Description
This paper explores how Ivoirian statehood is established through its state buildings. It combines empirical readings of the state expressed through the material of the buildings themselves – their origins, styles, locations and relationships to the wider city – and as they are thought about by Ivoirian citizens who live with them. The paper uses these readings to discuss how aesthetic judgements describe a particular conception of the Ivoirian state – miraculous, remote and fragile. It uses the discussion of this particular African state to build towards an aesthetic theory of statehood. The work is underpinned by fieldwork carried out in Abidjan and Yamoussoukro in 2019 and art and architectural theory from the work of John Dewey, Hana Segal and V. Y. Mudimbe.
