Instituições culturais vivas: experimentações micropolíticas na Casa do Povo

• Autor(a) principal: Loureiro, Marilia Arantes
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da PUC_SP
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.pucsp.br/jspui/handle/handle/40834
• topic: CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA; Cultura; Arte; Subjetividade; Instituições vivas; Curadoria; Micropolíticas neoliberal e contra-neoliberal; Culture; Art; Subjectivity; Living institutions; Curatorship; Neoliberal and anti-neoliberal micropolitics

The primary aim of this research is to investigate what constitutes a living cultural institution, drawing on the problematization of curatorial practices and, more broadly, institutional practices. Examining them through their micropolitical dimensions, I delve into the intrinsic connections between curatorial work, institutions, and the politics of subjectivity production. It departs from an initial premise that what breathes life into contemporary cultural institutions transcends the content they publicly showcase. A dynamic cultural space, interwoven with its surroundings, and holding significance in its social, political, and artistic context, is not solely defined by the quantity or quality of its programming. Instead, it encompasses subtle and often imperceptible elements that constitute its institutional landscape. The organization of time and space, as well as usership and users, access and criteria, profoundly influence how cultural institutions foster unique politics of subjectivation and impact the socio-political and cultural milieu in which they operate. Thus, the objective is to connect curatorial work to a broader practice, beyond the mere organization of exhibitions and/or cultural programs. This research centers on Casa do Povo, a cultural and memory center located in São Paulo’s neighborhood of Bom Retiro. Rather than thinking about Casa do Povo, this research aims to think with Casa do Povo, using the agency forged within it as a guiding light. Drawing from my tenure as a curator and program coordinator at the institution from 2017 to 2021, I examine the impact of its institutional practices and experimental curatorial devices from two perspectives: (1) the creation of a cultural hub that transcends the conventional roles performed by cultural centers, broadening the notion of culture; (2) a work mode that blurs the lines between activism and professionalism, passion and productivity, pushing the boundaries of the notion of labor itself. At this intersection, the integrating potential of community life coexists with the disintegrating strain of a work life subsumed by productivity. To elaborate on the nuances of this tension, it was imperative to critically reconsider concepts like resistance, care, and listening, as well as the figure of the hero, as ideas that contribute to the debate on cultural production in our contemporary context, where active and reactive forces engage in varying degrees of confrontation. This research seeks to ensure that institutional and curatorial practices do not become isolated experiments but instead create a positive balance (new knowledge, new politics of relation, new modes of existence, new infrastructures, etc.) – a balance to be collectively appropriated, expanded, and transformed. This dissertation aligns with the research project titled "Challenges in Mental Health: Sustainability and Subjectivity in the Contemporary World" conducted within the PostGraduate Program in Clinical Psychology at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, approved through the CNPq Calls 25/2020 and 02/2021, under process nº 444582/2020-7, in line with the principles of the Agenda 2030 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) advocated by the United Nations