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Artistic Urban Interventions, Informality and Public Sphere: Research Insights from Ephemeral Urban Appropriations on a Cultural District
In this perspective, this paper aims to discuss this relation between urban interventions, informality and public sphere appropriation, analyzing the way informal artistic dynamics can contribute to urban re-vitalization and to the enhancement of real creative milieus. Drawing on a research-action based methodology the authors explore the results and impacts of three experiences of urban intervention that they developed in three consecutive years in informal urban contexts in Bairro Alto, the main cultural quarter of Lisbon, Portugal. These ephemeral artistic interventions introduced in the city new spaces of public use, performing different public and private spaces, and bringing them to the public sphere, creating also “new” zones that re-gain a utility in the city, contributing to the vitality and symbolic centrality of this area.
After introductory and conceptual sections, where the ambiguousness of public sphere is explored and conceptualized, a methodological section centers on research-action methodologies and its potential. The three artistic interventions are then fully analysed, inquiring their purposes, results and impacts. Main findings and principles for urban planning are summed up on conclusion.