Art’s failure to generate urban renewal: Lessons from Jerusalem

Meirav Aharon-Gutman

Urban Studies, 2018, vol. 55, issue 15, 3474-3491

Abstract: Based on fieldwork conducted in a seam line neighbourhood in Jerusalem, this article contributes to the ongoing discourse on art in public spaces as a generator of urban renewal. The article suggests that re-thinking this convention from a Global South perspective would enable us to critically discuss the relation between art in public spaces and urban renewal. This research shows how site-specific intervention art activities had produced a conflict that consequently led to the expulsion of the artists group from the neighbourhood. Three theoretical concepts from Hannah Arendt’s work were used in the analysis of the results: political/social, action and public realm. This article claims that the artists’ group has aspired to be simultaneously ‘social’ and ‘political’: by means of a political act they wished to create a ‘dialogue’ and a ‘meeting point’ with Palestinians residing in East Musrara. Every attempt to be simultaneously political and social was perceived by the neighbourhood representatives as deceitful and threatening.

Keywords: art in public space; conflict; Global South; Hannah Arendt; urban renewal; 公共空间中的艺术; 冲çª; å —å Šç ƒ; 汉娜·阿伦特; 城市更新 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:55:y:2018:i:15:p:3474-3491

DOI: 10.1177/0042098017743682

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