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Between performativity and spectacle: provocations of street-based public art festivals

Between performativity and spectacle: provocations of street-based public art festivals
Between performativity and spectacle: provocations of street-based public art festivals
The chapter explores the political possibilities of creative art practices as they engage with the built environment of old urban centres. Public art, such as statues, and murals' influence on urban beautification and regeneration processes is a well-documented phenomenon in the global north. This chapter moves beyond this causal relationship between art and public spaces and looks at sporadic public art festivals which do not necessarily get enrolled into the discourse of urban regeneration and gentrification. It looks at two events in Kolkata, India, where public art is inspired by the existing socio-spatiality and cultural production of the space. However, these public art events chose to interact with the built environment in different ways raising questions about art's political commitments. Rong Matir Panchali, a two-day art festival organised by Kumartuli Art Forum, transformed an impoverished neighbourhood into a momentary space of spectacle. On the second instance, Chitpurer Chalchitra, another three-day public art trail organised by Chitpur Craft Collective, interweaved its creative process with the existing built environment foregrounding spatial performativity and tuning into Chitpur's existing visual aesthetics.
134-144
Routledge
Mukhopadhyay, Rishika
2e6ce8c9-7ffe-48c4-a5d9-a393c5d2e49e
Miao, Julie T.
Yigitcanlar, Tan
Mukhopadhyay, Rishika
2e6ce8c9-7ffe-48c4-a5d9-a393c5d2e49e
Miao, Julie T.
Yigitcanlar, Tan

Mukhopadhyay, Rishika (2024) Between performativity and spectacle: provocations of street-based public art festivals. In, Miao, Julie T. and Yigitcanlar, Tan (eds.) Routledge Companion to Creativity and the Built Environment. London. Routledge, pp. 134-144. (doi:10.4324/9781003292821-13).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

The chapter explores the political possibilities of creative art practices as they engage with the built environment of old urban centres. Public art, such as statues, and murals' influence on urban beautification and regeneration processes is a well-documented phenomenon in the global north. This chapter moves beyond this causal relationship between art and public spaces and looks at sporadic public art festivals which do not necessarily get enrolled into the discourse of urban regeneration and gentrification. It looks at two events in Kolkata, India, where public art is inspired by the existing socio-spatiality and cultural production of the space. However, these public art events chose to interact with the built environment in different ways raising questions about art's political commitments. Rong Matir Panchali, a two-day art festival organised by Kumartuli Art Forum, transformed an impoverished neighbourhood into a momentary space of spectacle. On the second instance, Chitpurer Chalchitra, another three-day public art trail organised by Chitpur Craft Collective, interweaved its creative process with the existing built environment foregrounding spatial performativity and tuning into Chitpur's existing visual aesthetics.

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More information

Published date: 1 January 2024
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2024 selection and editorial matter, Julie T. Miao and Tan Yigitcanlar; individual chapters, the contributors.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 488692
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488692
PURE UUID: fbe47067-6770-4f9b-9001-537378b08abe
ORCID for Rishika Mukhopadhyay: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-6722-4987

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 04 Apr 2024 16:42
Last modified: 25 Jul 2024 02:04

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Contributors

Author: Rishika Mukhopadhyay ORCID iD
Editor: Julie T. Miao
Editor: Tan Yigitcanlar

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