The project "art-based research // research-based art" engages in the topic of art and public space with a special focus on the potential of art for social change (art for social transformation) and the collective processing of historical events (cultural memory), both on a European and euro-mediterranean backdrop. The approach of "art-based research" comprehends artists as cultural investigators dealing with social realities, historical developments and collective memory and cultural as well as political issues.The term art in public space implicates for the partners the artistic interaction with the specific issues of social, historical, political or cultural nature raised by a local or regional context. The involved and associated partners from Lisbon, Belfast, Istanbul, Kiel, Beirut and Ramallah offer artists the opportunity to realize their proposed projects with relevance for the topic within four-week residencies taking place from September 2010 to March 2011. At the same time the European partners assemble in a common research process current perceptions and comments on art and public space. In the following joint evaluation in Belfast in spring 2011 the four different results of the project will be prepared: (1) A publication binding a European perspective on the field of art and public space, which will be presented in (2) an international conference in Berlin in September 2011 where the project´s results will be introduced to a professional audience and the general public, (3) the exhibitions of the art works realized in the residencies, which will be presented at several host locations and in Lissabon, and (4) a draft for a later to be concretized post-graduate program for qualified young students that takes into account the gained insights on research and residencies. The project is supported by the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures.