The Test outlines a public art project developed by ROARAWAR FEARTATA titled The Crossing, undertaken as part of Melbourne City Council’s 2019 Test Sites program. Drawing on the figure of the ferryman from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, as well Henri Lefebvre’s concept of Rhythmanalysis, this project sought to occupy the everyday practice of the pedestrian crossing, utilising the position of the artist within this everyday practice to develop a methodology for conducting a rhythmanalysis of public space. Through the process of performative adventure and the reading of rhythms, the project aimed to strategise a process for art to participate in the practice of the everyday whilst maintaining the tension of the question: “how will we know what it is that we are doing?” Vol. 4 No. 3 (2019): Art and Activism in Public Space Keywords: performance, public space, rhythmanalysis, everyday practice, advene, remaindered

As population density skyrockets, megacities in Africa are likely to suffer the most from climate change. The UN’s New Urban Agenda holds the key for unlocking climate resilient cities in Africa and around the world, says* Oumar Sylla* , Director of UN-Habitat’s regional office for Africa. Ministers responsible for housing and urban development from across Africa recently met in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss how best to respond to urbanisation on the continent. In light of the upcoming High-Level Meeting at the UN on 28 April on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, national expert representatives of the Special African Ministerial Session on Sustainable Urbanisation and Housing made the case for working together to implement the framework in their respective countries. The two-day African ministerial consultations towards the High-Level meeting were organised by UN-Habitat, UNECA, and the African Union with the support from the government of Kenya. The New Urban Agenda was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito, Ecuador, on 20 October 2016. It highlights linkages between sustainable urbanisation and job creation, livelihood opportunities and improved quality of life, and insists on the incorporation of all of these sectors in every urban development or policy and strategy. As part of this, ministers must work with their respective governments to double down on tackling climate change in order to fully implement the New Urban Agenda. Read the full article on New African Magazine Recommended by Luisa Bravo

In August 2023 Museo Spazio Pubblico hosted Fiona Hillary from Melbourne (Australia) as Visiting Scholar for a one-week residency. Fiona has been the first artist to support the establishment of our Museum during her first visit in Bologna in 2019, on the occasion of the international workshop "Creative Bologna. Public Art in the Making" promoted by City Space Architecture. During her stay, Fiona presented 'Reverberating Futures' that she created at Melbourne's biggest sewage treatment plant, the Western Treatment Plant. Through this fieldwork on the fringes of industrial and post-industrial sites, Fiona creates an understanding of our entanglements in the world. Her creative projects draw attention to the assemblages of public space, particularly where utility is at the intersection of human, non-human and more-than-human life. Fiona Hillary is a Melbourne based artist working in the public realm. Her passion lies in site specific practices and the human/non-human relationships that reveal themselves across time. Exploring scale through publicly shared moments of awe and wonder; working with site, neon, sound, human and non-human companion species, her work focuses on temporary, fleeting encounters in and of the everyday. Most recently Fiona’s research understands climate change through her reading of bioluminescent dinoflagellates as the ‘shimmer of the biosphere’. Fiona has made and curated permanent, temporary, collaborative, performative works for a range of commissioning organizations. Fiona is the Program Manager of the Master of Arts – Art in Public Space and Director of the School of Art research group Contemporary Art and Social Transformation at RMIT University in Australia. Fiona led a session of the international workshop Suburban Spark on 1 September 2023 on "Public Space Creative Practices " that took place at The Garden, the outdoor space of Museo Spazio Pubblico, and gave a lecture at the 1-day seminar that took place at Dumbo on 4 September, organized in collaboration with Fondazione Innovazione Urbana. Read the full report of the workshop

These are stories of creativity, collaboration and innovation from across South African cities. Season 2 documented people and projects in areas including Gugulethu (Cape Town), Tshwane, Kwamashu, Durban, and Hillbrow. In 2020 the South African Cities Network called for inspiring stories of good practice across communities and neighbourhoods in South Africa. Our Future Cities conducted research, engagement, and site visits to better understand each initiative, produced 10-minute films for each project, and designed a newspaper which included a wider array of stories and projects across South Africa. Hosted by urbanist Rashiq Fataar of Our Future Cities, the series reveals the tenacity and spirit of the people who are driving change and having an impact on communities and lives.

Contraction, Expansion, and Adaptation COVID-19 has hit cities hard. With the closure of places of work and learning, third places, places of leisure and consumption, and more, the pandemic has diminished our territories and contracted public space and public life. But a keen observation reveals a more nuanced picture. In many neighborhoods, an interesting phenomenon of reclaiming much neighborhood space for public use is evident. The repurposing of residential streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and other modest public spaces in neighborhoods shows an expansion of public space and sociability. This expansion is also that of agency. The elimination of events and programming and the cordoning off of standardized equipment has left public space in an unembellished state of bareness. Space is available for citizens to make public. This pandemic has revealed our desire for publicness of the everyday, our ingenuity to use spaces for public life, and what is possible in our cities and in our public spaces. Vol. 5 No. 3 (2020): 2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic Keywords: public space, neighborhoods, agency, adaptation, COVID-19 pandemic

Where is Here? is a collaboration between Het Nieuwe Instituut and e-flux Architecture following Who is We?, the Dutch pavilion at 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. Nick Axel How do you understand the nature of public space in post-colonial cities? Malique Mohamud There are always multiple interpretations of every public space. A good example of this in Rotterdam is Heemraadsplein, which is also called “Pracinha d’Quebrod,” or the “Square of the Poor.” The public square is surrounded by a lot of green, a lot of fancy houses. But it’s also in Rotterdam West, and in the neighborhood of Delfshaven, which is sometimes called the eleventh island of Cape Verde due to the large Cape Verdean community that lives there. Before mobile phones, Heemraadsplein was the first place people who just arrived in the Netherlands from Cape Verde would go. If they went there, other Cape Verdean migrants would approach them and help them find their way, to find a place to live, to find work, etc. That square, as well as other public spaces in the built environment, have multiple layers of meaning. This is because they have their intended functions, but then they also have informal functions that weren't part of the designer’s initial intentions. Re-codifying and appropriating space happens a lot in migrant neighborhoods in Rotterdam. The communities that live there have had to find ways of building their lives. It wasn’t given to them, so they’ve had to appropriate squares, or nightshops, or other meeting spots throughout the city. These informal ways of using space are incredibly rich and dynamic. As a collective, we try to use the immaterial and material heritage of a post-colonial society to design spaces that actually serve the communities that we’re part of in a more intimate way. Read the full article on e-flux Author: Malique Mohamud Recommended by Floor van Ditzhuyzen