According to a spatial approach to social relations that came about with the cultural shift in urban studies and geography in the 1980s, sociality and materiality are interconnected. The landscape is not a container for action, but happens together with it.[1] Despite the widespread understanding of places as fixed and eternal, they are relational, under negotiation and open to conflict, contingency and the political, constantly in the making.[2]

Our immersion and “entrapment” in the materiality and temporalities of a place can potentially allow for complex, embodied understandings of the power relations places are made of.[3] Situated and intersectional feminist and queer approaches to phenomenology highlight how gender, race, social class, and ability affect the ways in which one perceives, accesses and feels (dis)comfort in a place that has been afforded the status of neutrality by privileged bodies and dominant narratives.[4] How does a disabled person navigate pavements blocked with parked cars? How does it feel to walk under the gaze of sculptures of heroic men when the walkers are women or other marginalized genders?

Urban regeneration plans, public sculptures, artist interventions, graffiti – everything that appears in public space – is not merely decorative, nor is it a neutral backdrop to everyday life. It is loaded with political and social meanings and acts on the residents and passers-by, affecting where and how they move and what they look at, as well as stirring official and individual memories. As many different actors are involved in the shaping and claiming of public spaces, albeit in asymmetrical ways, these spaces become scenes for addressing and acting out public life,[5] open to dissent, contestation and social (ant)agonism.

Spaces are characterised by polysemy, as the individuals, groups and structures that use and shape them have different aspirations or perceptions of them, often deviating from those planned or expected. Where dominant discourses, normative gender roles and national and class boundaries are affirmed, they can also be challenged and undermined. The same monument on the main square, the same writing or stain made of paint on the facade of a building, the same art intervention in public space all tell different stories to different people and affect them in different ways.

Public art participates in this constant dialogue and shaping of the cityscape. Often, it celebrates established power and ideas, not necessarily in conscious or easily perceived ways. Or it may question or disrupt truths, narratives and processes that are taken for granted. Graffiti, slogans, or tags also claim space, transforming city walls into stages of address, where non-linear dialogues take place daily.[6] Even self-referential tags/signatures that are not intended to be read and understood by those who do are not part of the graffiti cultures communicate with passers-by, if not with a clear message, then as images that “transcend the letters” that compose them;[7] as agents that stimulate reactions. They are often considered dangerous, or “out of place”[8], as they may appear incomprehensible and unsettling, or undermine public consent, and the plans for a tidy, agreeable city facade. Street art is not necessarily perceived with similar concerns,[9] especially when it is made with official permission or funding.

The institution tends to integrate all that is new, interesting and challenging. In doing so, it may make it more visible and acceptable, securing it a place in the archive. Bearing in mind that the “wilding” of the public sphere is no longer unambiguous at a time when confidence in established, clear worldviews has been shaken,[10] let us also consider that integrating all that is new, interesting and challenging may also render it less “dangerous” to official truths and the (exclusionary) values of order and cleanliness.

Sofia Grigoriadou (Athens, Skopje) is an artist, anthropologist, curator and educator. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology (Panteion University, Athens) on “Contemporary artistic production in changing cities: the examples of Athens and Skopje”. She holds a BA and MFA in visual arts (Athens School of Fine Arts), and a BA in Philosophy-Pedagogy-Psychology (School of Philosophy, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). She is co-founder of TWIXTlab, a laboratory between contemporary art, the social sciences and everyday life in Athens. She was a co-founder of the interdisciplinary group Akoo-o (sound, movement and technological mediation). She was a member of the editorial team of the publishing initiative kyklada.press (materiality, the senses, and landscape in coastal contexts). She is a guest curator of Video Art Miden. She has taught contemporary art at the ASFA and (co-)organized workshops and seminars at TWIXTlab and elsewhere on contemporary art and anthropology. In 2024 she worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje curating the screenings programme, co-editing The Large Glass magazine, and co-curating exhibitions. She is currently an Adjunct Lecturer in anthropology and visual culture at the Department of Culture and Creative Media and Industries (University of Thessaly, Greece).