잠재성과 혁신 사이에서의 도시 재생 : 포항의 문화도시 사업과 문화 클러스터 제안을 중심으로

Abstract

In recent years, both central and local governments have been actively working to address the crisis of regional extinction. This issue of regional extinction is linked to a broader crisis of sustainable life faced by humans and their environments. This paper aims to discuss the importance of public art practices based on the principle of affect for the survival of regions. This paper sees public art practices as a process of strengthening the cohesion of local communities as well as awakening the human and non-human agencies and their potentials inherent in the region due to their nature as artistic practices. In other words, public art practices go beyond merely reaffirming the existing social cohesion and become a process of renewing the very concept of publicness, highlighting the importance and agency of the environment as a system capable of such renewal. As an example, this paper examines the case of Pohang. Pohang, selected as a statutory cultural city in December 2019, first converged various forms of citizen-led activities into a 'cultural safety net' project, which can be seen as a project emphasizing social cohesion among humans. Also, in the context of 'preparing a sustainable cultural growth engine,' Pohang is currently drafting a blueprint for the ‘Art and Tech cultural industry cluster’ in collaboration with Gyeongsangbuk-do. These are subsequent projects that follow 'Statutory Cultural City' initiatives that attempted to reenvision Pohang as a cultural city after its history as an industrial city centered on steelworks. Regarding the sustainable future of the city, this paper explores its core philosophy and principles in light of the concepts of affect and autopoiesis with emphasis on the region's inherent potential and its environment's autonomous agencies in the form of art project.