Issue 13 of Laocoonte. Revista de Estética y Teoría de las Artes is now accepting submissions for its thirteenth issue, to be published in December 2026. The submission period will be open from January 1 to June 1, 2026.

The special issue, titled «The Deranged Flâneur», aims to explore the intersections between aesthetic experience, artistic practices, and philosophical reflections emerging in response to contemporary urban transformations. The term “deranged” is used here to refer to a re-signification of the flâneur—a particular mode of experiencing the city—now redefined by the forces of disruption, disorientation, and the suction-expulsion dynamics (analogous to those of a tornado) that characterize contemporary urban life, especially in the context of real estate speculation, gentrification, and overtourism.

More than a century has passed since the emergence of the modern metropolis and the conceptualization of the figure of the flâneur, which found its most emblematic expression in 19th-century Paris. In today’s postmetropolis (Edward W. Soja), the aesthetic experience of the city has undergone profound changes compared to the “modern” life evoked by Baudelaire’s lyricism. It is therefore urgent to deepen our interpretation of and response to contemporary cities through artistic and aesthetic practices that emerge as ambivalent forms of engagement (reflection, representation, intervention) with current urban challenges—understood here as a kind of violence enacted upon cities, their inhabitants, and the social bodies they comprise.

In other words, this special issue seeks not only to examine how such transformations impact aesthetic and artistic urban experiences, but also to investigate how contemporary artists and thinkers respond creatively to these processes. We invite authors to reflect on issues such as the representation of urban disorientation and suction-expulsion dynamics; the ethics of looking in urban space; cultural resistance to urban homogenization; and the preservation of social, cultural, and artistic memory in spaces at risk of disappearance.

In this context, Laocoonte proposes in its thirteenth issue to reflect on the contemporary city from aesthetic and artistic perspectives. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Artistic, aesthetic, and museographic practices in the face of urban transformation: real estate speculation, gentrification, overtourism, etc.

  • Hybrid approaches to the challenges of the postmetropolis: intersections of aesthetics with architecture, urban planning, or geography.

  • Aesthetic and philosophical reflections on the flâneur and the city as a sensitive fabric: bodies, spaces, and times.

  • Modes of inhabiting/uninhabiting the contemporary city.

  • Representation of urban transformation as a form of violence against the city and its people.

  • Urban ethics and aesthetics of looking: cultural resistance, diversity vs. homogeneity.

  • Clandestine imaginaries and possible cities.

  • Social and cultural memory in the face of urban transformation.

Guest Editors: Lurdes Valls Crespo (Universitat de València) and Mikel Martínez Ciriero (Universidad de Navarra)

Authors must upload their original articles through the journal’s online submission platform, available at the following link, where submission guidelines can also be consulted:
https://ojs.uv.es/index.php/LAOCOONTE/about/submissions

Articles that do not align with the theme of the special issue or fail to comply with the journal’s submission and citation guidelines will not be accepted.

The expected publication date for Issue 13 is December 15, 2026.