Abstract
In the world of urban regeneration, multiple attempts have been made to “turn around their tunes and emerge like a phoenix after crisis (…) from industrial cities of a post-authoritarian regime to culturally vibrant magnets of visitors” (González, 2011, p. 1397). In only a few decades, cities have been constructed and transformed into ‘places for consumption’ (Urry, 1995). Consequently, urban art projects have been implemented in many parts of the world and, as a result, the most banal urban public spaces have been transfigured by works of art (Riggle, 2010). Such urban art projects effectively collapse the formalist boundary between spaces of art and the everyday. A consequence of the blurred distinction that anything can be art on the street is a proliferation of media and influences as a flood of creativity and freedom. Nowadays, artistic significance can be found both in formal/conventional properties (i.e., museums and art galleries) and in informal spaces of art, (i.e., urban art on the street).
The growing trend of urban regeneration, celebrating culture and representing the identity of communities through urban art is attracting increasing numbers of tourists to destinations as images and experiences of these destinations are shared through social media. While such proliferation stimulates the benefits associated with higher visitor numbers, it is important to understand such influx of tourists can contribute to negative impacts in destinations and through overtourism which can trigger social dysfunction. This social dysfunction alienates residents (hosts) and tourists (guests) from place and creates cultures of contestation and discontent that challenge the identity of place and cause significant social tensions between residents and visitors (Park & Novacs, 2020; Perkumienė & Pranskūnienė, 2019).
With the opening of street art in touristic spaces, there are increasing complexities in how tourists can engage with art and where these encounters take place. From the era of the Grand Tour, urban tourists have sought an aesthetic experience in formal spaces of art, including museums, art galleries and even cathedrals. Given that museums and galleries have become formal spaces for consuming art (Riggle, 2010, Blanché, 2015), emergence of multiple spaces of art challenges institutionalised etiquettes and norms associated with more formal spaces of art in museums and galleries.
In this respect, this PhD project aims to explore alternative spaces of touristic production and consumption through urban art and to critique the importance of urban art from political, artistic and touristic landscapes within Lefebvre’s (1991) Spatial Triad of ‘production of space.’ Drawing upon the case of the Ihwa Mural Village in Seoul, South Korea, as an example of urban art communities, this thesis critiques government-led urban initiatives, touristification process and overtourism phenomenon; dynamics of urban governance for urban art and tourism within the multi-stakeholder settings and touristic encounters derived by dynamics of urban art. In doing so, the research contributes to analytical frameworks and theories to examine the emerging complexities of urban art and overtourism; (re-)creation of social values and identities of multiple stakeholders; and urban art and touristic practices. This research opens avenues for further exploration into the urban art-overtourism nexus and extends Lefebvrian work on the production of space (Lefebvre, 1991) and the right to the city (Lefebvre, 1996). This research also focuses on understanding artist stakeholders and stresses the criticality of visual power in tourism—in both physical and SNS spaces of art/tourism.