Now we make (it) here: how city transformations impact the creative processes of urban artistic practice

This research investigates the bidirectional relationship between art and the city, focusing on how the artist’s experience of city transformations influences their artistic practices in urban public spaces. While existing literature extensively explores the impact and role of art and artists on cities, less attention has been given to how changes in the urban environment influence the creative processes of artists who engage with it. The central question is: how does artists’ experience of urban change affect their artistic production and the ways they create works for urban public spaces? The interdisciplinary concept of urban artistic practice is introduced to frame urban art-works as a dynamic processes shaping and being shaped by the changing urban environment. The city of Bologna, Italy was selected as a case study, involving an in-depth analysis of twelve local artistic practices across the visual, installation-based and performative arts, with three of them – Antonello Ghezzi, TIST, and Serendippo – examined in detail, with a total of seven artworks analyzed. This qualitative research employed a methodological triangulation of semi-structured interviews and visual ethnography, conducted over fourteen months of fieldwork. Data analysis combined two analysis methods: Iterative Thematic Inquiry (ITI) and Systematic Visuo-textual Analysis (SVTA). At a macro level, the findings revealed three distinct modes of urban artistic practice in Bologna – interactive objects, devices, and programs. At a micro level, the creative processes of the art-works from the three local practices and their interactions with urban sites in Bologna were reconstructed through visuo-textual thick descriptions. This study offers new insights and useful methodological frameworks for understanding the evolving relationship between art, the city, and its transformations.