In the early 1990s Los Angeles artist Suzanne Lacy spearheaded New Genre Public Art, an early term for socially engaged art practices within the public realm. Her work countered the traditional understanding of art in public space. A different idea of public emerged, one that suggested active engagement with specific people in specific places.

In 2021 Lacy worked with then director Alistair Hudson to realize What Kind of City?, a large-scale exhibition and subsequent city-wide project at The Whitworth, Manchester, UK. The exhibition presented multiple key works by Suzanne Lacy whilst at the same time serving as A Manual For Social Change on how art could change the city.

Alistair Hudson, now chairman at ZKM, Karlsruhe, is an influential director, curator and writer on social practice art. In their conversation at GAK, Lacy and Hudson will discuss the potential of public art taking their joint project as a starting point.

The event took place within the framework of “Everyone an Island After All?” which examined the contagions, stratifications, and territorial structures that permeate the city (of Bremen) in its current complexity. The images produced in public space mainly suppress subjective realities instead of addressing them. How can artistic ways of working create a space of imagination in relation to these orders?

In collaboration with Festival Changing City—50 Jahre Kunst im öffentlichen Raum Bremen, Senator für Kultur Bremen
With financial support of Der Senator für Kultur der Freien Hansestadt Bremen and Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien im Zusammenhang mit dem Programm NEUSTARTplus Plattformen der bildenden Kunst der Stiftung Kunstfonds