While the multiple forms of privatization, commodification, and militarization of public space – understood as a space for encounters, exchanges, and confrontation with the other – contribute to eroding the democratic future of our society, many islands of solidarity, resistance, and resilience emerge here and there, enabling the expansion of possibilities, reinventing the future, and imagining lifestyles and relationships based more on cooperation than on competition. Arts in public space – archipelagos of the senses – have infused our territories for over half a century, weaving themselves into the interstices of social fabric, creating bonds among citizens, and leaving traces of their unique paths. What role can street arts play in the planning, development, and exploration of tomorrow's territories? How can artistic proposals and the economic, social, ecological, climatic, and institutional dimensions of our territories be equally taken into account by public administration? What skills do cultural professionals interested in working in public space need to strengthen to face the challenges of the next decade?

Let's try, for a moment, to set aside the semantic, translational, ontological, aesthetic, and political differences that seem to exist between street theater, street arts, and artistic creation for public space. Let's try to think of arts in public space in their broadest sense, as plural, international, and radical arts. Let's consider five examples that aim to illustrate the relationships between art and territory. These are actions in urban and rural areas, in Europe and other parts of the world, supported by public authorities or private initiative, with varying duration and impact. Some may serve as prototypes for other contexts, while others are simply sources of inspiration and will necessarily need to be adapted and reinvented.

Matera, Italy. A city of sixty thousand inhabitants located in the south of Italy, in the Basilicata region, which was awarded the title of European Capital of Culture (ECC) in 2019. Matera is a city geographically disadvantaged and historically marked by the "shame" of the sassi (primitive dwellings), mainly caused by the evacuation of seventeen thousand of its inhabitants in the 1950s due to unhealthiness and strong promiscuity. The challenge for the success of the ECC has been to revitalize a territory – culturally and touristically – and create connections among its inhabitants, both in the old city and in the new one. In fact, throughout the year 2019, almost twenty thousand residents were mobilized to co-create the cultural program Matera 2019 and thus participate in all stages of the creative process, according to a principle defined in the project's application as "the cultural inhabitant", which made it possible to reinvent the relationship between the artist and the public. The last stage of this process was the elaboration of a poetic-artistic manifesto, presenting new paths for participatory art practice and raising awareness among residents about art and cultural practices.

Seoul, South Korea. A megacity of ten million inhabitants – twenty-five million if we consider the entire urban area, which is half of the country –, experiencing rapid urban change, with strong impacts on the daily lives of its inhabitants, such as gentrification, urban renewal, rural decline, and significant community displacement. Connected City, a project led by the British Council, was developed between 2017 and 2018 as part of the UK-South Korea cross-programming year, with the aim of regenerating territories and creating something in common. More specifically, the following actions can be cited: the production of two films preceded by artistic residencies, namely Making and the Connected City, focusing on the impact of gentrification on the work of artisans, and Arts and the Connected City, exploring ways to diversify audiences through artistic creation in public space; the organization of a conference as part of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, discussing the relationships between art, technology, places, and communities; the creation of a comic book, sound sculptures, urban games, and geolocated musical works.

ZAD de Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France. The project of interest here is the Laboratory of Insurrectional Imagination – also known as Labofii – which aims to merge artistic imagination with radical activism, creating new forms of "creative resistance" while simultaneously "putting an end to extractivist art that appropriates value from one place only to regurgitate it elsewhere". Among the activities that can be mentioned are: mass cycling actions during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, tours across Britain with an army of clowns, organizing the Climate Games during COP21 in Paris, and the production of numerous resources and publications.

Bangalore, India. Located in the south of the country, the capital of the state of Karnataka, with eight and a half million inhabitants; it is a city undergoing rapid development and change. The Metro Neighborhood Project, led by Art in Transit, is an artistic and educational initiative coordinated by Arzu Mistry and Amitabh Kumar, launched by the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology in collaboration with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation and various cultural institutions and local artists. The challenges of this project have highlighted the diversity of the city's neighborhoods, using metro stations as a site to activate creative communities, fostering collaboration between city facilities (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation), universities (Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology), and various artistic collectives. To meet these needs and achieve the objectives, Art in Transit has conceived and implemented exhibitions, workshops, and artistic interventions aimed at exploring the city's past and interpreting the emerging changes.

Medina of Tunis, Tunisia. A city bathed by the Mediterranean, with six hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, of which about one hundred and twenty thousand live in the medina, classified since 1979 as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A territory where artistic expression in public space has played a decisive role in the country's democratic transition. Let's consider the case of the Dream City Biennale, a multidisciplinary festival that has existed since 2007, and whose next edition will take place in October 2022: these artistic encounters are led by the association L'Art Rue, created by the duo of dancers and choreographers Selma and Sofiane Ouissi, responsible for artistic direction alongside Jan Goossens. The objective of Dream City? To create something common around themes that deeply divide or, in the words of Sofiane Ouissi and Jan Goossens, to build "dream societies", "a common urban and socio-political space among artists, inhabitants, communities", "to create a space for democratic crossing".

What would be, after all, the key points to take from these different experiences around the world? Firstly, the transformative power of arts in public space and its ability to create bonds in any type of territory, to connect different communities within the same society, to embrace complexity, and to provide critical tools to better understand the multiple realities that surround us and unravel particularly tangled contemporary issues. Thus, arts in public space can represent a formidable and driving catalyst for the context of "living together", supporting the regeneration of territories. However, this takes time and requires resources, not only financial but also human, technical, and organizational. Ultimately, through interdisciplinarity, the pulsating heart of all these projects that activate territories in a lasting way through art allows us to imagine alternative futures: we find a great diversity not only in practices, processes, tools, and means implemented, but also in the reflections, encounters, stories, and memories that these projects generate.

In conclusion, let us hope that in the next ten years new "archipelagos of the sensitive" emerge, and let us act collectively to ensure that they become part of our reality in a sustainable way, and that dreamers, of which I am a part, see their desires fulfilled.

Photo: Planteia (2021), a community project that is a garden-stage-game, situated in the square of the Casa da Cultura de Ílhavo (23 Milhas) © Pedro Mostardinha.

The text corresponds to an excerpt from the chapter "Arte e território: entre convergências, interferências e divergências" of the "Manual de boas práticas para a organização de eventos artísticos no espaço público" (Outdoor Arts Portugal, Bússola, 2021).

Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar

Stéphane Segreto-Aguilar is responsible for international relations at ARTCENA, the French national center for circus, street arts, and theater, and he is the coordinator of Circostrada, the European network for contemporary circus and street arts. He holds a master's degree in Art Management and European Cultural Policies, and for over ten years, he has been exploring the connections between culture, identity, and international relations, promoting artistic creation as a tool for social transformation and experimenting with new forms of cooperation and governance. He also serves on the governing bodies of On the Move and Perform Europe.