undened creation, where perorman-ces, works in progress, work sites, installations and wanderings all

participate rom a collapse o the landmarks that once marked oand delineated distinct art territories. As suggested by Luc Boucris,one could think that it is actually the entire theatrical territoryitsel that is being placed under the label o the wandering4. Theword progress was once used to indicate travel, or seasonal travel.We thereore come to consider creation as a means o roaming,whereas the term work in progress, which has been used as asubstitute or the word show or exhibit in many publications or

programmes to cultural events, urther evokes the elaboration oa process that evolves to the maturity o interplay with a spec-tator. But there is also the primary notion o the word progress,which, beyond the artwork itsel, also calls the artist to be put to along-term test through a continual state o learning. This work inprogress, addressed rom an artist to a spectator invited to ollowin its reasoning, designates once again this need or the permanentacculturation that corresponds better to the imperatives o a chan-ging world whose codes are in a constant state o re-adjustment.

A topographical imagination

It indeed seems that conjointly with the phenomena linked withglobalisation, there is a growing geographical ambition (or geopo-litical, according to Kenneth White5) that recovers concepts suchas the ethno spheres o Appadurai6 (diasporas or public spheres oexile). The semio spehere o Semprini7 (abric made up o images,ideas, and values), and the neurosphere o Flusser8 (network madeup by the entirety o media and inter-relational fux that stimulateour imagination) incite the return to a new topographical imagina-tion9. But in a world that is ully explored and indexed down to thesmallest parcel by maps, enlarged to its ringes thanks to imagessent back by satellites, and prolonged by immaterial networks, what,or artists, is the new order o mobility while the very vocation oart is the transmission o perception? The virtualisation o the world

does not keep us rom wanting to walk within it, to venture out, orto gather knowledge. We are always crossing the horizon, but itremains in the distance, wrote Robert Smithson10. It is better tobring things to the idea o circulation and arrange a horizon orour vision: the issue o the nomad allows us then to go beyond ashiting context and situate a number o current initiatives whileoering them a plan o coherence.In a rst phase or the artists choosing the nomadic lie, ar romthe walls that would like to contain them, and on the lookout or thesmallest ree space, sometimes wishing to escape all regulation andsurveillance, it is a matter o situating themselves within modernitywhile rediscovering the space as an active partner. The use o the

space as a medium is not new, but it is pertinent within this conti-nuation o the stage arts moving to urban expressions, in a trans-versal logic between disciplines and to the benet o a dynamicstate o articulation and movement. Landscaped itineraries, contex-tual experiences, or manoeuvres carried out in the public space,rom urban wastelands to encampments, we are here conronted

Nomadic Creations,mobile constructions and wilful connections

Alix de Morant Prefer that which is positive and multifaceted, difference overuniformity, flux over unity, mobile constructions over systems.Consider anything that is productive to be not sedentary, but nomadic. 1


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with the notion o site and with the perspective o works, o whicha great number are carried out, in situ11, in the historic prolonga-tion o the avant-garde movements which they have inherited. Theyensue rom Fluxus and questions, on the terrain o an action, whichis perhaps not complete, but rom a refective point o view ull othe promise o situational variations.

A contextual intelligence

As orays outside o the rameworks meant to present and regulatecreative lie, situating themselves outside the spaces reserved orthe art market, these artworks also contribute to a decentring orelations between dierent actors o the cultural transaction. Alter-nately a creative aid and distribution platorm, the nomadic equi-pment can be positioned as momentary anchorings, to borrowrom Paul Ardenne12. Their goal is both to situate themselves on theexterior (outside, on the periphery, on the border between) in orderto open new trails, and to weave, or even to repair certain links. We

situate a playground in connection with the past, but also with theuture, and we opt or mobile solutions to overcome the interro-gations o a world in transition. The desire to travel, to break witha continuation, to put holes in the public space using the invasive,nomadic presence o the war machine, or any other technique osudden appearance, to occupy the abandoned, to take possessiono vacant spaces, the reusal o anything other than a feeting orprovisional installation, an ecosophical conception o art, a thirst orautonomy and the ear o setting a process, all motivate an inves-tigation o the territories as the creation o alternatives put to thetest by reality. The sole privilege o social critique, just like the desireto truly involve a public open to enter in movement within what

is oered to them, also elicits what Nicolas Bourriaud dened asRelational Aesthetics13. A space to cover, a length o time to endure,the value o exchange and giving, the artists commitment, the co-presence o individuals, and the game o interactions, all participatein the communal desire to create new spaces o conviviality, It isboth the envelope and the matrix, and it is all around an artisticproposal that is no longer limited to an object, but would evenbecome a particular use o the world. A notable case o this was thecottage village o Mari Mira14, a small, abricated artistic utopia onthe scale o a global village.

