From the fortress to the remains of the city: a brief incursion on the subject in the field of Art

Abstract

This article aims to discuss how the city can be read through its obsolete spaces. Taking as a starting point the representative case of Fortaleza, a tourist center published in the media with its buildings with smooth and shiny facades on the waterfront, we resort to its counter-image, the degraded and forgotten parts of the great urban narrative. Fortaleza, then, as a fortress of buildings that rises against the city and the remains as gaps that resist to stay in the landscape. The study proceeds with a brief incursion into artistic practices that elucidate issues related to the theme of remains and what they can tell us, to broaden the debate about the specific focus of Fortaleza. Based on the analysis of the paradigmatic work of Gordon Matta-Clark and of more recent works by Ximena Garrido-Lecca and Lara Almarcegui, it is understood that the questions raised in the field of Art are fundamental for the resumption of the category of remains in the debate on the ongoing processes in large metropolises. Thus, from the study of the gaps in the wall-fortress cities, new fields of reflection necessary for the proposition are raised.