Community and Urbanism in Italian Art Practices in the 1990s. A Move Beyond Public Art

Abstract

The text aims to highlight the development of Italian Public art at the turn of the 90s and 2000s by analysing similarities and differences with socially engaged operations which, in the United States at the beginning of the 90s, led to the redefinition of the very concept of public art. The focus is on the transition from the public to the community with the subsequent shift from the creation of the monument to the coplanning of a participatory moment. In particular, the links between urban planning and artistic practice will be analysed within urban regeneration programs capable of building a new intervention methodology based on dialogue and participation. Through the example of the Art. 2 intervention, created by the artist Adriana Torregrossa within the framework of the urban program The Gate (Turin, 1999), the text wants to highlight the new ways in which the artist puts himself/herself as a mediator within a community by redefining the public space.