Towards a paradigm shift? The potential of participatory arts practices in a context of post-crisis reconstruction

From a social pedagogical perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic has (re-)raised the question of what constitutes social bonds. In this article, we focus on participatory art, as a practice that in recent decades has been put forward as a (new) pedagogical project in dealing with complex societal issues, especially in urban areas. Drawing on the connection between participatory art and the urban public realm, our purpose is to explore the potential of these practices to rethink the nature of social coherence in a context of post-crisis reconstruction. Based on a bi-monthly follow-up of 10 Brussels participatory art practices, we explore how these practices have or have not been able to cope with the pandemic, how the public realm unfolds within this process, what this entails for the (future) role of practitioners and what we might learn from these practices in terms of finding a new voice for arts and culture.