Özet:

Beyond the aesthetic touches upon public sphere in the post-1980 period, public art has been advocated on the basis that it helps develop sense of belongingness and social cohesion, aids in revitalization of urban spaces, raises quality of life, develops sense of identity, contributes to civic identity via gaining visibility, attracts visitors, the creative class and investments and complements all activities that provide input to the cultural economy. Given this, public art has begun to act as a panacea for culture-led urban regeneration processes in particular. This article intends to dwell upon the ways of how public art can be analyzed for cities of the 21st century and the ways of how and through what kind of an objective framework cultural policies can take a stance within this course. In line with this, the article reviews the phenomenon of public art in different categories, examines its role upon urban design and planning from the lens of different times and geographies and discusses the relations between public art as part of cultural policies and the course of urban restructuring. At the interface of urban marketing and cultural economy today, the mainstream debate concerning the role of public art in urban regeneration can be grounded upon three discussions such as “production of culture/art”, “producers of culture/art” as permanent inhabitants of the city and the considerations of economical input from “consumption of culture/art”. Here, the production, consumption and creative labour in fields of culture/art altogether provide the main algorithm for culture-led urban regeneration. Yet, the role attributed to culture/art and artists/designers in culture-led regeneration appears to vary considerably. Despite the inclusion of art and artists in urban renewal/regeneration processes for the triggering impact of their presence for purposes of image and civic identity, it is a fact that local groups of art remain excluded from the economic system once the new order prevails. Whereas it is evident that there is an almost global consensus on the importance and considerable impact of public art, there emerges no smooth picture, which requires that one should be aware of the underlying problems waiting to be unraveled behind being the so-called panacea.

Anahtar Kelimeler: