Urban Artscapes

In recent years, artists, architects, activists and curators, as well as corporations and local governments have addressed the urban space. They challenge its use and destination, and dispute current notions of space, legality, trade and artistry. Emerging art practices challenge old ideas about where art belongs, what forms it can take and what political discourses it fosters.

Selected from papers presented at the 2013 Artscapes conference in Canterbury, this collection of new essays explores the dynamic relationship between art and the city. Contributors discuss the everyday artistic use of public space around the world, from sculpture to graffiti to street photography.

Manila Castoro is an art historian and theorist. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Kent, England, where she has also taught art history, photography and aesthetics. Her research focuses on street and documentary photography.

Carolina Vasilikou is an architect, educator and lecturer at the new School of Architecture at the University of Reading. She teaches environmental design and technology and focuses on the multi-sensory perception of public spaces.

Edited by Manila Castoro and Carolina Vasilikou
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 208
Bibliographic Info: 99 photos (15 in color), notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6540-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3111-0
Imprint: McFarland

Preface and Acknowledgments 1
Contending Urban Artscapes: An Introduction (Manila Castoro and Carolina Vasilikou) 3
Part I: Cultural Art Localities
Jochen Gerz’s 2–3 Strassen’: (De)constructing the Urban Public (Jonathan Vickery) 11
The Site Is the Surface: Street Art Placement and Adaptation in London’s Blackall Street (Sabina Andron ) 23
Graffiti Writing to Street Art and Beyond: Bologna and the Birthplace of an Italian Style (Claudio Musso) 40
Art, Town and Gown: Siting Public Artworks in Kingston Upon Thames (Robert Knifton) 56
Redefining the Boundaries of Public and Private Space in Japanese Cities: Un-Gated Theme Parks, Manga, Anime and Consumer Games (Kentaro Yagi) 68
Between pages 86 and 87 are 4 color plates with 8 photographs
Interlude
Collaborative Spatiality in Contemporary Practice (Daniel Tollady and Anna Baranowska) 87
Part II: Political Art Narratives
The New “Periphery Cinema” of Rio de Janeiro: Comprehending
the Informal City Through Art (Claudia Seldin, Raquel Ribeiro Martins and Rosa Richter D. Rocha) 101
Mapping Political Graffiti: Urban Appropriations of Public Space (Carolina Vasilikou and Eugene Nulman) 114
Counter-Narratives of the New Egyptian Street: Contesting Authority Through Graffiti (Georgiana Nicoarea) 131
Architecture and Negativity: Towards a ­Counter-Artscape in the ­Post-Political City (Marta López-Marcos and Carlos Tapia) 154
The Global City and the Cinematic Novel: Jersey City in Lav Diaz’s Batang West Side (Marco Grosoli) 168
Between pages 176 and 177 are 4 color plates with 7 photographs
Finale
Challenging the Street Through Photography: A Journey Through Contemporary India (Manila Castoro) 177
About the Contributors 189
Index 191