Hyperpolis: Serge Latouche and Marcello Faletra on Aesthetic Capitalism and Urban Control

The essay 'Hyperpolis,' published by Meltemi, showcases insights from Serge Latouche, a theorist of degrowth, and Marcello Faletra, an expert in art criticism. They explore how aesthetic capitalism serves as a tool for social control, utilizing spectacle architecture as its means. The concept of the 'excessive city' or Hyperpolis conceals its colonizing tendencies behind deceptive promises of beauty and progress. Latouche contends that the commodification of territory is reflected in the bodies of citizens, highlighting a crisis in civilization that cannot be remedied by greenwashing, and he promotes the idea of degrowth. Faletra critiques urban planning as a method of exclusion and control, arguing that Hyperpolis contradicts spatial justice, referencing Las Vegas and the Afragola high-speed train station as examples of social exclusion and architectural Disneyfication.