Changing Gellerup Park: Political interventions and aesthetic engagement in an exposed social housing area in Denmark

TY - JOUR

T1 - Changing Gellerup Park

T2 - Political interventions and aesthetic engagement in an exposed social housing area in Denmark

AU - Eriksson, Birgit

AU - Nielsen, Anne Mette Winneche

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - Some low-income social housing neighborhoods are undergoing radical transformations in Denmark. Classified as "ghettos" and "parallel societies," and marked by area-specific legislation, we identify a triple exposure in these neighborhoods. The residents are exposed to inequality, stigmatization, and discriminatory interventions. Parallel to this, cultural policies and programs have approached these same neighborhoods based on the assumption that they can be "elevated" through art. Drawing upon a broader research in art project in four social housing areas (Eriksson, Nielsen, Sørensen and Yates, 2022), this article focuses on Gellerup Park in Aarhus and considers how two site-specific art platforms address the site and time-specific conditions of the area, offering alternative relations and forms of engagement.

AB - Some low-income social housing neighborhoods are undergoing radical transformations in Denmark. Classified as "ghettos" and "parallel societies," and marked by area-specific legislation, we identify a triple exposure in these neighborhoods. The residents are exposed to inequality, stigmatization, and discriminatory interventions. Parallel to this, cultural policies and programs have approached these same neighborhoods based on the assumption that they can be "elevated" through art. Drawing upon a broader research in art project in four social housing areas (Eriksson, Nielsen, Sørensen and Yates, 2022), this article focuses on Gellerup Park in Aarhus and considers how two site-specific art platforms address the site and time-specific conditions of the area, offering alternative relations and forms of engagement.

KW - Danish ghetto act

KW - Social housing areas

KW - art and cultural policies

KW - betterment agenda

KW - political timing specific art

KW - public art projects

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143047846&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.7146/nja.v31i64.134221

DO - 10.7146/nja.v31i64.134221

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2000-1452

VL - 31

SP - 76

EP - 98

JO - Nordic Journal of Aesthetics

JF - Nordic Journal of Aesthetics

IS - 64

ER -