Abstract

This contribution aims to share and discuss different forms of intervention in public spaces relating art to the transformation of contemporary cities. The analysis of several emergent forms of creation allows discovering, through the artistic field, various ways of expression and socio-economical dynamics shaping and modifying the contemporary urban landscape. The paper introduces a study related to the creative spatial practices which detonate processes of empowerment of communities by means of recovering the memory and the dominance of the place. Through the case of the International Urban Art Exhibition, an ephemeral and open air festival based on the outskirts of Barcelona this paper shows different practices of re-appropriation that encourage creative participation of several social agents by collaborative and site-specific projects in some public spaces (public washing places) with different communities.