“<
Do They Plan Our Culture For Us?
» is the title of an article published in the newsletter of the Centro Social la Florida towards the end of the 70s; the question points precisely to the controversy that this exhibition aims to unfold.
We are opening on Wednesday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in the Subsòl space of the
Centre Cultural Bellvitge-Gornal
.
The history of Europe is, in part, a history of “internal colonization.” A process that extends at least from the 14th century with the formation of the first modern states and the development of the capitalist economy to this day: the enclosures and the destruction of communal property are accompanied by the annihilation of peasant culture.
In this process, the modern State has integrated any difference into the illusion of a liberal society formed by a universal middle class, made up of individuals who think of themselves as independent, brought together only by the institutions of the State and by the act of consuming. The middle-classification of the working-class neighborhoods of the 60s and 70s, such as Bellvitge, is another link in this history.
The systematic stigmatization of the ways of life of the peripheries, where the popular classes have been concentrated in the different migratory cycles, has given rise to processes of acculturation. When territories come into contact with artistic practices that function as devices to pave the way for a city model centered on the commodification of all areas of life, it is worth asking: what is the meaning, practice, and forms of circulation that art should have?