SACO9 Now or never

RESISTANCE WITHOUT A SHELL | Dagmara Wyskiel SACO9’s curatorial text, written in June of 2019, completed the triad of the festival’s most recent editions, dedicated to the phenomenon of time: Origin and Myth (2018), Destiny (2019), and Now or Never (2020). October would bring the popular uprising, and with it, a different meaning for the last of those themes; in March, the pandemic’s arrival to Latin America provided it with yet another spin.

Then the lockdown began. All of us, just like snails, withdrew into our shells. After a few weeks of shock, the transition towards virtual life began. In social media, slogans featuring concepts like “reinventing oneself” or “democratization of access” had a deep effect on the imagination and motivation of those of us within the field of culture. “Stay at home” became a tribal mantra that, posted on your wall, gave proof of your responsibility and commitment to the health of others.

Naively, I wondered why we never saw something like that posted above the entrance of a supermarket, in a car commercial, or in an advertisement for airlines or beer. Why should people from the world of culture, so sensitive and welleducated, be the exemplar of obedience, voluntarily locking themselves inside their homes, accepting without complaints the closure of theaters, museums and libraries, while commerce and big industry never once ceased to function.

We insist (from our screens) that the right to culture must be fundamental, inalienable and egalitarian. But let’s not kid ourselves, we are able to see what is truly fundamental by who has still got their doors open. The message is clear: whatever hasn’t shut down due to the crisis, it is because the world would end if it did. Commerce and industry, aggressively baring their teeth at any sign of imposed limitation, reacted in a coordinated fashion to the crisis with the collective power of trade associations, using any and all tools at their disposal, some of them questionable, in order to defend their interests, which in the end they were able to do. The field of culture complied with the government’s instructions, and waited at home, hoping to receive some sort of protection. I know there are some exceptions. I am trying to shed light on a complex process, a test of endurance that most of the class failed, for fear of possible reprisals.

Culture can only be strong enough to exert pressure on society when it has the support of ordinary citizens, when it is present in the streets and the people feel it belongs to them, and they belong to it. Maybe the shuttering of nineteenth century mansions, impregnated with patriarchal and hierarchical thinking, could prove favorable to the establishment of spaces that are more horizontally aligned and more open to inclusive, flexible, and dynamic dialog. Even so, how can we expect people to come to our defense if the majority of us have shut our doors, telling everyone that we did it for their own good? In the bleakest moments of history, in the most terrible, dangerous and painful times, in every corner of the 51