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Art squats, artistic critique and resistance: Between recuperation and obliteration
Abstract
Art squats have been a characteristic form of the development and diffusion of counterculture since the 1960s. Their function is twofold, engaging in both art and social critique, and as a form of direct action in each field, resisting both capitalist property relations and the institutions of the art market. However, those functions may be displaced by others as a result of the effects of art squats themselves, such as neighbourhood gentrification. The changing cultural politics of the embodied critical practice of art squats are traced through three European examples. This paper follows Critical Cultural Studies in reading cultural practice as text to engage critically with Boltanski and Chiapello’s dismissal of artistic critique, and also problematising the alternative autonomist assumption that art squats unify the projects of art and social revolution by showing how their strategies can be subject to recuperation, while linking the strategies developed in art squats to contemporary practices of resistance.
... The convergence of counterculture with mass culture began in the 1960s. It essentially started with the mingling of countercultural symbols with the music industry such as the involvement of the radical performance artist Bruce Lacey with the Beatles' feature film, Help! (Drake, 2016) before moving on to other industries; namely, the advertising industry. Creativity has been equated with counterculture in its disdain for mass culture-both part of a larger revolt against conformity. ...
... At the other extreme end of the spectrum, the creative underclass can be represented in minority communities, migrants, "system refugees" that reject capitalist societal norms, or startups whose aim is to ultimately integrate into mainstream economy (Colomb, 2012)-involved in experimental and often subversive activities in marginal spaces. A number of expressions have been used to describe these spaces: art squats (Drake, 2016;Moore, 2012;Otto, J., 1990s, as cited in Art Reveal Magazine, 2017, cultural brownfields (Healey et al., 1992;Adams & Watkins, 2002;Couch et al., 2003), intermediate spaces (Groth & Corijn, 2005), free zones (Urban Unlimed, 2004), and places of alternative culture (Shaw, 2005, as cited in Andres & Grésillon, 2013). Drake (2016) contends that these spaces are ideological in nature and even likens them to the avant-garde of the 19 th and early 20 th century. ...
... A number of expressions have been used to describe these spaces: art squats (Drake, 2016;Moore, 2012;Otto, J., 1990s, as cited in Art Reveal Magazine, 2017, cultural brownfields (Healey et al., 1992;Adams & Watkins, 2002;Couch et al., 2003), intermediate spaces (Groth & Corijn, 2005), free zones (Urban Unlimed, 2004), and places of alternative culture (Shaw, 2005, as cited in Andres & Grésillon, 2013). Drake (2016) contends that these spaces are ideological in nature and even likens them to the avant-garde of the 19 th and early 20 th century. They exist to challenge and undermine established notions of art, just as free concerts undermine exclusive night clubs and black markets undermine elitist consumer culture (Ryzova, 2016). ...
The ongoing relocation of administrative and ministerial functions to the New Administrative Capital is leaving an array of late-19th to mid-20th century buildings in central Cairo vacant and awaiting conversion. Its role previously limited to providing a clean slate for private development through "restoring order," the state is now looking to private developers' decade-long experience with arts-led redevelopment in Downtown that has fully materialized with the gush of creative industries since 2011. Descendants of the 1990s contemporary arts scene and the earlier 1970s literary counterculture, Downtown's creative industries emerged in a rare period of complete creative autonomy during and after the 2011 revolution. They have taken a distinctive form right in between an extralegal marginal "creative underclass" and a formalized "creative elite." Inspired by the Global North's model of instrumentalization of arts and culture to "revitalize" decaying downtowns, specialized private developers were instead faced with a creative scene saturated with socially and politically subversive overtones. In tandem with the state's efforts to sterilize Downtown of all remnants of dissidence and informality, Downtown's creative industries have undergone a process of capitalistic conditioning. Among cases of co-optation, re-framing, and resistance, entrepreneurial creative spaces have sprung up—presenting a sanitized version of creativity ideal for neoliberal redevelopment agendas. Concerns about gentrification are often shut down as an imported Anglo-American construct that has no place in the Global South. This has inspired a new discourse that attempts to uproot, redefine, and localize the concept. This thesis attempts to plug into this dialogue by unraveling the multi-layered convolutions of heritage, capital, art, and dissidence, and analyzing their implications on the social and built environments. Through looking at the intersections between adaptive reuse, creative industries, and arts-led redevelopment, an attempt is made to understand post-2011 Downtown Cairo. And by looking through Cairo's lens, the shapes adaptive reuse and creative industries take become clear representations of changing socioeconomic and political narratives.
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