Moving stages

Beyond the diversity o the proposed initiatives, there is also thequestion o nomadism as a genre. We would not want to encloseall acceptances o nomadism in just one denition, but we can bearwitness to the real instability o an artistic period that has put theentire establishment into question, as well as to the variability oundin the current reduction o stages, whether they be tow-drawn, sel-transporting, or simple areas delineated by a strategic occupationo the space. Through the course o a study15 ocused on nomadicartistic equipment, we saw all sorts o artists, visual artists, circusartists, actors or choreographers as a sample o the large scope oscenic typology, distinguishing observatory devices, such as thato the cinematographic truck o Cargo Sofa, Rimini Protokolls

highway project16

, or panoramic devices such as the sky tent oGigacircus17, which plays images gleaned by Sylvie Marchand andLionel Camburet throughout the paths that lead to Compostelle.We have regrouped into a single opus objects, pathways such asthat oDuodiptyque18 or o Claire Ingrid Cottenteau in Marseille19,situations and intentions like this thirst or disorientation o the

Ici Mme Grenoble collective20, exploring with Encore plus lest dechez moi the cities o Eastern Europe to meet new partners, andound new activities. We have travelled rom the hideouts wherethe itinerant company protects itsel, keeping the company romalling apart, to the labyrinthine enigma o Constants New Babylon,an urban utopia o the sixties, today transported in the multimediaenvironments such as those create by the group Dunes21.This brings us to the ollowing observation. In the nomadic arts,although the stage is in movement, it is nonetheless the startingpoint and obligatory element o passage. The urtive, unbound ordissolved stage is nomadic, but also retains the potential or exhi-biting onesel or artists who have broken away rom the well-structured locations in which they no longer eel at home, or whichignore their presence entirely. Walking, or example, is that shitingaction that brings on a dierent positioning, a change o locale anda modication o ones point o view. To place onesel in mobility isnot to be satised with pre-ormulated answers, but to propose apostulate, an unusual angle o approach or considering reality. It is

also to start rom an idea o hospitality, and o the place that thecity may hold or the intrusion o the poetic. Like an introduction,the notion o displacement out o the times and places usually setaside or cultural exchange thus proves to be an impulse intendedor all receivers o the artistic act, all the while indicating the roleclaimed by artists in the transormation o social customs.

From the site to the situation, the mobile stage can thereore beconsidered the starting point o a reasoning that is refective, unset,and unable to be set, which is interested in reeing spaces as well asin de-compartmentalizing discourse. In the same way that we subs-titute a convention or a driving cause (nomadism, as it is seen by

Deleuze and Guattari), and contained gesture with oriented gesture,we dismantle the usual representative devices out o preerence oran ensemble made up o ully lived moments and their prolonga-tions. Concerned about an architecture that is porous to outsideinfuences, contemporary orms, delineating a common ground ounderstanding with their audience, call or us to inhabit the moment,developing what Georgina Gore22 called, while speaking about therave culture, which is a neo-nomadic culture par excellence, aninnite present. This is also the hope or a direct relationship withan audience, non-dierentiated by the intervention o institutionalauthorities or private operators and other cultural mediators. Thatis at the very heart o the space-inhabitation o nomadic artists,a space inhabiting that acts or reacts in interaction with a public

space that is increasingly sterilized and that is losing its credibilityas an agora. From this point o view, an experimental project like theone taken on by Public Art Lab with its mobile studios23 travellingin 2006 rom Berlin to Bratislava is exemplary. It regroups an entirebundle o horizons by proposing laboratories in vivo or youthulcreation, moments set aside or public debate, activities rangingrom publications online to perormances, diverse ambiances thatactivate the spectators who are called to move rom one module tothe next, contrasting climates. A meeting platorm or local associa-tions, grounds or social experimentation and attempts to amendthe public place, as well as the temporary installation o the device,all participate in a re-appropriation o the city or its inhabitants.

