The authentic Michael Jackson from Las Ramblas at the opening of
Un Van Gogh al teu saló at the Bellvitge Cultural Center
And after the previous post, we return to earth, to the galleys of culture: this coming Tuesday, October 16th at 8:00 PM the exhibition
Un Van Gogh al teu saló
opens at the Centre Cívic Cotxeres Borrell, which was already shown at the Centre de Cultura de Bellvitge earlier this year (aquí the chronicle). Copies of paintings by ‘great masters’ made by the painting students of CC Bellvitge are exhibited, which has given us rise to a small reflection on the modes of legitimization and valuation of cultural products, on how the image of the ‘genius’ or the notions of ‘authorship’ and ‘taste’ are constructed at a popular level.
We say that the users of CC Bellvitge take part in the exhibition, and yet this is not entirely true. For nearly ten years, the center has included painting classes among its limited training offerings, a service that had been maintained thanks to the desire of the users rather than the will of the center’s own management. Mariló’s tenacity has also had a lot to do with this permanence, who taught the classes under absolutely irregular and precarious working conditions. What has happened is that the L’Hospitalet City Council has opened a new, enormous, and brand-new cultural center in Bellvitge in which, according to its Director and the District Councilor, this painting activity has no place.
In the new cultural center, only specialized workshops will be offered with a specific duration of a few weeks or months. Of course, the programming of these workshops will be decided solely by the director of the center. According to the administration, this policy aims to combat the appropriation of public spaces and equipment by certain groups (sic). The measure is then publicized as a democratic measure, since it would prevent certain users from monopolizing public resources, which has found the support and legitimacy of the official representatives of the residents. This argument is very easily refuted since the painting workshop students do not form a group, but fluctuate from one course to another, as in any other offer of this type. The alternative offered by the Ajuntament de L’Hospitalet to these people is to constitute themselves as an association and aspire to a physical headquarters in which to develop their activity.
What we see here is a double perversion: on the one hand, culture is offered as a fast-moving consumer good in a way that prevents the creation of any type of social fabric, and on the other hand, associationism, which during the 70s was the spearhead of neighborhood demands, is transformed into an instrument to atomize the social body, trapping everyone in their reduced circle of affinities.
