Fotograf Magazine

In the last decades, the issue of the relationship between contemporary art and the public has become highly relevant and has been widely discussed; therefore in writing a magazine article one must opt for only a partial perspective. I would like to demonstrate the strong influence on my thinking over the last few weeks of a book by Lambert Zuidervaart, professor of philosophy at the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto, and – given the limitations of the present article – beg the reader’s permission to draw on Professor Zuidervaart’s rigorous and rather extensive text, in particular several arguments which provide important new contexts for both my personal experience with the issue of public art[ref]See e.g.: Veřejné umění, in: exhibition catalogue of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art, Prague: Umělecké dílo ve veřejném prostoru (Work of Art in Public Space), SCSU Praha, Prague 1997. Also published in: Antologie České umění 1980 – 2010, Texty a dokumenty, AVU Praha 2012, p. 551; Co hledají sochy v ulicích, in: sochy v ulicích, brno art open ´09, Dům umění města Brna, Brno 2009, p. 22, available at www.artlist.cz /teoretik/L.H.[/ref] and its broader local discussion.