Trajectories and ramications

Although interventions in the public space are o an epheme-ral nature, they nonetheless have repercussions amongst a largeraudience, while the artist also eels the need to diversiy his artistic


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connections. Nomadic art is both the art o the site and the art othe organisation o sites between themselves through the interven-tion o a certain number o liaising operations. The questions thatseem to occupy us here seem to adjust just as much to the issue oartistic nomadism as to the issues o virtual art. According to thetheories put orth by the philosopher and art theorist Vilem Flusser,todays nomad should also be able to assimilate new technologiesand take advantage o the growth o his perceptive eld in orderto extend his reasoning into a multimedia environment. Moreo-ver, new perceptive experiences and the superimposition o virtualand real images orce the contemporary receiver, conronted withincessant changes, to adopt a nomadic point o view. I will bringthis geographic overview to an end then by ollowing the path putorward by Anne Cauquelin in her study o new orms o experi-mental spatiality by Internet-users to speak o nomadic arts as artso the site, taking on hybrid orms in order to take into accountshiting landscapes. Site, as she states, since the site is reached byits source, and not by its edges, is in relation with the place, but is

also distinguished rom it since it is also the centre whether it isthe physical centre, or the contextual, or behavioural centre, trans-mittable by its use, or whether it be archival. The site contains timein the orm o accumulated memories, and it is contained in and bythat same temporality o which it provides an expressive image.24

In the logic o nomadic arts, one momentarily occupies a ground.One sows it with a presence. Then, one extracts an ensemble oinormation having to do with the ground and its occupation, andone patiently cultivates the accumulated traces in order to establisharound the prime event an entire game o related operations thatone could relate to harvesting, and which thereore allow one to

resituate the event within an artistic movement or as an echo oother perormances or poetic enterprises carried out at other timesor simultaneously in other places. Thus the real importance o navi-gating tools and technologies that allow one to both capture thefeeting nature o a gathering or event, and then to anchor it withinthe weavings o the networks widened tapestry. Whether we usecanvas to cover the windows o a bus25 in order to project addedtravel images, open on the city square an oce o latitudes withcamping urniture, plunge, like Ali Salmi o the Osmosis company, adancing body into the torments o migration26, or trace a wake inthe city with ones ootsteps, the entire directorial work or nomadicartists is to invent a trajectory so as to branch out ones extensioninto the virtual. It thereore ollows to say that the nomadic arts,

these arts o orecasting and connection, are inasmuch signs o anexploratory phase, where art is looking to inaugurate spaces anddimensions other than the ones that have been reserved or it upuntil now. This is also one o the reasons why, without wishing toplace them in opposition with sedentary mindsets, we would preerto approach them rom a nomadic point o view.

1 Michel Foucault, preface to the American edition ofLAnti Oedipe by Gilles Deleuze& Flix Guattari, 1977, in Dits et Ecrits, Paris, Gallimard, 2001, p 134.

2 www.conteners.orgThis is the case of Sylvie Marchand, the artistic director of the collectiveGigacircus. It is also the case of the photographer Clothilde Grandguillot, whowill accompanied the travels of the Apprentie company in their search of Rirede lautre.

3 With regards to the Ici-Mme Grenoble company, they diversely practice agroundwork sociology, while the dancer Christine Quoiraud in Marche et danse,a project by Villa Medicis Hors les Murs in 2000, leaves in search of a state of theworld.

4 Luc Boucris Sinstaller ou divaguer ? Dambuler ! in Arts de la scne. Scne desarts III, Cahiers de Louvain n 30, Louvain-la-Neuve, 2004, pp78-79.

5 Kenneth White, LEsprit nomade, Paris, Grasset, 1987.6 Arjun Appadurai,Aprs le colonialisme, Paris, Payot, 2001.7 Andrea Semprini, La Socit des ux, Paris, LHarmattan, 2003.8 Vilem Flusser, The Freedom of the Migrant, Chicago, University of Illinois Press,

2003.9 Gilles A. Thiberghien, Finis terrae, imaginaires et imaginations cartographiques,

Paris, Bayard, 2007.10 Robert Smithson, Incidents au cours dun dplacement de miroirs dans le

