Abstract:
The work analyzes the images and aesthetic meanings around the implementation of a new urban policy in the city of Resistencia. Considering the theoretical perspective of Walter Benjamin on the notion of strategic beautification and socio-cultural semiotic, three issues are discussed in relation to the cultural imaginaries of Resistencia and Northeast Argentina. First, we deal with the municipal concern about the institutional aesthetics, which is linked to investment in tourism policies. Next, we work on the relationship between the image of the new mayor as “working” side by side any other worker on the street, and the aesthetic narratives and the cultural discourse that frame the provincialization of Chaco, more specifically, those related to urban beautification and modernization projects. We also analyze the aesthetic meanings linked to the commemoration policies of the of the 138th anniversary of the founding of the city of Resistencia. Finally, we analyze the relationships between the new municipal aesthetic tourism policy and the political show, the otherness processes and the continuity of dominant values of the cultural hegemony in the city.