Spatial Practices in the City: The Kidnapping of an Arts Organization.

AutorBezerra, Mariana Maia

Introduction

"We are already in July and the municipal government has given up on its responsibility towards the April Exhibition, but society will lead the event. Against this negligence, we invite everyone who is interested to kidnap the 68th April Exhibition" (Forum de Artes Visuais de Fortaleza, 2017, p. 1, our translation).

When we consider the city as a social phenomenon that combines physical, social, political and symbolical dimensions, its resistance processes assume a micropolitical sphere (Certeau, 1984; Dale & Burrell, 2008; Hall, 1988; Thomas & Davies, 2005). Resistance often occurs as a process articulated by social groups, through a clash between the dominant power and the uniformity (Certeau, 1984; Spicer & Bohm, 2007). For Fleming and Spicer (2007), resistance also presents a geographical aspect. The authors describe the nature of these spatial power relations, aiming to ascertain the connections between political processes and physical environments. In contexts of resistance, groups employ different practices to give voice to those who were kept in silence, and to rupture with the established dominant discourse (Certeau, 1984; Spicer & Bohm, 2007).

Cooper (1976) discusses rupture as a changing mechanism from institutional structures that is self-generated. This rupture is usually performed by exploiting an opportunity, an "unexpected coincidence", that creates conditions for new meanings (Cooper, 1976, p. 1003). We also consider that changes and transformations that organize spaces are due to ruptures (Beyes & Steyaert, 2012; Certeau, 1984).

Space comprises different aspects of everyday life, even when it is neither noticed nor felt. Researchers of Management and Organizational Studies (MOS) have given new perspectives and prospects to spaces (Beyes & Steyaert, 2012; Clegg & Kornberger, 2006; Dale & Burrell, 2008; Greig, Gilmore, Patrick, & Beech, 2013; Kornberger & Clegg, 2004; Massey, 2005; Munro & Jordan, 2013; Taylor & Spicer, 2007; Vaujany & Vaast, 2014).

On one hand, Certeau (1984) stresses that space only exists when practiced, otherwise it is simply a place. On the other hand, Dale and Burrell (2008) emphasize that space and place have an intimate and intertwined set of connections, both discursive and material. In this line of discussion, Beyes and Steyaert (2012) propose an alternative route to bring space back into MOS (Kornberger & Clegg, 2004), stressing the concept of spacing based on the performative approach, which guides the understanding of spatial organization in relation to heterogeneous practice configurations.

Vaujany and Vaast (2014) also claim that both physical and immaterial elements of spacing process are intertwined by practices. Thus, in contexts of resistance, spatial practices of rupture emerge and (re)organize, (re)constitute and legitimize spaces, being fundamental to their organization as a dynamic process (Beyes & Steyaert, 2012; Certeau, 1984; Vaujany & Vaast, 2014).

Withal and most recently, there has been an increase in work that attempts to bring the notion of spatial practices organization as a central theme for analysis in MOS. Some researchers have sketched articulations with other themes such as the creation of hybrid spaces from the practices of space appropriation (Munro & Jordan, 2013); the organizing of spatial practices in the city (Ipiranga & Lopes, 2017; Marins & Ipiranga, 2017); resistance in the work environment (Yuk-kwan Ng & Hopfl, 2011); the remodeling of urban practices through festivals such as Carnival (Johansson & Kocieatkiewicz, 2011) and the rupture with the alienation processes underlying labor relations (Gouvea & Ichikawa, 2015). However, despite being acknowledged as an important concept, there is still a research gap in MOS since spatial practices underlie the relationship of constitutive mutuality between rupture and resistance perpetrated by organizations in the context of the city.

Considering the city as an open, polysemic and organizational phenomenon, where groups practice various forms of organization (Certeau, 1984; Vaujany & Vaast, 2014), the April Exhibition, an arts organization, is the primary venue for the display of works of art in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil. Not only does the organization serve as a means to expose the work of dozens of artists every year, it also plays a crucial role in the development of the local arts community since its beginning. In this sense, the April Exhibition was considered here as an institutionalized arts organization that permeates creative, economic and social aspects (Flach & Antonello, 2011), which transcends time, space and places to which it is proposed. Artistic and cultural organizations are constituted by networks of interactions of different formats, which act in the amplification of their social senses and in the revitalization of the local creative economies (Carradini, 2018).