Yucatan.11 In situ : The in Situ term from the sixties takes notes the permanent movement,

the situational nature of a certain perspective on an artwork.12 Paul Ardenne, Un art contextuel, Paris, Flammarion, 2004.13 Nicolas Bourriaud, Esthtique relationnelle, Paris, Les Presses du Rel, 1998.14 http://lespasperdus.free.fr/marimira et Brice Matthieussent, Mari-Mira,

chronique dun art plastique fait maison, Montreuil, les ditions de lil, 2006.15 Alix de Morant, Nomadismes artistiques, des esthtiques de la uidit, doctoral

thesis, Universit Paris X Nanterre, November, 2007, to be published soon.16 www.rimini-protokoll.de17 www.gigacircus.net18 www.conteners.org/CHRISTINE-QUOIRAUD?lang=en19 www.claireingridcottanceau.net20 www.icimeme.org/projetest.html

21 www.groupedunes.net22 Georgina Gore, The Beats Goes On in Danse nomade, revue Nouvelles deDanse n 34/35, Brussels, Contredanse, Spring-Summer, 1998, p.91.

23 www.mobile-studios.org24 Anne Cauquelin, Le Site et le paysage, Paris, PUF, 2002, p.85.25 www.alternativenomade.org26 www.osmosiscie.com


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/September 2008

Joanna Ostrowska is currently proessor at the AdamMickiewicz University in Pozna (Poland), in the CultureStudies Department. She teaches the introduction othe theory o theatre and theatre history. Previously,she was the co-editor o the quarterly The Notebooko Culture Studies o the University o Pozna, andcollaborated with the The Pozna Theatre Review. Shecoordinated and participated in various symposiums,

seminars and conerences on theatre. Her mainpublications are: Dialog(i) w kulturze (Dialog(s) inCulture), Pozna 2001 ; Teatr przestrze dialogu(Theatre the Space o Dialog), Szczecin 2002 ; Teatr przestrze dialogu II. Wok granic konwencji i technikteatralnych (Theatre the Space o Dialog II. AboutBorders o Conventions and Theatre Technics), Szczecin2004 ; The Living Theatre od sztuki do polityki(The Living Theatre rom Arts to Politics), Pozna,Wydawnictwo Kontekst, 2005.

The increased social sensitivity gives rise to the rst impulsereleasing creative process. () The greater weight belongs not tothe art which enters the street estively but to the one which isborn out o the essence and structures o the city. Created by thespirit and rhythm o city lie, and not or the city, rom the positiono creator-philanthropist.1

Theatre perormances taking place outside buildings are most otendened by a common term street theatre, which treats all o suchphenomena as homogeneous rom the point o view o aestheticprinciples as well as the choice o space and the consequences oboth. Is such treatment valid, however?At the turn o 2006 and 2007, a group o researchers rom all over

Europe prepared a study Street Artists in Europeconcentrating bothon history, aesthetics, types o street theatre, as well as on its socialcontext and its infuence on the shape o urban space2. One o thebasis o this report was the survey conducted among the very artistso street theatre, reerring, among others, to the infuence o suchart on social reality and the development o urban spaces. Among acouple o possible answers reerring to the aims o creating streettheatre, the one very requently chosen by artists and directors oestivals was about the wish to create the public space throughtheir own street perormances. Does it mean that contemporaryartists by practicing street theatre in reality wish to practice thepublic theatre? And what, in act, does the term public space

mean or the contemporary theatre artists?

The theatres coming out on the street, into the space belonging topeople, the common space, which is not subject to mercantileprocesses, and at the same time reed rom the authority o thegoverning, was supposed to be in the intention o the artists the

search or new ways o theatre existence, and the search or newways o communicating with the audience. Moreover, the sociallyand politically active theatres in the sixties chose the neutralspace as it seemed, the one belonging to everyone, also becausethis is where they could nd the audience partners to initiatingthe dialog on issues crucial or a community (or instance, racialsegregation, the war in Vietnam, or on a more local level the riseo rent in the tenement building). This treatment o the street as the

naturally public space can be easily explained, i we quote JrgenHabermas dening the term. We call events and occasions publicwhen they are open to all, in contrast to closed or exclusive aairs as when we speak o public places or public houses3. The publicsphere itsel appears as a specic domain the public domain versusthe private. Sometimes the public appears simply as that sector opublic opinion that happens to be opposed to the authorities.4

