Conclusion: Towards the worlding of art and the city?

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explains what promises to be fecund terrain for researchers going forward in the continuing task of theoretically constructing art and the city, and many questions remain deserving of more exploration. It addresses some of the lingering problems plaguing urban theory, which are now by default also problems plaguing urban art-theory, since art is urban, and the urban, in all its forms, is art. The book deals explicitly with the way that critical art transforms the place-making process; the way that art transforms institutional structures and re-arranges hierarchies; the way that art gives voice to those normally without. In 2015, the Chinese dissident artist Ai Wei Wei installed a site-specific piece at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco. The book concludes by calling for a much-needed joining of art theory and urban theory.