Thus, in the light of this interlaced debate in the context of cities, we propose a study aimed at understanding the spatial practices of ruptures imbricated in the process of resistance manifested in the kidnapping of an arts organization. We assume that these spatial rupture practices relate to resistance processes in a dynamic of constitutive mutuality.

The arts organization April Exhibition was created in 1943 by a group of students as an attempt to promote local culture, and it is considered today one of the most traditional events in the national artistic calendar (Rolim, 2010). It has been organized annually by the municipal government since 1964, accounting for more than 60 editions over the years. However, in 2017, given the lack of initiative from the municipal government regarding the organization of the 2017 edition, a group of artists questioned the indifference of the public administration towards arts and decided to kidnap the organizing of the April Exhibition.

Thus, in August 2017, the artists started organizing the 68th Kidnapped April Exhibition (68[degrees] Salao de Abril Sequestrado), as an attempt to both preserve the history and importance of this arts organization in the city and give voice to numerous artists who were discontented with the current views of the public administration regarding arts (Costa, 2017; Medeiros, 2012). During its planning and execution, the Kidnapped April Exhibition has shown considerable differences to its counterpart organized by the municipal government, such as the use and inclusion of multiple places and spaces around the city for the display of the works of art.

In addition to this introduction, in the next section, we present the theoretical background by discussing the issues of spatial practices in cities' organizing. Next, we discuss arts organizations. The methodological procedures are then presented, followed by the analysis, interpretations and discussion. Finally, we present our concluding remarks.

Spatial Practices of Ruptures in Cities' Organizing

The dilemmas and utopias of cities are represented in various dimensions of social life, which include their history and planning (Hall, 1988). If, on the one hand, urban space becomes a place for an articulation of diverse interests, such as economical, political and technological, on the other hand, it also presents itself as places of passage, mobility, encounter, conviviality and expression of the people and the community (Certeau, 1984; Cresswell & Merrim, 2011; Ipiranga & Lopes, 2017; Oliveira & Cavedon, 2017; Saraiva & Carrieri, 2012).

As a result of a bricolage of ways of doing things, cities can be considered as an open and polysemic social construction, which only exists when practiced by the people (Certeau, 1984; Vaujany & Vaast, 2014). Thus, the reality is constituted by a set of practices capable of, on the one hand, generating dominant institutional discourses and, on the other hand, transforming the contexts in which they are inserted (Certeau, 1984; Spicer & Bohm, 2007).

Practices are formed by a combination of organized activities that are timely and spatially situated, reflecting how spaces in a city are organized and how places are practiced (Certeau, 1984; Cooper, 1976; Cooper & Fox, 1990). In this context, and more recently, Beyes and Steyaert (2012) align themselves with attempts to bring space back to the critical theory of organization (Kornberger & Clegg, 2004), shifting the discussion from the socio-spatial perspective, according to Lefebvre (1991), to a mode of non-representational theorizing (Thrift, 2007).

Inspired by an aesthetic of waiting and surprise, the authors propose to enrich the theorization and researching on organizational space with the notion of spacing. Beyes and Steyaert (2012) explain that as the gerundial form indicates, the notion of spacing is similar to the well-documented conceptual shift from organization to organizing proposed by Czarniawska (2008). The organization of spacing implies "rethinking of space as a heterogeneous composition of forces, processual and performative, open-ended and multiple, practiced and of the everyday" (Beyes & Steyaert, 2012, p. 47).

Thus, the everyday practices can be seen as textures, reflecting the constitution of processes and organizing structures of the daily life through a continuous movement of action (Certeau, 1984; Cooper, 1976; Cooper & Fox, 1990). The practices enunciate action and organize the everyday life in different ways, where each practice circumscribes a knowledge, in some cases not yet clarified, but which fills the everyday life with meaning and symbolism (Certeau, 1984). In the context of city spaces, practices also assume an organizational aspect (Beyes & Steyaert, 2012; Certeau, 1984; Dale & Burrel, 2008; Vaujany & Vaast, 2014). Hence, spatial practices configure a heterogeneous network that is established by the interaction between people, materials and resources, which provides the basic understanding of the world (Thrift, 2007), and, to this work, the...

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