“Our actions make park!” (Re-)discovering public space in Miyashita Park Love Oskarson-Kindstrand, Sophia University
The campaign against “Nike-ification” of Miyashita Park entered a new phase in March 2010, when a group of artists and activists siding with the evicted homeless population took up residence inside the park. Exploring the confines of “the park” as contested public space, these “artists in residence” are at the center of a radical experiment in community-building and collaborative creative expression. My study examines how notions of public, private and intimate space are employed and transformed by these groups in their reappropriation of Miyashita Park, and how such communal spatial practices intersect with ideas of democracy, inclusion and resistance.