„CLEANING THE CITY“ – CITIZEN EMANCIPATION THROUGH PERFORMATIVE ENGAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SPACE

Abstract

“Cleaning the city” is not an occasional activity, but rather an urban movement of changing awareness of the importance of public space, created and implemented through the methodological apparatus of Small Interventions. The aim of this paper is to consider the possibility of citizens’ identification with public space through participation, work and togetherness in the form of voluntary work action of cleaning their city. Following the mechanism of work action (period of the Yugoslav self-governing socialism), the idea of emancipation, ritual and togetherness is reactivated, but this time deprived of a strong ideological platform, based on approaches and practices of modern urban theories of simultaneous (top-down; bottom-up), ordinary, adaptable, temporary, massive small and democratic city. On the other hand, the importance and role of work and physical engagement in public space are considered through the citizens’ emancipation, but in a way that art as an authentic human activity is not separated from general working conditions. In this case, socially engaged art acts as a catalyst for social change and goes beyond the standard frameworks and definitions of art by recreating new/old models of conquering space. In the example of “Cleaning the city”, performative art is manifested through the mechanism of work action, where citizens, by physically engaging their bodies and conquering space, can become bearers of change in public space. ‘Cleaning the city’ has established a connection between art and general working conditions and it influences citizens to identify with the city and to, through the potential of work action, transform both the city and the human community.