What does it mean to be seen as a citizen—not just legally, but aesthetically?

This conversation explores how aesthetic norms shape who is recognised as a full participant in public life—and who is excluded.

Drawing from the concept of “aesthetic citizenship,” we will investigate how beauty and visibility function as political tools.

Beyond laws or documents, bodies are judged according to visual and cultural expectations that mark them as desirable, dangerous, or disposable.

Marginalised groups are often denied full aesthetic belonging. We are read as “out of place,” unruly, or non-normative, not simply in legal terms but through visual regimes rooted in colonial and racialised histories.

We ask:

• Who is allowed to appear in public space without surveillance, threat, or erasure?

• How do aesthetic ideals become tools of social control and exclusion?

• What does it mean to reclaim aesthetic space through resistance, art, and bodily presence?

Join us as we reimagine citizenship not just as a legal status, but as a struggle over visibility, recognition, and the right to exist.