Civilising the Citizens: Political Slogans and the Right to the City

This paper focuses on the artwork of Chinese artist Zhang Dali entitled ‘The Slogan Series.’ Zhang uses a particular technique of text and image juxtaposition to engage with the civic political slogans that were plastered on the streets of Beijing on the eve of the 2008 Olympic Games. His ‘Slogan Se...

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Main Author: Maurizio Marinelli
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UTS ePRESS 2012-11-01
Series:PORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://learning-analytics.info/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/2540
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author Maurizio Marinelli
author_facet Maurizio Marinelli
author_sort Maurizio Marinelli
collection DOAJ
description This paper focuses on the artwork of Chinese artist Zhang Dali entitled ‘The Slogan Series.’ Zhang uses a particular technique of text and image juxtaposition to engage with the civic political slogans that were plastered on the streets of Beijing on the eve of the 2008 Olympic Games. His ‘Slogan Series’ consists of large paintings: each of them reproduces the human face of a common person, either in red and white or in black and white, which is literally covered by repeated civic political slogans. The paper investigates the origin of Zhang’s artwork, shedding light on the aesthetics and socio–political implications of a double juxtaposition: in the government’s ‘new citizenship’ campaign, the slogans are juxtaposed with the cityscape, while in Zhang Dali’s work the slogans are imposed on the common people’s faces.
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spelling doaj.art-ab44e2a6ccb344f1957963e41ff2fd362022-12-21T20:01:21ZengUTS ePRESSPORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies1449-24902012-11-019310.5130/portal.v9i3.25401805Civilising the Citizens: Political Slogans and the Right to the CityMaurizio Marinelli0University of BristolThis paper focuses on the artwork of Chinese artist Zhang Dali entitled ‘The Slogan Series.’ Zhang uses a particular technique of text and image juxtaposition to engage with the civic political slogans that were plastered on the streets of Beijing on the eve of the 2008 Olympic Games. His ‘Slogan Series’ consists of large paintings: each of them reproduces the human face of a common person, either in red and white or in black and white, which is literally covered by repeated civic political slogans. The paper investigates the origin of Zhang’s artwork, shedding light on the aesthetics and socio–political implications of a double juxtaposition: in the government’s ‘new citizenship’ campaign, the slogans are juxtaposed with the cityscape, while in Zhang Dali’s work the slogans are imposed on the common people’s faces.https://learning-analytics.info/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/2540BeijingZhang Dalisloganspolitics and languageright to the citycitizenship
spellingShingle Maurizio Marinelli
Civilising the Citizens: Political Slogans and the Right to the City
PORTAL: Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies
Beijing
Zhang Dali
slogans
politics and language
right to the city
citizenship
title Civilising the Citizens: Political Slogans and the Right to the City
title_full Civilising the Citizens: Political Slogans and the Right to the City
title_fullStr Civilising the Citizens: Political Slogans and the Right to the City
title_full_unstemmed Civilising the Citizens: Political Slogans and the Right to the City
title_short Civilising the Citizens: Political Slogans and the Right to the City
title_sort civilising the citizens political slogans and the right to the city
topic Beijing
Zhang Dali
slogans
politics and language
right to the city
citizenship
url https://learning-analytics.info/journals/index.php/portal/article/view/2540
work_keys_str_mv AT mauriziomarinelli civilisingthecitizenspoliticalslogansandtherighttothecity