Makeshift place-making and artistic practices in a Guangzhou urban village

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in an urban village (chengzhongcun 城中村) in Guangzhou, this study examines how young artists experiment with creating spatial conditions for everyday needs and artistic activities in informal urban spaces. Specifically, it examines two key aspects to understand these artists’ place-making activities. First, it analyzes how artists navigate spatial constraints that shape their embodied experiences of daily life and artistic creation in the urban village. Second, it explores how artists alter and repurpose these informal urban spaces into temporary sites for art activities. It argues that these place-making activities are creatively motivated and materially conditioned, contributing to a distinctive mechanism of “makeshift place-making.” This study offers ethnographic insights into how individuals engage in place-making within China’s rapidly changing urban landscape.

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