Well aware of the risk of hypocrisy, contributing to what it purports to criticize, BORG 2016 chose to embrace rather than to resist, putting forward the provocative slogan GENTRIFY EVERYTHING. Instead of slowing down the process of urban development, we call for acceleration. Why limit down when we can have everything? Why settle for less? And even if our demand is too absolute, let it at least i
gnite the imagination of artists, performers, designers, architects, writers and thinkers! Envision a place in which contemporary art is truly everywhere, with no escape. Just dream of bohemia lurking around every corner, of all cafés serving your favourite latte, of daily life as one single breath-taking performance. Imagine your city permanently undergoing cosmetic and plastic surgery, with all of its imperfections removed. Let’s gentrify everything! Throughout the past few decades, gentrification has grown into a buzzword, a symptom of our times, hailed by project developers and disparaged by activists. This socioeconomic process of urban renewal increases the value of properties while displacing the lower-income residents. It puts the middle class in place of the working class, the yuppie and hipster in place of the long-time local and the trendy coffee bar in place of the newspaper shop. Artists and designers (or “young urban creatives”) often occupy an ambiguous role in this development. Attracted by cheap housing and studios, the arrival of these creatives transforms the local district into a hip and appealing place to live, which will in turn attract the more wealthy, raise the rents and might ultimately drive the economically less fortunate out of their homes. This being said, exactly how does contemporary art come into play here? Is it that innocent? Or is the art scene a kind of lubricant for gentrification, the avant-garde of urban development? Are there still possibilities to resist, and what would these consist of? What does it mean to work on a local level in a globalised art world? Are artists to be perceived as the victims or as the instigators of the all-absorbing, neoliberal logic at work in today’s cities? Does contemporary art “enrich” a certain neighbourhood, and how so? Or, to put it more strongly, has contemporary art become an exclusive product for the middle and upper class? For its second edition, BORG has decided to radically question its identity as a biennial event for contemporary art in Borgerhout, a local district of Antwerp that harbours a burgeoning amount of art galleries and project spaces, but also has to deal with different socioeconomic strata and minorities. Is it possible to embed a art biennial in such a local context without any contradiction? Can BORG be critical of gentrification processes and still avoid hypocrisy?
