ABSTRACT
Through the examination of physical and photographic images of Medellín’s architectural phenomena, this chapter explores how politics operates via representations of urban transformation. While the images belong to dominant state-led and media accounts of transformation, their analysis detect foundational narrative parts purposely left absent from the city’s urban discourse through strategies of replacement via sporting facilities, erasure via transport and mobility services, and disconnection via globally recognizable commercial districts. This study reveals how strategies of image construction create a contrast between state-of-the-art architectural interventions and their context (replacement), community tourism and the reality of everyday life (erasure), and marginalized neighborhoods on the city fringe and affluent housing precincts (disconnection).
