I’m talking about cultural industry in the sense of commodification and commercialization of culture. Everything is done for money (…) This culture is characterized by, for example, a public space that can be a factory of creation in which millions of euros have been invested, where there are small rooms that are rented to artists- to play music, or to create a dramatic work- and it costs money. What we’re saying, in terms of our political strategy, is that it’s great that this be created, but it would need to be free to use because we’ve already paid for it, it’s been made with our money. We want you to hire people to work and provide services to the people working in culture (…) Theatre in Cataluña is now commercial theatre. It’s pure entertainment. We’re against “entertainment” culture. The culture that exists and is everywhere must be a reflection on being human. Even the circus must have thought. The why, how, and for what is the most important thing in art, for that reason you have to think hard before creating something (…) The whole cultural industry is subsidized, like the car industry!, and therein lies the issue, either it’s a cultural industry or it’s subsidized (…) We’re against this subsidized culture of entertainment because it takes famous actors from these “distracting” television series, pays them a ton of money- between 10 and 30 thousand euros a month- to perform in a theater and then they release a show one month and it’s sold out. And the actors just say foolishness on the stage and that’s what I criticize. This is what most of culture is. And how do we change it?; well, through cultural policy- let people have a space and they begin to create (…) Cultural policy has to change, a political party or some people need to step up who are actually interested in culture (…) The problem is that there’s no vision in cultural policy, no ten- or fifteen-year programs, because things don’t get done in a day. To build something you need changes in education; to get a mandatory art program in schools, you would need a law. That means that all these artists would have work teaching in schools instead of dying of hunger. Because artists don’t only work in art, they do other work too. It takes a party that chooses people who want to change this, and it takes resources coming into the city.
by Semolina Tomic (Antic Teatre)
