Can one artist name an unnamed road after himself?

Abstract

Process of rapid urbanisation in China during recent years have created the need for names to be given to new urban roads. However, due to the inattention of institutions charged with responsibilities for place-naming, some roads remain unnamed. Although these unnamed roads have been overlooked by China’s municipal authorities and by toponymic scholars, they have attracted the attention of Yulu Ge. In 2013, Ge named an unnamed road in Beijing after himself as a work of public art, aiming to urge the government to improve urban governance and to raise public awareness about the necessity of civic engagement. While there are many studies on the critical toponymy and geographies of public art, little attention has been paid to place-naming as a work of public art and the popular responses to it. This article considers how Ge conducted his public art and the attitudes of city residents who had knowledge of it. It is argued that Ge’s artistic practice has brought convenience to residents’ everyday lives and has led city authorities and urban communities to pay greater attention to unnamed roads. However, questions remain over the role of the artist as a disruptive presence in the city’s orderly structure. Therefore, this article argues that the disputes over the Geyu Road remind artists and scholars to consider how place-naming as an artistic practice can intervene in urban lives in a more appropriate way, and the extent to which authorities and urban society can accommodate creative and effective interventions such as Ge’s place-naming practices.