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Clase cultural: Arte y gentrificación
Desde el colapso en los tempranos años ochenta del régimen de acumulación fordista, es imposible no advertir una amplia transformación en la estructura social, física y demográfica de muchas metrópolis occidentales. La especulación inmobiliaria, la tercerización de la producción industrial y los monopolios de los sectores financiero y tecnológico dejaron como huella ruina y abandono y la conversión de barrios de clase trabajadora y centros industriales en talleres de artistas y áreas de consumo. Mientras todos estos procesos convergen en atractivas formas para producir una apariencia de prosperidad económica, la precarización del trabajo y el desempleo crónico son datos subyacentes pero inequívocos del paisaje urbano contemporáneo.
En este conjunto de ensayos, la artista y crítica Martha Rosler analiza el rol de las artes visuales como activo estratégico instrumentalizado por los gobiernos municipales para la creación de valor inmobiliario y la invención de nuevos patrones de consumo basados en la comodificación de la cultura. Ciclovías, cervecerías artesanales, la promoción de barrios “emergentes”, la proliferación de festivales patrocinados por bancos y fundaciones, el auge de las bienales como estrategia para insertar a una ciudad en el circuito internacional del arte y la construcción de centros culturales resplandecientes son algunas de las figuras recurrentes con las que los planificadores urbanos construyen un “marketing del estilo de vida” y diseñan una ideología de la creatividad al servicio de la gentrificación capitalista. Con un repertorio de referencias variadas, que incluye desde el trabajo teórico de los gurúes del management urbano hasta la disección situacionista del rol de la cultura visual en el capitalismo y la teoría del trabajo inmaterial del postoperaísmo italiano, estos textos proveen la materia prima fundamental para comprender las nuevas formas que adopta la lucha de clases en la ciudad postindustrial, y para poner en cuestión las complicidades de la comunidad artística con los nuevos regímenes de consumo.
En este conjunto de ensayos, la artista y crítica Martha Rosler analiza el rol de las artes visuales como activo estratégico instrumentalizado por los gobiernos municipales para la creación de valor inmobiliario y la invención de nuevos patrones de consumo basados en la comodificación de la cultura. Ciclovías, cervecerías artesanales, la promoción de barrios “emergentes”, la proliferación de festivales patrocinados por bancos y fundaciones, el auge de las bienales como estrategia para insertar a una ciudad en el circuito internacional del arte y la construcción de centros culturales resplandecientes son algunas de las figuras recurrentes con las que los planificadores urbanos construyen un “marketing del estilo de vida” y diseñan una ideología de la creatividad al servicio de la gentrificación capitalista. Con un repertorio de referencias variadas, que incluye desde el trabajo teórico de los gurúes del management urbano hasta la disección situacionista del rol de la cultura visual en el capitalismo y la teoría del trabajo inmaterial del postoperaísmo italiano, estos textos proveen la materia prima fundamental para comprender las nuevas formas que adopta la lucha de clases en la ciudad postindustrial, y para poner en cuestión las complicidades de la comunidad artística con los nuevos regímenes de consumo.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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387 people want to read
About the author
Martha Rosler
45 books15 followersMartha Rosler is an American artist. She works in photography and photo text, video, installation, sculpture, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture. Rosler’s work is centered on everyday life and the public sphere, often with an eye to women's experience.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 19, 2016
I picked up this book while browsing the shelves of the art and music library. I had recently come across e-flux journal through an online community, which – coupled with the aesthetic of the cover – caught my eye, and made me decide to give it a spin. The book itself is a collection of essays which investigate the role of artists in gentrification.
The first essay looks at the role of critical art. This brief history begins with the role of art in the public sphere during the development of the bourgeoisie society in Europe. This positions the artist in the strange position of critiquing capitalism while, essentially, being implicitly tied to it. But despite this there is an art culture – an art culture that is global, She suggests that all moves toward reform are worthwhile. The situation is more obscene and systemic. That said, for many, art is done on the market's terms. Success is judged not by the art, but the sale. This leads to a loss of experiment. As well as a stagnation.
