76. Public Art in Transformation: Mediation, Materiality and Value

Public art seeks “permanence in impermanent time” (Cartiere, 2022). The intended public, institutions and environments that sustain its relevance may change profoundly, making its value difficult to evaluate and mediate. This session asks how the artistic, art-historical and social value of commissioned artworks is mediated when the institutional, architectural and political frames of reference which first shaped their public role are transformed.

The issue is especially visible in socialist and post-socialist contexts, where works made for collective spaces and with ideological intent may remain extant after regime change while becoming socially, politically, materially or spatially displaced. A mural in a school, a relief in a civic interior or an artwork embedded in a public building may occupy its original site, but the public it once addressed, the institution it served and the values around it has changed. These cases open onto wider histories of publicly funded and state-supported art, including percent-for-art schemes and institutional commissions in which permanence was imagined more readily than later use.

Building on work in public art studies, design history and heritage studies, the session asks how such works are interpreted, evaluated and mediated under altered conditions. On what grounds are they preserved as “heritage”, neglected, or removed? How can art history reconstruct unstable public roles while considering artistic form, material presence and art-historical value?

We invite case studies and comparative papers on the afterlives of commissioned works in public or semi-public settings. The session aims to rethink public art through change, ambiguity, mediation, and value.

Themes: Public art, heritage, mediation

Additional format comment: A standard paper session with a brief introduction by the convenors, four or five papers (each 20/15 minutes, depending on the number/quality of the proposals received), followed by a moderated discussion.

Lead Convenor: Katarina Mohar, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Slovenia

Co-convenors: Jessica Jenkins, Falmouth University, United Kingdom

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.