Refugium: the politics of participatory ecological art in public-private spaces

The ecological turn of the last decade has strengthened an interest in using the arts as a way of engaging the public in environmental issues. Increasingly, the commissioning of public art that addresses conservation, biodiversity, and climate change concerns has expanded to include participatory, handson creative forms and processes with the aim to encourage empathy and understanding. Ecological participatory arts can function to meaningfully engage the public in the pressing environmental issues of our time, bringing new ideas and opportunities for change. Nevertheless, a greater understanding is needed to identify how ecological public art affects the relationship of individuals to their urban environment, including how these artworks sit within wider Global Performance Studies policy and political frameworks. This includes capacities for ecological art to interrupt the expected relationships of individuals and their engagement in public space. This article examines the participatory ecological pubic artwork Refugium and its unexpected outcomes.