This title looks at the use of artists, or the creative class, as a tool in the colonial gentrification of urban spaces. These sections draw heavily on the work of certain urban theorists such as Guy Debord and the Situationalists, Henri Lefebvre, and Sharon Zurkin as well as the political move in art presented by people like Duchamp (and Debord). A large part of these essays is placed in response to the work on the creative class by Richard Florida. It is suggested that Florida's creative class is an extension of neoliberal policy, and ultimately works against critique. There is a focus on the colonial and racist nature of gentrification, and the creative class are the initiators of this move. A notion that art has implicitly fallen into the clutches of capital, and that this is difficult to escape. Florida's theory promotes diversity through stagnation. Creative class encompasses both the poor artist, and the rich 'yuppie'. He is one who is happy to support the arts, so long as they are controlled by capital and easy to contain. Creatives have been taken hold of and brought into capital. But Florida's creative class gives no agency to the artists themselves. Artists, as actors, still have the ability to move in social progress, and this can be seen in the occupy movement. These movements look different than the past. They are more autonomous than marxist. There is, here, a notion of direct democracy – similar to that of Mouffe. The potential that those in the creative class can turn against the neoliberal movement of the cities which have taken their labour, and used them for neo-colonial purposes. From this, there is a rallying cry against gentrification, towards occupation (i.e. Occupy).
The main problem I had with the text was that, while its message was one I tended to agree with, there wasn't really a sense of an overarching ethos. The author drew from a good nubmer of sources from different disciplines in order to make their point, but at times it seems a little superfluous. While I found myself engaging in certain segments of the text, it was difficult to sometimes see how they connected to other areas. That said, in general, this is a really interesting read which examines the relationship between art and the political. This text presents more of a realist than a revolutionary understanding of art, but at the same time does not deny art's revolutionary potential.
Worth the read or purchase for those interested in the intersection of urban studies and art. Most of the book skews towards urban politics, with a specific look at the role of artists within those theories.
The first essay looks at the role of critical art. This brief history begins with the role of art in the public sphere during the development of the bourgeoisie society in Europe. This positions the artist in the strange position of critiquing capitalism while, essentially, being implicitly tied to it. But despite this there is an art culture – an art culture that is global, She suggests that all moves toward reform are worthwhile. The situation is more obscene and systemic. That said, for many, art is done on the market's terms. Success is judged not by the art, but the sale. This leads to a loss of experiment. As well as a stagnation.
This title looks at the use of artists, or the creative class, as a tool in the colonial gentrification of urban spaces. These sections draw heavily on the work of certain urban theorists such as Guy Debord and the Situationalists, Henri Lefebvre, and Sharon Zurkin as well as the political move in art presented by people like Duchamp (and Debord). A large part of these essays is placed in response to the work on the creative class by Richard Florida. It is suggested that Florida's creative class is an extension of neoliberal policy, and ultimately works against critique. There is a focus on the colonial and racist nature of gentrification, and the creative class are the initiators of this move. A notion that art has implicitly fallen into the clutches of capital, and that this is difficult to escape. Florida's theory promotes diversity through stagnation. Creative class encompasses both the poor artist, and the rich 'yuppie'. He is one who is happy to support the arts, so long as they are controlled by capital and easy to contain. Creatives have been taken hold of and brought into capital. But Florida's creative class gives no agency to the artists themselves. Artists, as actors, still have the ability to move in social progress, and this can be seen in the occupy movement. These movements look different than the past. They are more autonomous than marxist. There is, here, a notion of direct democracy – similar to that of Mouffe. The potential that those in the creative class can turn against the neoliberal movement of the cities which have taken their labour, and used them for neo-colonial purposes. From this, there is a rallying cry against gentrification, towards occupation (i.e. Occupy).
The main problem I had with the text was that, while its message was one I tended to agree with, there wasn't really a sense of an overarching ethos. The author drew from a good nubmer of sources from different disciplines in order to make their point, but at times it seems a little superfluous. While I found myself engaging in certain segments of the text, it was difficult to sometimes see how they connected to other areas. That said, in general, this is a really interesting read which examines the relationship between art and the political. This text presents more of a realist than a revolutionary understanding of art, but at the same time does not deny art's revolutionary potential.
Worth the read or purchase for those interested in the intersection of urban studies and art. Most of the book skews towards urban politics, with a specific look at the role of artists within those theories.
May 30, 2020
Clase cultural es un conjunto de ensayos de la artista y crítica norteamericana Martha Rosler, todos ellos fruto de diferentes intervenciones públicas a lo largo del tiempo, donde la autora planea sobre el complejo papel del arte y la cultura en el contexto urbano postindustrial y su posicionamiento ante el nuevo paradigma neoliberal.
El núcleo central del mismo nace tras la invitación a una conferencia sobre Richard Florida, autor del muy influyente La clase creativa. La transformación de la cultura del trabajo y el ocio en el siglo XXI, cuyas tesis están en el origen de la instrumentalización del arte en los procesos de gentrificación de nuestras ciudades y del llamado “modo artístico de producción”, donde “nuestras condiciones económicas actuales se han vuelto, de un modo u otro, artísticas”.
