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12. The Rhythm of the Arts in the Socially Creative City
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12 THE RHYTHM OF THE ARTS IN THE SOCIALLY CREATIVE CITY Isabel André, Jorge Malheiros, and André Carmo The production and consumption of the arts—at least of those that are framed by a classical conception—is usually associated to an elitist context, in which arts are a relevant cultural dimension for specific social groups. Therefore, nowadays, the distinction between popular culture and high culture still seems to make sense. The substantial differences existing between hip-hop, pop, rock, and symphonic music genres; opera, tragedy, and popular forms of theatre; or classical and folk dance styles, seem to illustrate well the continuity of the distinction. In fact, classical music and rap music do not have the same social meaning, just like ballet and folk dance are associated to socially differentiated cultures. Moreover, the diversity of cultural patterns connected or not to ethnic dimensions also plays a significant role in this distinction. Our goal is to discuss the arts (mainly as fine arts) in a decontextualized manner, i.e. removing them from the social contexts where they usually take place, and to understand up to what extent and in which ways they can function as vehicles for inclusion and social innovation. In other words, we intend to discuss the role of the arts in socially adverse milieux, concerning the acquisition of personal, social, and technical competences, 192 Pourunenouvellemondialisation•Ledéfid’innover the creation of new resources, and the promotion of individual and collective freedom and autonomy. If we take into account the transgressive character and critical nature of art (Lacoste 2010), it seems highly relevant to question ourselves about their capacities as producers of social organization transformations as well as changes in power relations. In this chapter we analyse two concrete case studies through which arts—theatre and classical music—are mobilized as instruments for the social inclusion, emancipation, and empowerment of some of the most deprived social groups. We look upon Theatre of the Oppressed/GTO-LX and El Sistema/Generation Orchestra. Both have their origins in the 1970s’ South America—the former in Brazil (Augusto Boal) and the latter in Venezuela (José António Abreu)—and started to spread, first in the Southern Hemisphere and more recently in many northern cities, particularly in their marginalized neighborhoods. 1. Art and Social Change The advent of modernity entailed a reorganization of knowledge based on a rationalist interpretation of reality. At the end of the 18th century, Immanuel Kant decisively contributed to the affirmation of modern science with its seminal work—Critique of Pure Reason—published in 1781, where he justified and provided substance to various fields of knowledge. Arts did not remain on the margins of that philosophical reflection and, in 1790 (Critique of Aesthetic Judgment), Kant put forth some of the principles that structured the modern definition of arts and that, more than two centuries after, still manage to retain some actuality, namely: (1) art contributes to the advance of culture, as it is an important vehicle for communication; (2) what distinguishes art from craftwork are not skills but talent, it is the distinction between imagination and imitation; (3) art produces ideas, through representations of imagination, whereas science produces concepts based on reasoning; (4) both—ideas and concepts—are the building blocks of knowledge (Schaeffer 1992). Today, the arts are valorized not only in the domain of culture but also in the economic sphere and in the social field (Smiers 2005). They frequently emerge as activities capable of distinguishing and ennobling people, organizations, and places, thus promoting their status to higher levels (Roy-Valex 2010). The role of the arts regarding social change and innovation is not a recent phenomenon, although that contribution was particularly striking during the 20th century, especially until the 1970s. Nevertheless, the relationship between artists and society radically changed during the 18th and [3.226.254.255] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 18:24 GMT) TheRhythmoftheArtsintheSociallyCreativeCity 193 19th centuries (Bradley 2007)—from aristocracy entertainers providing pleasure and amusement, to freelancer entrepreneurs selling the products of their artistic labour to the bourgeois seeking to achieve the cultural standards of the noble, in what regards the acquisition of luxury objects and the access to leisure practices. At the same time, processes of industrialization and the intensification of migrations flows eroded traditional handcraft activities, profoundly attached to the rural world. In this new context, marked by economic growth and a fast-changing urban culture, ‘‘the...