Interrupting the city - Bram Leven

Interrupting the City explores the ways in which artistic practices and interventions constitute the public sphere. To interrupt the city (be it digitally or materially) means to arrest the flow or circulation that the city consists of. The tactics by which this interruption is achieved may vary, ranging from a media offensive to riots in the streets, but each and every time these activities affect the public sphere, also make the public sphere. Thus, the public domain is constituted by a combination of social, political and media forces, in a continuous flux, continuously being interrupted. This book attempts to chart the conditions under which one is able to develop a voice in the public sphere, and to ask in what way these conditions could be altered by means of artistic interventions. Its contributions delve into the relations between artistic practices and the public space, including the various relations between art and politics.