Born out o the street (so a place which is public in denition)more than out o theatre, it located its goals in social issues, whichwere not artistic. It also seemed that theatre returned to its natu-ral space, restoring the memory and tradition o theatre in urbanspaces, which was pushed to the margins by the nineteenth century

bourgeois theatre enclosed in a building. Philippe Chaudoir, Frenchsociologist and at the same time researcher o the street theatre,points out, however, that this similarity is extremely misleading, justbecause o the dierences in the audience, which the past andthe contemporary street artists made use o5. The public space, inwhich or example the celebrations o ools took place, had nothingto do with the public space, which the artists o the sixties decidedto choose as they understood it. This dierence is very clear, whenwe quote or instance the analysis o the Christian interpretation opublic eld by Hannah Arendt: The Christian hostility towards thepublic sphere, the inclination, at least o the early Christians, to leadlie distanced rom the public area as much as it was possible, canalso be understood as the sel-evident consequence o sacricing

onesel to good deeds6. The public scene is thereore not like inAristotle the area o realization.The public space o the medieval theatres is thus a space suspicious.Those who enter it with perormances put themselves in a positiondoubly suspicious the troublesome disturber o the peace and thepeople o the margins. Whereas, the artists entering the publicspace in the sixties were people with the mission, who wanted tochange the order o reality, to save public space by creating therea new space o culture7.

Currently, cities also provide their space or the artistic activities.The artists on the street are not in ree, liberated space. However,

they very requently want to treat it so. Perorming on the street ismost oten not the act o giving onesel to the Dionysian element,but it is subject to many legal and administrative restrictions. Theauthorities o cities issue permissions to occupy specic urbanspace (sometimes claiming money or that, which is or examplemade possible by a new law in Great Britain), they make sure that

From the Street Theaterto Theater in the Public Space

Joanna Ostrowska


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artists obey the regulations o trac, the level o noise, or security,which in Poland is reerred to by the law on mass events.

The theatrical building, although it is not a place sensu stricteprivate, also has not been perceived by artists as the public place.Robert Schechner explains it, The theatre with a stage rame,characteristic or the period rom the 18th to the 20th century in theWest, jus as well displays some particular plan and sociometricaldesign []. The Greek amphitheatre is open; during the perorman-ces taking place day by day one can see the city around and outsideit. This city is POLIS [emphasis by the author J.O.] within precisegeographical and ideological borders. The theatre with a stagerame is a strictly restricted singular building, the entrance to whichis scrupulously controlled.8 Lets add that the walls o this theatreare supposed to eectively shut what is happening inside o thelie o the city, and the entrance to it is possible or only those whocan go through this scrupulous control thanks to the ticket theyhave bought and the appropriate appearance both depending on

the nancial status o a potential member o the audience.The coming out into the street by the artists in the sixties shouldbe considered as the appearance o a new theatrical orm; it hada dierent basis, it was a conscious reusal to remain enclosedinside, in a building.The ambition o coming out the street initiated in the sixties was torestore the space o a particular community to the audience9. Inour times, this space is considered as the communicative supportor the exchange and creation o the public opinion. For theseartists, it is the space which is in need o transormation, in orderto make it a common place.10 Street theatre is intended to enablethe creation o a dialogue orum in the urban space, allowing the

exchange o thoughts, opinions, so de acto it is supposed to be theattempt to revive the public sphere in the already quoted hereGreek and modern sense. It is the sphere which suered destructionand which was superseded by the social sphere, abolishing oppo-sition between the public and the private. At the same time, theprivatization o the urban space developed itsel, as well as mercan-tile processes, under control by the discourse o authorities.

The beginnings o the development o theatre in the public spaceseemed to prove its triumph both as a discipline o art as well asa means o communication. The most substantial growth o thenumber o street theatres in Europe is dated at the end o the sixtiesand the seventies, which in some respect was the eect o the

urban planners having recognized the dangers related to the deve-lopment o cities, which led to the depopulation o city centers andthe emergence o the so called areas o no importance, otherwisecalled by Chaudoir les non-lieux (non-places). As Chaudoire noticed:Urban planners during the same years noticed their own inabilityto contribute to the urban development, and they started to believethat they can achieve their goals by employing street theatre in theprocess o restoring the health o cities.11 Street theatre, organi-zing theatre perormances and estivals became the integral parto social politics and urban development12. It has also led to thedependence o street theatre on cities their authorities, and alsoon the legal regulations which came with it. The present-day conse-

quence o those historical circumstances is, as the researchers inStreet Artists in Europe noticed, that in the countries where theredidnt develop this bond between the city and the street theatre,either such theatre didnt develop at all, or it is now perceived as aphenomenon potentially dangerous since it is introducing conu-sion to the city, and it may scare o potential investors13.

