Description
This paper explores the emancipatory potential of spatial and aesthetic statebuilding in Kosovo. Focusing on ‘Manifesta’, a large international arts biennale, we offer three main contributions. First we theorise what is meant by emancipatory statebuilding through the lens of spatial and aesthetic approaches. Here we highlight the importance of critique, the everyday and materiality as being central to emancipatory work. Second, we offer a detailed account of Manifesta as statebuilding project. Third, we explore the ability of Manifesta, as large-scale international intervention, to practice an otherwise form of statebuilding through its reliance on aesthetic and spatial approaches. Ultimately, we find that Manifesta’s potential in this respect was undermined as local agency was marginalised, reproducing some of the dynamics of the international statebuilding project from the 2000s.
