Publics, pavements, and public-facing art in post-colonial urban Africa

It has long been assumed that vibrant public spaces are crucial for democratic engagement in cities, but it should be unsurprising that the power dynamics that exist, will play out in every corner of the city. Public spaces are usually thought of in the form of parks and public amenities. Instead, this chapter explores the relationship between public-facing art and pavements as enabling in-between spaces where the social, economic, and political coalesce and collide. It starts by exploring pavements and publicness, before drawing on three examples of public-facing art: Chale Wote Street Art Festival (Accra, Ghana); pumflet (Western Cape, South Africa); and CityWalk Initiative (Durban and other destinations). It concludes arguing that these examples challenge normative notions of public space by troubling public-private binaries; providing spaces for decolonial encounter; and enabling dialogue between human and material worlds. Ultimately the chapter argues that re-thinking publics and public spaces through public-facing art-architecture practices can offer new ways of exploring the democratic and decolonizing potential of public space.