Esta serie de ensayos evidencia por tanto la problemática de sostener la tesis del poder transformador del arte en un sistema en el que la propia comodificación de la cultura convierte al mismo en un engranaje más del marketing de patrones de consumo. A pesar del tono pesimista, Rosler no claudica: “la imaginación artística sigue soñando con la acción histórica”, y de la misma manera que Chantal Mouffe exhortaba a los artistas a no abandonar el museo, afirma: “no hay nada que sugiera que no debamos ocupar de forma simultánea el terreno de lo urbano”. Ramón Andrés
El núcleo central del mismo nace tras la invitación a una conferencia sobre Richard Florida, autor del muy influyente La clase creativa. La transformación de la cultura del trabajo y el ocio en el siglo XXI, cuyas tesis están en el origen de la instrumentalización del arte en los procesos de gentrificación de nuestras ciudades y del llamado “modo artístico de producción”, donde “nuestras condiciones económicas actuales se han vuelto, de un modo u otro, artísticas”.
Esta serie de ensayos evidencia por tanto la problemática de sostener la tesis del poder transformador del arte en un sistema en el que la propia comodificación de la cultura convierte al mismo en un engranaje más del marketing de patrones de consumo. A pesar del tono pesimista, Rosler no claudica: “la imaginación artística sigue soñando con la acción histórica”, y de la misma manera que Chantal Mouffe exhortaba a los artistas a no abandonar el museo, afirma: “no hay nada que sugiera que no debamos ocupar de forma simultánea el terreno de lo urbano”. Ramón Andrés
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February 25, 2022siempre se nos olvida que a veces tenemos que leer no en busca de epifanías sino en busca de palabras con las que articular una certeza que ya teníamos
y eso es este libro
y eso es este libro
January 26, 2023
Muy buena lectura para interiorizarse en temas de relación entre políticas públicas y promoción del arte, desde una mirada materialista. Hay que leerlo teniendo en mente que la autora es estadounidense y una artista consagrada, por lo que su análisis, sobre todo hacia el final, hace más referencia a los grandes circuitos artísticos y no tanto a los movimientos de base o lo que pasa por fuera de lo institucional. Aún así, nos da categorías de análisis que pueden ser útiles incluso en el estudio de los casos que no menciona, para comprenderlos por diferencia. Recomiendo si les interesa la geografía urbanista y el accionar municipal respecto de la actividad artística.
October 26, 2011
Tender but severe critique to how urbanists see artists, and how artists see their role as part of a functional society. Apparently there's still hope for the both of them.
October 25, 2025
Brilliant, incredibly depressing. I guess it would be more of a formative read if you went into the 'culture class' with the beliefs that she is critical of; ie artist saviour/bravery complex, soho-house circle-jerking etc. Personally I already carried the guilt and deep belief in the inutility and cowardice in choosing this career path lmfao.
It would be nice if she proposed more tentative solutions rather than just criticality. This whole book is haunted by the failure of the Occupy movement- sometimes criticality without pragmatism, in that way that millennial movements always did. To be fair I really like her art.
It would be nice if she proposed more tentative solutions rather than just criticality. This whole book is haunted by the failure of the Occupy movement- sometimes criticality without pragmatism, in that way that millennial movements always did. To be fair I really like her art.
December 20, 2017
Una elite que solo puede escribir sobre y para sí misma. Imagino que un gestor cultural o un curador en la periferia del circuito puede ver acá reforzada su ideología profesional. Para el resto no hay nada.
September 11, 2023
Dry but interesting, put much more eloquently a lot I was thinking abt moving to a new and big city
August 26, 2025
deserves a revisit at some point. somewhat meandering but ultimately asking if art can thrive without entering into the mechanisms of capital. in short, no it cannot - in long it cannot either, but the utopia idea of it does exist insofar as there being actual value in the arts.
you look at the mainstream and it’s all “slop” - in a utopia is would be “brain nourishment” not “rot” but therein lies the problem, the people WANT slop.
you look at the mainstream and it’s all “slop” - in a utopia is would be “brain nourishment” not “rot” but therein lies the problem, the people WANT slop.
October 20, 2014
Menjelaskan bagaimana dunia kerja kreatif yang awalnya semacam anomali ke depannya dapat menjadi sumber pendapatan baru yang menjanjikan baik untuk pribadi dan negara. Kaitannya dengan urbanism dan budaya.
Buku ini relate banget sama perkembangan industri kreatif di Indonesia, khususnya Jakarta saat ini.
Buku ini relate banget sama perkembangan industri kreatif di Indonesia, khususnya Jakarta saat ini.
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February 14, 2014701.03 R821 2013
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December 6, 2018i read this in supplement to her survey exhibition at the jewish museum in new york, "martha rosler: irrespective"
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews