The artistization of the urban policies. The role of culture in the dynamics of capitalist reappropriation of the city

Abstract

When it comes to defining the meaning of what a city is or should be, two antagonistic conceptions are permanently confronted to disentangle it. On one hand, there is the conception that would prefer to keep the city subjugated to certain dynamics of capitalist re-appropriations, that often are accompanied with "cultural interventions". Then there is the conception that recognizes in the city a stage of any kind of abuses and asymmetries, which also encounters continously in the conflict the primary sources for its evolution. Both conceptions of the urban life find different opportunities to dramatize its own dispute. During the fall of 2006, in Barcelona, there was the chance to witness one of these two conceptions, when local and grass-roots protest ended violently. All this took place in front of the MACBA, the most emblematic cultural installations of the city.