This paper examines the dynamism of the concept of art in tourism, with the idea of “The Art” in a case study of street arts in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Since the 1990s, art tourism, which promotes the enjoyment of art or art activities in social spaces (e.g., paths, parks, or residence) have been increasing throughout the world. Local residents, artists, and curators join with tourists in social spaces, developing strong connections through the arts and affecting the dynamics of the local community. Historically, Sociological art studies, focusing examining the relationships between art and local society, and examining how art activities builds social networks, tend to ignore the brief but substantial sociological impact by of tourists on art activities and society. On the other hand, studies about art tourism have been paid their attention only to the economic impact. This paper focuses on reconstruction of the concept of art elicited by tourism from the viewpoint of mobilities and “The Art”. These points of view are a relatively under-explored topic. This paper defines “The Art” as something does not conform to the art world; the rules and systems of the concept of art are mainly led by Europe and the United States.
Numerous street arts have been created in George Town, coincident with the development of the tourism industry. Since 2012, more than 80 instances of street art have been created in the core of the world heritage region of George Town. Many of them were initially drawn as part of the 2012 George Town Festival. After 2013, however, tourism operators such as cafés, restaurants, and guesthouses began to include street arts into the walls of their own property, inspiring many tourists to seek them out, which spurred additional anonymous street arts in response. Expanding well beyond the initial seeding by the George Town Festival, the current proliferation is evidence that these pieces of street art as “The Art” have been encouraged by the logic of tourism, not by the logic of aesthetics. Thus, “The Art” is raising questions about the dominance of the Western art system. In addition, tourists experience and consume “The Art” as art at the tourist destination. This phenomenon indicates a situation in which the aesthetic art concept assumed in the previous study becomes meaningless, suggesting that the concept of art should be reconstructed by the essence of tourism.
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