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| A post-touristic shopping-scape in a mimetic Alhambresque atmosphere |
Next week, we will be in Lisbon presenting the communication: "The Alcaicería of Granada (Spain). From a silk trade center to a post-touristic shopping-scape" during the International Conference ShoppingScapes´13, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias.
The Alcaicería of Granada (Spain). From a silk trade center to a post-touristic shopping-scape
Abstract: The Alcaicería of Granada is a contemporary post-touristic shopping-scape with deep roots in history. In the Medieval Arab world, the term al-qaysāriyya described a commercial institution for the silk trade as well as an architectonic typology. In Al-Andalus, the typology was a cluster of shops located in the center of the main cities. After the Reconquest, these structures were maintained and alcaicerías were even built, as commercial spaces, in America and the Philippines. The decline of the silk trade provoked their disappearance, with the exception of Granada's. The chronicle of the Alcaicería of Granada begins with a "transaction document" (1460), continues with its reconstruction in Alhambresque style (1843) and its conversion into a theme market for handcrafts (1940), to its recent restoration (2002). Today, the mimetic atmosphere full of souvenirs, among just a few local crafts, is a commercial urban scenario that mixes reality and fiction for tourists.
Keywords: Alcaicería. Granada. Shopping Structures. Post-tourism. Silk Trade
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| Postcards from the Alcaicería. Left: 1905; right: circa 1970's |
Esta comunicación fue seleccionada a través de Convocatoria Abierta / This communication was selected via an Open Call for Communications.
About ShoppingScapes'13:
The designation of "ShoppingScapes" tries to focus in a word the meeting of ideas related to the presence and meaning of commercial superstructures that have been spreading throughout the territory, transforming and (re)building the landscape, as well as affecting the development of cities in general. Similarly, the description also applies to a variant of the traditional shopping mall, which generally punctuates the suburban area, appearing as authentic commercial retail hubs, assuming their strange and contradictory condition of non-cities, emptying the traditional city centre of characteristic activity with its displacement. [Excerpt from the website]
International Conference ShoppingScapes´13 (27 to 30 May), Lisboa, Portugal. Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias. Institut Français du Portugal.
Website: http://shoppingscapes.ulusofona.pt/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ShoppingScapes
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Muy interesante.
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