The transdisciplinary symposium focuses on art projects that communicate simultaneously on two levels: with persons and groups mostly without connection to the arts, and with those participating within the art context. For this claim we use the term “Dual Commitment”.
Operational models, tactics, and methods will be presented and compared, and the development of standards for the evaluation of such practices will be discussed.

Many of the art projects that comprise this field address socially or economically marginal areas, and are
frequently physically located in places that could be
described as such. The projects are often not transfer-
able to other places without fundamental changes, and in this sense qualify as site specific, which thus bring into the discussion as an additional consideration all the issues that accompany site specific practice.

The people, as constituencies created or made visible by such art projects, are not merely seen as a new kind of audience. Essential to the project of emancipation and the ideals of democratic participation in society is the
dialogue itself, and this requires the involvement of
different actors (for example, the artists and a project‘s local population) as equals.

If social realities are integral parts and prerequistites for public art practices, and if, at the same time, we agree that it is still art, then in what ways can classical art
institutions like museums and galleries treat this kind of art? Clearly, because the art institutions belong to the world of the bourgeoisie, rethinking their self-defini-
tion is a condition for a fruitful collaboration with the art projects in question. However, there remains the question of the socio-political aim of all these efforts.

From a pragmatic side, the symposium organizers and participants wish to extend and strengthen international
exchange in this field, on the levels of theory, practical knowledge, and concrete support.