Arte e Educação - Fundação Bienal do Mercosul

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– and generally the most satisfactory – attempt at
creating a world in which he lives according to
his own desires. But if the city is the world created
by man, it is also the world where he is condemned
to live from now on. So therefore, indirectly and
without being fully aware of the nature of his
work in creating the city, man recreates himself.
In this sense, we can consider the city as a social
laboratory”. The model of urban development
and territorial organisation employed by a society
therefore reflects and conditions the type of individual
constructed by that society.
Harvey also recalled that this strict relationship
between urbanisation and civilisation had already
been suggested by several philosophers and writers
in the 19 th century, such as Friedrich Engels 4 or
Georg Simmel 5 . In his judgement, one element
that has played an essential role in the
configuration of the contemporary city is the
“problem of accumulation and relocation of
surplus capital”. In the capitalist system, if it
intends to be competitive, a considerable portion
of the benefits accruing from economic activity
has to be reinvested in expanding production.
“Only then,” stated Harvey, “is the survival of
the system guaranteed and the capitalist can continue
being who he is.” We should not forget
that this economic model can only survive if a
progressive growth in production is maintained,
forming a kind of vertiginous spiral one cannot
escape from.
We should therefore not forget that the great issues
of art and culture cannot be exempt from critical
analysis in relation to how the economy operates
as a whole and the effects it has on the organisation
of society. Each individual act or collective action
is responsible for the world we live in, and
therefore behind any fact there is a political
responsibility.
Every initiative promoted by the State or financed
with public funds has to contribute to the full
betterment of citizens and, consequently, to the
advance of humanity. There should therefore be
a balanced synthesis between public service and
individual excellence, social democracy and
economic development, egalitarianism and
wealth. It has to be at the service of human
progress, alert to the needs of the market and the
economy, also essential for improvement of life,
but never governed by its rules. That was what
the economist John K. Galbraith indicated in
terms of the North American university in his
book The New Industrial State, in which he states
that in addition to being unswayed by
authoritarian masters, the University considers the
corporation to be a social institution, with
development not being defined in purely
economic terms.
Confronted with the postmodern dictum of there
being no ideology behind images and forms, other
people such as us think that, in terms of cultural
ethics, not everything can serve any purpose. To
better illustrate and confirm the danger that might
be conveyed by using this “uncommitted” culture
of the image, a celebrated phrase by J. L. Godard
comes to mind, in which “a tracking shot is always
a moral question,” or Edward Said’s comment
that if culture in all its manifestations – literary,