On the Public in Art: Decompartmentalization and Transgression
Public art holds a broad, pervasive and rich meaning. However, its usage in the media sphere or through its institutional designations restricts its reach, relating it primarily to works that complete an architectural (interior or exterior), urban or landscaped structure accessible to the public. The works that have come out of the 1% policy are perfect examples of this semantic reduction, although in principle this is not only a major source of public art production in Quebec,1 but also, it must be stressed, of its financing. The “1%” works, according to insider jargon, are also at the core of visual art scandals and they provide the media, and also players in the cultural milieu, subjects for debates with no holds barred. The political nature of these publicly financed works obviously merits closer scrutiny, since the democratization objective underpinning public art also brings with it a sort of democratization of criticism, as though it were easier for the art lover to approach a work that has been stripped of its institutional armour (museums, galleries, etc.).
Beyond media overkill, the political dimension of public art also raises questions regarding the methods of selecting work, notably the highly controlled procedure that usually governs competitions. For example, the comparison between Quebec “1%” selection procedures and the European way of attributing public art funds reveals a different relationship to both the artworks and the artists who are contenders in the competitions. The principle of anonymity for submitted projects, as it is applied in
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