Territories in dispute: DIY cultures and contemporary arts of resistance in the age of gentrification

Abstract

Starting from the premise that urban artivism and do-it-yourself (DIY) cultures operate as forms of symbolic and political resistance in the face of gentrification and the commodification of space in Porto, the focus falls on four artistic interventions: “Aqui devia viver gente” (People should be living here), “Não estás sozinha” (You are not alone), “Aonde você está Pedro?” (Where are you, Pedro?), and “Juntos” (Together), recorded at different points throughout the city. The methodology is based on social cartography and a radical listening to the territory, articulating critical spatial epistemologies and political aesthetics to apprehend fractures and counter-narratives within the urban sphere. The findings indicate that these practices denounce the impacts of touristification and the financialization of housing, while proposing new ways of inhabiting, imagining, and producing territory. Some interventions reveal ambivalences, reflecting the fragile tension between resistance and possible co-optation by artwashing and city branding logics.