ABSTRACT
This chapter takes the urban situation of the bale opening as a starting point for exploring how collective encounters with diverse second-hand objects mediate articulations of ‘global forms’ in the city. It focuses on the contingent remaking of the fripe in situated processes of cultural production in a Tunis marketplace. The chapter analyses the coordinated mechanisms of valuation that requalify imported fripe materials as commodities in the Tunisian context and culminates in the strictly timed rhythms and collective performances of the bale openings in Tunis marketplaces. It then homes in on the complex negotiations for which the bale opening sets the stage: processes of incorporation, adaptation and reinvention determine the contingent character of the fripe as a global form and illustrate how urban marketplaces become the sites of encounters with ‘elsewhere’.
