Let the Games Begin

In between endless meals; a huge breakfast, followed by a tea break, then a three-course lunch then another break just before a three-course dinner, Arseny and I conducted the workshop. We started with an introduction about public art and our goals and expectations for the next 10 days. I started by making the distinction be public art and art in public places. Public art is site-specific. It has a direct relationship with some aspect of the site and is created with a specific audience in mind. The best public art projects will only work in the place where it is created for. On the other hand, «art in public places» is merely placing a work of art in a public environment – or plop art. From my understanding, there is no distinction between plop art and public art in the Russian word for «public Art». I wanted to make the differences clear.

The workshops also provided an opportunity for the artists to casually talk about their work and show examples of past projects.