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Paper short abstract:

The author discusses the role of performances in city-making processes. Based on two urban case studies from Croatia, the author analyses the creation of performative spaces as a way to imagine and activate urban futures.

Paper long abstract:

The author discusses the role of performances in city-making processes. The majority of texts on urban planning focus on the architectural solutions, as well as political, ideological, technological and economic factors that influence the material creation of a city. In such studies, performances and everyday practices are often treated as temporary interventions in the urbanscape, which are not of permanent value in defining and understanding the city. This paper challenges that approach and highlights the importance of performances in creating the city as a lived space. It examines ways in which performances bring to life or alter the affective capital of urban spaces. In doing so, it brings together the complementary perspectives of “social production” and “social construction” of urban space (Low 2006, 2017). In this paper, performances are also treated as practices of imagining and activating urban futures.

The author draws her insights from two case studies in Croatia. The first example focuses on public spaces in Zagreb, the country’s capital, and the performances that celebrate or comment Croatia’s accession to the European Union. The second case study deals with the harbour city of Rijeka and the cultural events planned, but partially realized due to COVID-19 epidemic, in the frame of the 2020 European Capital of Culture programme. Based on those examples, the author analyses the designing of performative spaces as a way to (re)create a city as it should be, to affirm, negotiate or transgress city policies, orientations and developmental strategies.