Glossary
Installation art
Artwork conceived as an environment or situation rather than a discrete object, built for a specific space and often engaging light, sound, movement, or the viewer's own path through it.
In public art contexts, installation work skews temporary (festival pieces, light works, winter installations) because environments are harder to weatherproof than objects. That's a feature: temporary installation programs are where cities take their most interesting risks.
A terminology trap worth knowing: "installation" also names the act of physically placing any artwork ("installation is scheduled for May"). Context usually disambiguates, but in contracts and schedules it's worth being explicit about which sense you mean.