Varnishing Facades, Erasing Memory: Reading Urban Beautification with Critical Whiteness Studies
The paper addresses the contemporary features of aesthetic capitalism (Böhme, 2001; 2017) in the city, connecting beauty studies with established analyses of ‘territorial stigmatization’ (Wacquant, 2007) in the framework of critical whiteness studies. My argument is that beautification practices in...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | ces |
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University of Presov, Faculty of Arts
2023-12-01
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| Series: | ESPES |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://espes.ff.unipo.sk/index.php/ESPES/article/view/310 |
| _version_ | 1797352126226104320 |
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| author | Laura Raccanelli |
| author_facet | Laura Raccanelli |
| author_sort | Laura Raccanelli |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The paper addresses the contemporary features of aesthetic capitalism (Böhme, 2001; 2017) in the city, connecting beauty studies with established analyses of ‘territorial stigmatization’ (Wacquant, 2007) in the framework of critical whiteness studies. My argument is that beautification practices in marginal public spaces can be regarded as an attitude of aesthetic neocolonialism. The text investigates the role that art plays in establishing spaces of difference, focusing on the analysis of the idea of beauty exhibited and used in processes of urban transformation. This beautifying operation could mask the intent of domesticating the ‘urban exotic’, representing the aesthetics of the ‘urban other’, overlapping processes of hypervisibilization and invisibilization within the production of normative white visual domains. The resulting transformation is viewed as a new field of value extraction from the urban space while at the same time being a new arena for privilege and inequality production. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T13:10:47Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e194eb222a624feda07f2626de522ef6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1339-1119 |
| language | ces |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T13:10:47Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | University of Presov, Faculty of Arts |
| record_format | Article |
| series | ESPES |
| spelling | doaj.art-e194eb222a624feda07f2626de522ef62024-01-18T14:16:02ZcesUniversity of Presov, Faculty of ArtsESPES1339-11192023-12-0112210.5281/zenodo.10498887249Varnishing Facades, Erasing Memory: Reading Urban Beautification with Critical Whiteness StudiesLaura Raccanelli0University of Milan Bicocca Department of Sociology and Social Research Piazza dell’Ateneo Nuovo, 1 20126, MilanoThe paper addresses the contemporary features of aesthetic capitalism (Böhme, 2001; 2017) in the city, connecting beauty studies with established analyses of ‘territorial stigmatization’ (Wacquant, 2007) in the framework of critical whiteness studies. My argument is that beautification practices in marginal public spaces can be regarded as an attitude of aesthetic neocolonialism. The text investigates the role that art plays in establishing spaces of difference, focusing on the analysis of the idea of beauty exhibited and used in processes of urban transformation. This beautifying operation could mask the intent of domesticating the ‘urban exotic’, representing the aesthetics of the ‘urban other’, overlapping processes of hypervisibilization and invisibilization within the production of normative white visual domains. The resulting transformation is viewed as a new field of value extraction from the urban space while at the same time being a new arena for privilege and inequality production.https://espes.ff.unipo.sk/index.php/ESPES/article/view/310urban beautificationaesthetic capitalismterritorial stigmatizationcritical whiteness studiesstreet artcamouflage |
| spellingShingle | Laura Raccanelli Varnishing Facades, Erasing Memory: Reading Urban Beautification with Critical Whiteness Studies ESPES urban beautification aesthetic capitalism territorial stigmatization critical whiteness studies street art camouflage |
| title | Varnishing Facades, Erasing Memory: Reading Urban Beautification with Critical Whiteness Studies |
| title_full | Varnishing Facades, Erasing Memory: Reading Urban Beautification with Critical Whiteness Studies |
| title_fullStr | Varnishing Facades, Erasing Memory: Reading Urban Beautification with Critical Whiteness Studies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Varnishing Facades, Erasing Memory: Reading Urban Beautification with Critical Whiteness Studies |
| title_short | Varnishing Facades, Erasing Memory: Reading Urban Beautification with Critical Whiteness Studies |
| title_sort | varnishing facades erasing memory reading urban beautification with critical whiteness studies |
| topic | urban beautification aesthetic capitalism territorial stigmatization critical whiteness studies street art camouflage |
| url | https://espes.ff.unipo.sk/index.php/ESPES/article/view/310 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lauraraccanelli varnishingfacadeserasingmemoryreadingurbanbeautificationwithcriticalwhitenessstudies |