Paisaje visual en Montevideo: estetización regresiva del espacio público * Visual landscape in Montevideo: regressive aestheticization of public space (original) (raw)

In this paper I hold some hypotheses on recent changes of the urban furniture in Montevideo City. The new sites of traditional urban objects as fences, tubes, and flowerpots are overlooked when we pass through the City. Nevertheless, precisely by virtue of these changes in the locations of traditional objects, it is reasonable to think that they are problematic signs of the new uses we give them. The general aim pursued by these hypotheses is triple: 1) to call into question the urban transformation of Montevideo by means of international references on the so named “hostile design”, 2) to denaturalize non-isolated changes of the interpretations by which we comprehend our social relationships, and 3) to think about a set of problems to further sociological, anthropological, and psychological researches on the Montevidean social polarizations. In short, I argue that the aestheticization of the urban defensive furniture in Montevideo strengthens a regressive interpretation of those social problems which are apparently resolved employing aestheticized urban furniture. Through that category –regression– I claim to publicly point out the ideological character of the aestheticization involved in the Montevidean social problems.