A Private Matter Out Of Place: Transforming A Public Toilet Through Artistic Practice

This research article reflects on the cultural significance of seemingly undervalued public spaces by exploring the transformation of a public toilet through artistic intervention. It examines an artist–researcher collaboration commissioned to create a permanent, site-specific artwork within an accessible toilet as part of Accessible Art for All, a multitargeted cooperative project funded by the European Union Creative Europe program. Public toilets blur the boundary between private and public life, rendering them highly politicized—intimately tied to human bodies, social norms, and spatial dynamics. Drawing on human geographer Doreen Massey’s concept of “throwntogetherness,” this article and its corresponding artwork conceptualize the public toilet as a fluid space that is continuously shaped by social and material negotiations. Through artistic practice and art-based research, the Accessible Art for All project confronts personal and collective fears, ambivalence, and the symbolic marginalization of this undervalued site—ultimately reimagining and reconstituting the public toilet.