The role of art is to embody a multitude of tumultuous metamorphoses. The creative act corresponds to the political act, but neither is exhaustive of the other: art is always a voice of critique of the social and cultural system. On the verge of the catastrophe this system can self-organize in a constituent process, and knowledge (art, culture, entertainment) workers can be the protagonists, through shared practices of struggle and artistic activity. The fight for the common weal, in this sense, is a performative, not representative act of transformation and metamorphosis: a material gesture made by the workers of the immaterial. This practice can create new institutions through the construction of the autonomy of the subjects that act and the development of self-government in the various forms of self-organization of work, production and education. What we imagine for “Teatro Valle – Fondazione Bene Comune” is an imprudent institution, dynamic and not kinetic, more similar to a living organism that has passions and desires than to an administrative department: a junction of encounters and multiple relationships, a place of shared social production and cooperation. Organized in artistic, legal and economic areas, this project attempts to intertwine the discussion on income (protection of free and independent thinking) with the implementation of other economies and alternative visions regarding artistic production. In the words of Christian Marazzi: “there is something that makes economics similar to religion, namely that also for economics, its best results come from the fact that it generates heretics”.” As “heretics”, we know that the culture industry in Italy is not a marginal sector but one that is alive, with a detailed chain of supply and production, rooted in the territory, with very high levels of professionalism, recognized on an international level. Our cultural production is incessant, widespread and common: Rome is a good example, with its constellation of independent spaces for culture. Public financing and political representation are practically inseparable in Italy, both in practice and in the collective imaginary: interference of political parties, patronage, nepotism, corruption. But our Constitution states that the Republic should promote culture, and for this reason we are asking that the public sector, from the City to the State, finance culture and theaters. At the same time, we ask that the parties and politics be pushed out of the management of culture and theaters. Different experiences of alternative financing exist, capable of generating independent funding to support artistic experimentation, education and research. They range from crowdfunding to forms of self-production from the ground up of events, to proposals of non-monetary exchange/barter, and others still. To be continued…
SILVIA DE FANTI
Member of the Teatro Valle Occupato, an experience that started in 2011 and which constituted the Fondazione Teatro Valle Bene Comune. Lives and works in Rome.