Thus, the street theatre created its own conception o the publicspace. It would be then concrete, physical urban space with mini-mal (avorably no) restrictions o its availability. It wasnt, howe-ver, the space understood in any way through its own unction,or example a passing way rom a house to other useul places ina city (so it doesnt have to be a street or a square, but it could alsobe areas or walking, the ones provided or entertainment etc.). Thepublic space o street theatre understood in this way would alsobe the space which could be used by everyone to the same extend,the common space making it easy or various groups o people tomeet. This restoration o DIRECT interpersonal relationships seemsto be in the present medialized world one o the key values o thestreet theatre. Thereore, this term street has become some sorto conventional name or shows which could take place in variousspaces (especially that theatre makes contact with the street as thereal space more and more sporadically).This perorming certain tasks which are assigned to theatre bythe city (preventing the degradation o the urban space, suppor-

ting social integration, among this the integration o the excludedgroups, creating public space as a dialogue orum) has led to thechange o cities role, theatres which were related to them alsohad to change the unction they perormed. And so, the successivereasons or creating theatre perormances in the public space whichare reerred to by street artists are as ollows: the improvement oattractiveness o the city, the strengthening o international imageand position o the city, and the work supporting restoration o thecitys substance (revitalization o the urban spaces)14. It has becomethe reason, unortunately, why street theatre was very oten reducedto the role o tourist attraction, in spite o boisterously expresseddeclarations. And this, in turn, has led to a situation which was

named by Pawe Szkotak, who is himsel an author o street peror-mances o Teatr Biuro Podry, the censorship o being popular,which leads to commercialization o artistic expression, theatreperormances begin to be treated as something which is supposedto be attractive, and draw audiences15. Moreover, theatre in thepublic space thus treated becomes the method o arranging reetime and employing the purchasing power o its audience. Theanalysis o the process o theatre becoming an example o mercan-tile processes made by Schechner, may be now perectly applicableto estivals o the street theatre16.

The consequences o this transition "rom a culture-debatingpublic to a culture consuming public was described by Habermas.

So-called leisure behavior, once it had become part o the cycleo production and consumption, was already apolitical, i or noother reason than its incapacity to constitute a world emancipa-ted rom the immediate constrains o survival needs. When leisurewas nothing but a complement to time spent on the job, it couldbe no more than a dierent arena or the pursuit o private busi-ness aairs that were not transormed into a public communica-tion between private people. The individuated satisaction o needsmight be achieved in a public ashion, namely, in the companyo many others.17 The leisure activities o the culture-consu-ming public, on the contrary, themselves take place within a socialclimate, and they do not require any urther discussions. The private

orm o appropriation removed the ground or a communicationabout what has been appropriated.18

For the most radical street artists, the existing space o the streetis not as much public in denition, meaning available to all andpossible to be equally used by all, as it is a space to be conquered,


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/September 2008

hostile, agonistic, which can again transorm only through artisticactivity, at least or a moment, into a space truly public. Agonisticpublic space is characterized by Chantal Moue not as a place oreaching consensus, but contrary, the public space is the eld obattle, in which two hegemonic projects are conronted, withoutthe possibility o the nal reconciliation. Thereore the goal othose who support creating agonistic public spaces is revealingeverything that is superseded by the dominating consensus, andso they also imagine the relation o artistic practice and their reci-pients dierently rom those whose goal is to create consensus,even i it is supposed to be a critical one. According to the agonis-tic view, the critical art is the one which incites disagreement bybringing to light what the dominating consensus is trying to ogand obliterate. It is about passing over the voice to all the silencedwithin the existing hegemony, bringing out the abundance o prac-tices and experiences, which constitute the tissue o given society,together with conficts, which are brought along.19

Thus, the public space o the critical theatre, here identied with

radical, will be dened in a completely dierent way, it is supposedto be not as much the space o summoning even a short lastingcommunity, o deliberate consensus, but more o the emancipation.

Jan Cohen-Cruz

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Circostrada Publication