ART AND THE CITY
Interview with Dr Nicolas Whybrow, School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies
Philosopher Henri Lefebvre predicted that the future of art would not be artistic, but urban. As Dr Nicolas Whybrow asks, how can art not be artistic? In this interview, Dr Whybrow examines how art can shift from inside institutions and onto the city streets.
Dr Nicolas Whybrow has recently published Art and the City - a book in which he explores the increasingly intimate relationship between artwork and its urban context. He is concerned with developing approaches to writing about artworks from the point of view of the spectator’s first-hand encounter with them in public spaces in a city.
“Art doesn’t just adorn a city,” explains Dr Whybrow. “But in that interactivity between people and artwork, something comes about that we call a city.”
Performance is the key linking factor between art and the city for Dr Whybrow - in fact it represents the yeast-like ingredient that is activated by an interlocutor who simultaneously enacts the roles of participating spectator and urban dweller (or, indeed, citizen).
In this interview, find out how an extended sojourn to Berlin sparked an interest that led to a deeper exploration of this intricate relationship. From London to Venice, Dr Whybrow finds that the city changes the way 'art' is experienced in all kinds of ways.
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For images of locations discussed by Dr Whybrow, take a look at the following slideshow.
You can read an extract from Art and the City on the Knowledge Centre.
Dr Nicolas Whybrow is Associate Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies, having joined the School early in 2004 from De Montfort University, Leicester. Prior to that he held full-time posts at the universities of Leeds and Lancaster. At Warwick Dr Whybrow's main teaching centres on Performance and Text in the second year, which is a practical and theoretical module on experimental approaches to making work and, in the third year, on the Performance and the Contemporary City option. The latter investigates performance that intervenes or operates directly within city sites, or which draws inspiration specifically from urban contexts. In addition he supervises practical and theoretical research options and contributes lectures to the first year Introduction to Performance module. In 2010 Dr Whybrow was a recipient of the Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence.
By Alex Dziegiel |
