Agha on Un-Doing Law: Public Art as Contest Over Meanings @CharlesUniPRG

Petr Agha, Charles University in Prague, Law Faculty, has published Un-Doing Law – Public Art as Contest Over Meanings as Charles University in Prague Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 2017/III/4. Here is the abstract.

The following text explores the relationship of symbolic, performative and discursive exchange in the public sphere and the effect it has on the practices and processes of cultural and legal signification. We shall consider the mutually interdependent relationality between law and (public) art, understood as a contest over meanings, modes of interpretation and knowledge-production, with an eye to examining how artistic activities contribute to ongoing legal, political and cultural discussions in society. This chapter will in particular consider whether and how street art, graffiti art and performance art can produce new concepts and ideas, and whether they are able to re-shape existing symbolic, legal and political boundaries by first producing new (symbolic) spaces and secondly reinterpreting existing ones.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.