Speculative Spaces in Grand Paris : Reading JR in Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil

Abstract

This chapter engages with the spatial politics of aesthetics in the Parisian suburbs of Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil. It examines how JR’s street art brings into view the lines of tension informing neighbourhood change. Firstly, the chapter explores how urban aesthetics have become important to gentrification analysis and looks at the commodification of socially engaged aesthetic practices via the “creative cities” ethos. In the subsequent sections, the chapter introduces a relational reading of JR’s artistic practice in “Clichy- Montfermeil.” The central questions guiding the enquiries are as follows: What can street art tell us about the antagonisms shaping processes of speculation in these towns? What can its aesthetic presence reveal about shifts in spatial imaginaries that are disarticulating the banlieues as “deviant,” “no-go zone” to rearticulate them “as a hunting ground for seasoned investors” (Clerima 2019)?