Curatorial work has increasingly transcended the confines of traditional cultural institutions, intervening in diverse urban contexts, from prominent public squares to marginal and disused sites. This article positions ‘the curatorial’ as a form of critical spatial agency, interrogating how curatorial thinking and practice mediate public interests, contest institutional power, and reimagine civic life. Drawing on foundational and contemporary scholarship—including Lefebvre’s production of space, Rendell’s site-writing, Awan, Schneider, and Till’s spatial agency, Miessen’s antagonistic participation, and Krasny’s ethics of care—this paper synthesises critical theory with a systematic literature review from the past decade. It identifies four recurring modalities of curatorial practice in urban settings: (1) temporary activations that enable alternative uses of public space; (2) collaborative platforms fostering situated co-production; (3) narrative interventions engaging with collective memory and identity; and (4) critical curating which challenges institutional power and the status quo. The analysis demonstrates that curatorial practices have tangible spatial, socio-political and economic effects, shaping urban imaginaries, public discourse, and the material conditions of city life. By critically examining the overlap between curatorial practice and spatial agency, this paper argues that curatorial interventions are not merely symbolic or aesthetic, but embedded within the complex dynamics of urban governance, cultural economies, and struggles over space. This paper's central aim is to map the spectrums of curatorial action that emerge when practice engages with these complex urban dynamics. These actions can range from gestures focused on artistic practice or engaging a specialised audience, to more locally-situated interventions whose explicit intent is to address structural urban challenges, such as spatial justice, contested memory, or public access to power. It calls for a more rigorous and situated understanding of curatorial processes in the urban realm, attentive to local contexts, sustainability, and power asymmetries, in order to better address the entanglements of cultural production and urban transformation.

DINAMIA'CET

Curatorial practice,Curatorial studies,Critical spatial practice,Public space,Spatial agency,Socially engaged art

• Sociology - Social Sciences
• Social and Economic Geography - Social Sciences