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The concept of contested territories is increasingly present in the recent literature of different fields of applied social sciences. Still, after years of interdisciplinary research in the fields of Urban Planning and Social Anthropology, we still have not come across works that mention how the development of cultural and artistic activities can lead to the contestation of spaces, especially in countries perceived as ‘subaltern.' We argue here that certain self-organized and bottom-up cultural spaces in the southern global cities can often consist in insubordinations to the established order. These spaces can be both ‘contested' and ‘contesting' territories of culture, filled with objective and subjective disputes, while also acting as pioneers of alternative activities operating outside the formal industry and economic system.
Since 2004, we have investigated several cases of bottom-up and self-built cultural spaces in peripheral areas of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). From museums and urban parks in favelas to improvised cinemas and hip-hop cultural centers under flyovers, these spaces always bear the mark of complexity and potentiality.
The main goal of this paper is to build on the concept of subaltern, yet insubordinate territories of culture in Latin America, more specifically in Brazil. We see them as key tools in the fight for cultural access in unequal realities, but not as miracle solutions to the unevenness of these realities. We argue that bottom-up cultural spaces have long been approached as a homogenous phenomenon through a romanticized view, which can ignore their complexity. We understand them as complex territories with conflicting relationships.
We will begin our presentation by discussing how territories are symbolic defined, seen as the product of everyday lives and as results of collective action and cultural identities. We then highlight the importance of the concept of territories for Latin American studies, in a so-called ‘subaltern' reality, highlighting its importance for the local social and resistance movements. We will address how today's Latin American territories are filled with fluidity, undergoing constant processes of “multiterritorialization and reterritorialization,” leading to their contested facets. We will also discuss how the concept of cultural territories can be a foundation for the elaboration of more efficient public policies and for the achievement of a more sustainable development.
Moreover, we will present two case studies resulting from our empirical research in the peripheries of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second largest metropolis. They are both connected to broader mobility projects, which were carried on in the context of the sports mega events of the 2010s. The first is the Realengo Flyover Cultural Space, a temporary and improvised hip-hop cultural center located under a flyover. The second is the Cine Taquara, a leftover space adjacent to a bus-rapid-transit (BRT) station, now occupied by an artistic collective who screens Brazilian films and organizes public debate sessions around social issues, such as racism, feminism, LGBTQ rights, domestic violence, and so on. Both examples work towards changing the realities of their communities and are currently struggle to assure their continuity.
