Bodily Interventions in an Urban Context

Architecture is directly related to the concept of events that activate space through the movement of bodies. It may be suggested that events recreate and reconfigure the organisation of spaces in the urban context. Here, the actors or constituent parts of this re-creation process appear as follows: Body, time and designed space. These spaces can be described as experimental, interactive and reflective media and conceptualised as event generators for the bodies in action and communication with the urban context. Each contemporary intervention of the body in urban space is an attempt to reprogramme existing spaces and reveal potential moments and potential spaces. These potential spaces and moments manifest themselves in the form of in-between spaces. In-between spaces can be defined as the range of possibilities that are shaped with unexpected actions and are simultaneously decoded with the use of different bodies. These in-between spaces provide opportunities for new and instant programmes and events in addition to existing programmes within that particular urban context. This chapter aims to investigate the concept of recreation and the reuse of public spaces, concentrating on contemporary interventions of body in the urban context. This research explores how these contemporary interventions of the body reactivate urban-social relations and return them to the circulation of urban daily routines. This work examines experimental spatial installations that activate the body and their ability to provoke new ways of seeing and operating spaces. It is suggested that these bodily interventions provide a creative spatial medium in which residual urban spaces transform into active, lively spaces by reproducing the everyday experiences of the city.