It all started with an outburst. One of us, Giuliana, had been feelingunwell for some time which she had already expressed and which howeverneeded to be put in writing. For this reason she turned to Andrea, afellow journalist, who helped her give shape to the swirling river ofwords that had been buzzing in her head for some time. Together theywrote a text that circulated a lot on social media. "In this period, thepossibility increases for us artisans*, artists*, creatives* to be ableto exhibit our creations. More and more squares and more and morestreets are filled with stalls, offering moments and spaces that for usare the best opportunity to exhibit, get to know each other, get to knowyou. But these markets have become unsustainable for us. They call themmarkets, to remember the connection with marketing. And perhaps for thisvery reason they have become an expensive showcase, in which we exposeourselves through our creations to convince people who are in a hurry tobuy something. Distorting the sense of self-production. This is what weare, in a word: self-producers. For those who can afford it it is theirmain job, for most of us it is a second job. However, in any case, wecan no longer afford the markets. Which have become a money eatingmachine: to book/rent a space we are asked to pay, all expenses are ourresponsibility (food, accommodation and travel), the costs of materialshave increased. In the logic of the market, the solution would besimple: pass these expenses onto those who purchase our creations,increasing the prices of our products. We reject this thesis, because ifwe did so we would be addressing a social class that is not ours. Inother words, we want our art to always be accessible to everyone. And wedon't want to submit to the blackmail of a society that squeezes us. We,however, believe that we need to create alternative paths: focus onself-production, reuse and proximity networks so as not to be fetishistsabout sales. To promote popular, ecological, grassroots art. Slowness isour creed."In mid-November we distributed this text in a public assembly inCatania, receiving several reactions of consensus. As if we had givensubstance to a request that was in the air but which was struggling tocome out. After our statement, many artisans agreed that Christmasmarkets cost too much. We would not like to diminish this problem, whichalso exists and is central to many of us, but in our opinion the issueis broader. With the arrival of the Christmas holidays, cities tend tobe embellished by those in power, eager to show themselves for what theyare not, affable and attentive to the needs of the community, becauseafter all, as we know, we are all better at Christmas. Never mind ifhistoric centers become a "showcase", the "living room" of the city, inthat rhetoric that wants to take away life from cities to offer a cleanand false image. We do not want to be a piece of this puzzle which, inCatania as elsewhere, wants to build a cocooned centre, where povertydoes not exist - and to do this migrants and homeless people are evicted-, where everything is under control - and for this reason they areevicted the social centers to make room for "tourist hubs" -, where eventhe benches are removed, because one cannot stop in the squares and mustonly consume. In this context, the presence of artisans*, artists* andcreatives* also serves to strengthen the design of homologated cities inwhich even the time available, granted by the Christmas holidays, iscommodified. Our creations can no longer only be aimed at the touristflow and the people who can afford them. For these reasons we havelaunched self-production days, to be carried out in community centers orself-managed places, where in addition to free spaces for those whocreate there is also the possibility of reduced prices for those whopurchase. To build other imaginaries and other cities together,accessible to all.Andrea TurcoMacco Collectivehttps://www.sicilialibertaria.it/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten