When art and space meet

Based on the premise that art as well as space are part and product of social, political, and economic relations, the e-book analyzes the dialectic relationship of artistic practices and urban space in Detroit. The city of Detroit, with its massive population loss, abundance of vacant lots and buildings, and continuing racialization and marketization of space, provides a unique, although not exceptional setting for this research. Through a set of ethnographic methods, Nora Küttel identifies five artistic practices that each refers to a specific aspect of space and its production, such as materiality or publicness. She foregrounds diverse and manifold relations of artistic practices and urban space in Detroit and unveils the dynamics and conflicts as well as multiple meanings and histories of (artistic) spaces in Detroit that often run counter to dominant representations of space. Nora Küttel also shows how those practices produce spaces that are shaped by heterogeneity and participation. The research contributes to geography’s engagement with art by offering a critical perspective on the intersection of artistic practices and space with regard to issues of power and representation over and within urban space.