There are two concepts of public art; the old one and the new one. The first one can go back to the 1960s. Old public art had modern and formalist character, in fact it meant art in public places. The new public art is postmodern and anti-formalist, it is paradoxical offshoot of dematerialization of art and relates rather to the public sphere than to public places. It aims at permanent extension of the field of discursivity and undermining the “communist fiction” that society has one common goal which could be uncovered by scientific research. New public art defends the public sphere in which those, who are ruled should have the same right to speak as those who rule; it defends politics against various forms of depoliticization of social life. New public art moves the interest of artists (Joseph Beuys, Hans Haacke, Christo, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and others) from aesthetics to politics, from art to life, or to put it in other words — from artlike art to lifelike art.
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