ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how this book contributes new knowledge on how contemporary art engages the so-called migration challenge and the struggles that play out as European societies are being transformed into ‘postmigrant societies’ (Naika Foroutan), that is, plural democratic societies where people have to find ways of living peacefully together despite considerable sociocultural differences. It sets out the main objective and arguments of the book as well as briefly introducing the key tenets of postmigrant thought and the set of new theoretical concepts that are elaborated and tested in the subsequent chapters: the postmigrant imaginary, postmigrant public space, postmigrant re-memorialization, postmigrant transversal politics and postmigrant epistemic communities. In this book, these concepts serve the dual purpose of contributing fresh ideas to the broader discourse on postmigration and of bringing postmigrant thought to bear on the long-standing debate on art in public spaces, which is often contiguous to questions of democratic participation and the public. By way of three examples that reflect the book’s focus on Denmark, Germany and the UK, this chapter also provides some insight into how artists have grappled with the challenges of ‘togetherness in difference’ (Ien Ang) in these different cultural and political contexts.
