Running the City is an important and much needed exploration of the relationship between art, the public domain and its communities.
– Clover Moore, Lord Mayor, City of Sydney
In Running the City leading Australian curator Dr Felicity Fenner profiles activity-based contemporary public art projects in Australia and around the globe – from running and cycling to guerrilla gardening. Including runners taking to the streets of Sydney’s CBD in Runscape, and Work No. 850, where athletes sprinted through the corridors of Tate Britain, Running the City reveals how public space can be activated in ways that are original, unexpected, fun and sometimes subversive. The theme of running – both in the context of athleticism and agency – underscores the artworks here. More than just site-specific public art, the projects examined change the way we think about and inhabit our cities.
About Felicity FennerFelicity Fenner is Director of UNSW Galleries, a member of the City of Sydney Public Art Advisory Panel and a lead researcher on the Curating Cities database of eco-sustainable public art. Her research as a curator focuses on aspects of place-making and inhabitation, encapsulated in exhibitions such as Handle with Care: 2008 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Once Removed, Australia’s group exhibition at the 2009 Venice Biennale, Michael Nyman: Cine Opera, staged inside Sydney Park Brickworks in 2011, Running the City, curated for the 2013 International Symposium on Electronic Art, and People Like Us, an international exhibition of new media art developed for tour to 15 venues across Australia (2015–2019).
Join leading Australian curator Dr Felicity Fenner as she profiles activity-based contemporary public art projects in Australia and around the globe – from running and cycling to guerrilla gardening – that change the way we think about and inhabit our cities.
Using these projects, Felicity explores why public art matters, and how public space can be activated in ways that are original, unexpected, fun and sometimes subversive.
SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)