This Book examines an interplay between discourses on the city that stress theneed for rational-functional order and art’s imaginative deviations from the topdownstructures of urban life. Moving between theory and praxis, the booksituates the city as both a concept and physical construct through which lives andpossibilities are shaped or defined. In response, certain modalities of art createspontaneous, non-rational and playful interludes that risk escape from the urbanapparatus and a hyper-valorisation of rational order. A three-part framework isused to discuss this push-pull dynamic and to assess the strategies of shock,performative embodiment and intervention that emerged in post-war artmovements and in contemporary performance and participatory art practices.The book examines how the disturbances introduced by artists throw the cityconstruct into sharp relief, making it visible and activating momentary encounters where new modes of expression can emerge.This Book offers a new approach to interdisciplinary studies of art and urbanity.The book aims to delineate how the city—as concept and construct—is madevisible through artistic practice and in turn challenged or interrogated. Students,researchers and professionals with an interest in the interaction between art andurban studies will discover a new perspective on how urban conditions and issueshave been addressed through artistic practice. The book contributes to anevolving discourse in the urban humanities through an exposition of the city’sdefault construct that is made visible or reimagined through visual art in publicspaces.
