Contemporary European public art often addresses the past and future of European unity, democracy, immigration, and civil rights. The Art of the Multitude explores how participation in art works affects the formation of public memory, the commemoration of historical events, and the creation of an urban landscape that articulates cultural identity and recognition. Looking in particular at the lifetime’s work of one of Europe’s foremost artists of the public realm, German conceptual artist Jochen Gerz, The Art of the Multitude uses a variety of artists’ works as fulcra for discussing the European experience of war and conflict, peace and reconciliation. And while the artworks discussed and implications thereof are certain to be of interest to art theorists and historians, cultural researchers in policy, public space, and the built environment will all find something to participate in or engage with.

Jonathan P. Vickery is associate professor in the Centre for Cultural Policy Studies; director of the masters program in arts, enterprise, and development; and codirector of the Shanghai City Lab, all at the University of Warwick. He is coeditor, most recently, of Experiencing Organisations: New Aesthetic Perspectives. Mechtild Manus is senior fellow at the Goethe-Institut’s headquarters in Munich where she is in charge of “Cultures of Participation,” among other duties. She is coeditor of Picturing Landscape Architecture: Projects of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander as Seen by Etta Gerdes.