Sites in Motion. Actor Constellations in Contemporary Public Art.
Public places are shaped by networks of institutions and administrations, by the everyday uses and interventions of civilians, and by the interactions among diverse generations and interest groups. As a result, the ways they are perceived, utilized, and accessed change continuously. Artworks commissioned for these places mirror those shifts. Situated beyond the confines of museums and galleries, they depend on collaborative networks - or, what this thesis refers to as ‘actor constellations’ - of artists, civilians, municipal staff, administrators, and other intermediaries.
Interweaving theory, politics, and practice, this thesis begins by tracing four decades (1980s-2020s) of theoretical debate on public space and democracy, situating this discourse alongside art-historical and cultural-policy developments in Germany and Great Britain. Drawing on Claude Lefort’s concept of ‘the social’ as a network of multiple relations, the study shifts away from abstract notions of an ideological public sphere and toward the lived experience of physical settings. It engages with Chantal Mouffe’s ‘democratic paradox’ - the tension between individual freedom and collective life - and Etienne Balibar’s idea of civilians as potential ‘agents of transformation’. This theoretical overview forms the base for four comparative case studies - two British, two German - which look at organisational and funding architectures shaping public-art commissions and their actor constellations. While public art has been widely studied in relation to place-making and identity, less attention has been paid to the commissioning structures and long-term effects across national contexts.
Three research questions guide the analysis:
- What organisational and financial structures enable the sustainable implementation of artworks outside cultural institutions?
- In what ways does art in public places mobilize local knowledge and expertise, and how does this reconfigure agency across artists, cultural workers, and civic actors?
- What happens to the networks, experiences, and knowledge generated during a commission – and how can their impact be sustained?
Methodologically, the study combines archival research, policy analysis and semi-structured interviews with artists, organisers, funders, and local stakeholders. Each case reconstructs the initiation, execution, and afterlife of a commission, assessing its impact on local governance, social cohesion, and cultural infrastructure. By mapping similarities and divergences across the four examples, the thesis identifies the procedural, relational and fiscal factors that most effectively foster durable, publicly accountable constellations around temporary artworks in shared spaces. Extending the analysis to the different actors involved in commissioning, planning, and implementing public art, the study offers a rare perspective on the field’s collaborative dimension.
Building on the legacy of identity-based movements, which have emphasized the value of difference, this thesis explores how public art can engage diverse forms of knowledge and lived experience. Drawing on the analysis of actor constellations, this thesis develops a framework for implementing projects in public places and identifies what is needed to establish, finance, and sustain these constellations over time.
(February 2026)