Restoring Public Space in the Post-War Era. Lecture by Pascal Gielen

When we look at how public urbane space has been culturally politicized over the
past century in most of the European countries, we can detect three dominant forms.
(1) The monumental approach from the beginning of the 19th century, dominated by
national cultural buildings (national museums, opera,…) and statues of mainly
national hero’s, (2) the artistic (situationist’s) contestation of this hierarchically
organized space from the end of the 1950’s and the 1960s (including graffiti,
pamphlets, happenings, activist art) and (3) the creative city that uses culture to drive
the economy from the beginning of the 1990s. All three forms of cultural politics
define public space until today, but it is the first and the third kind of politics that have
shrunk public space and ‘trapped it’ in what Gielen calls the ‘repressive creative city’.
The Covid-19 measures, digitalization of public space, terrorism and war have only
reinforced this repression of public space. In his lecture, Gielen wonders how we can
restore public life after those ‘attacks’ on our public realm and how art can play a role
in it – just as it did in the early 1960s. He looks for ways out in so-called ‘commoning
practices’ that construct semi-public spaces. According to Gielen, these semi-public
spaces are crucial for rebuilding trust in a post-war era. Only when we have well-
functioning semi-public spaces, we can work on rebuilding a real democratic political
realm.
Pascal Gielen (1970) is full professor of sociology of culture and politics at the
Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (Antwerp University – Belgium) where he
leads the Culture Commons Quest Office (CCQO). Gielen is editor of the
international book series Antennae – Arts in Society (Valiz). In 2016 he became
laureate of the Odysseus grant for excellent international scientific research of the
Fund for Scientific Research Flanders in Belgium. Gielen has published many books
which are translated in Chinese, English, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish,
Turkish and Ukrainian. His research focuses on creative labour, the common, urban
and cultural politics. Gielen works and lives in Antwerp, Belgium.
www.ccqo.eu
https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/research-groups/aria/
pascal.gielen@uantwerpen.be
The event takes place in partnership with the ist publishing house (istpublishing.org).