15.10.–29.10.2007
Lectures/Events

Public Art: Theory, History, Practice
Three Lectures with Anselm Wagner

Since the 1970s, public art has been one of the long-running success stories in the contemporary art scene. Large international events like the “sculpture projects muenster, ” which took place this year for the fourth time, attest to this fact, as do the frequent heated discussions that have taken place in Salzburg about sculptures of the “Salzburg Foundation ” or last year’s “kontracom ”.
These debates show that the public space remains a symbolically significant place where social hierarchies and conflicts emerge, which are however also reflected in the field of art. Are there any fundamental positions on which agreement could be reached? For example, must public art always address its specific site? What distinguishes it from art in the open air? This series of lectures will attempt to find answers to questions such as these. Dr. Wagner will at first provide some theoretical background to the concepts of “publicness ” (Habermas, Negt/Kluge, Sennett) and “space ” or “place ” (Bourdieu, Foucault, Augé, Löw), before going on to examine the history of public art, particularly in the 20th century. He will then look at the contemporary praxis of public art and the way the interest of artists has shifted from the physical to the social space.

Speaker: Dr. Anselm Wagner, art historian and critic (including for “Spike ” and “Parnass ”), teaches at the TU Graz, the Karl Franzens University in Graz and the Mozarteum Salzburg.

Public – Space - Place
Monday, 15 October 2007, 7 p.m.

Monuments, “Art and Building ” and Drop Sculptures
Monday, 22 October 2007, 7 p.m.

From Site-Specificity to “New Genre Public Art ”
Monday, 29 October 2007, 7 p.m.

Admission is free of charge.