Konst i centrum En undersökning av två kontroversiella verk i Göteborgs offentliga miljö

Abstract

This master’s thesis in history of ideas is an interdisciplinary study which engages in the aspect of urban planning, public art and cultural policy through the analysis of two different types of public displays in Gothenburg. The main objects for the research are a water and light display ordered by the city of Gothenburg and the other is Eternal Employment, a conceptual artwork, which is commissioned by the Public Art Agency Sweden. The focus of the examination is the heterogeneous context that surrounds the processes of these two displays and the decision-making. The hypothesis is that these works represents two approaches that the public displays have devolved into as a result of politics and urban planning. The thesis examines how the ideas regarding art and culture are expressed in the material via the two theoretical concepts entrepreneurialism from David Harvey and Jeff Werner’s the post-democratic state. The examination shows how art and culture have become a tool for urban planning and cultural policy to make the city attractive. Regarding the hypothesis the examination shows that instead of two approaches it is rather a symptom caused by the same factor – the post-democratic state. Despite their differences, the displays are motivated in a similar way, which implies an instrumental approach to art and culture. Although, the result also shows that there is a critical potential within the artwork in comparison with the water and light display that cannot be instrumentalized.