The search for publics: challenging comfort zones in the co-creation of public art

This article reflects on a workshop as a space of possibility to encounter actual publics, explore the relationship between publics and experts and imagine alternative realities for public-art practice. In a workshop that the author convened at the invitation of the local cultural organisation Lokaal42 in Helmond in the Netherlands, participants were challenged to transgress comfort zones by enacting and negotiating desired prospects for public art. This article critically attends to the notions of co-creation and (dis)comfort in the light of transformative positionalities as part of the workshop (and its role-play element in particular).