Urban space

Create, intervene within the cities despite constraints imposed by increasingly severe security rules … Artists’ “actions” in urban settings are becoming more and more difficult to put into place. Unless they foray into new terrain …

What is the artist’s place in the European urban space? Posing this question amounts to questioning the “street” artists as to their relationship with the occupation or “jostling” of new artistic territories, while also contemplating the reception that European cities offer artistic acts within their walls.

José Rubio, the technical director of the Parc de la Villette (Paris) is right in reminding us that “investing in the public space through an artistic act is often experienced as the expression of an inalienable freedom.” However, our societies have taken on the goal of insuring the security of its citizens under all circumstances, and most notably those of a demonstration in the public space.

The street professionals in Europe have massively deplored the appearance of numerous constraints hindering artistic creation: security guards between the audience and the show in Great Britain, children being forbidden to attend street demonstrations in ...