Sopra i Muri di Periferia. Rigenerazione Artistica e Turismo della Street Art a Ponticelli (Napoli) e Corvetto (Milano)

The chapter will delve into contemporary aspects of aesthetic capitalism (Böhme, 2017) and explore the intersection between street art and urban regeneration processes, beautification (Ghertner, 2010; Herzfeld, 2017) and tourism practices (Andron, 2018; Raposo, 2022). Often labeled as no-goes areas (Wacquant, 2007), street art interventions and especially the emergence of new muralism, play a pivotal role in aestheticizing and beautifying peripheral neighborhoods. Drawing on ethnographic data we will examine street art-led urban regeneration initiatives in Naples and Milan, focusing on The Mural Park in Ponticelli and the new ‘creative district’ of Corvetto. By analyzing various forms and purposes of street art – ranging from grassroots political expressions to top-down institutional initiatives – we’ll explore efforts to tame and remove the disruptive aesthetics of ‘urban otherness’, emphasizing the visual realm and tourism-driven valorization as a new field of value extraction and at the same time a new arena for inequality production.