There Goes The Neighbourhood:

2016: Archive Project, Mori Gallery, 2007.

What exactly is the mode of existence of social relationships? ...The study of space offers an answer according to which the social relations of production have a social existence to the extent that they have a spatial existence; they project themselves into a space, becoming inscribed there, and in the process producing that space itself – Henri Lefebvre.

There Goes the Neighbourhood is the ironic chorus to the 1992 Body Count song which lamented the invasion of the once poor (and Black) into the neighbourhood of the rich (and white). But an alternative destruction of “The Neighbourhood” can happen when the poor get pushed out of their local community as part of the process of gentrification. This issue is particularly relevant for the suburb of Redfern, an inner city suburb of Sydney which has been home for a large working class and Indigenous community, and which is undergoing a process of rapid development and change.

There Goes the Neighborhood (TGTN) is an exhibition, residency, discussion and publishing project for April 2009. The central element of this project will be an exploration of the politics of urban space, specifically how the phenomenon of gentrification is altering the relationship between democracy and demography around the world. While urban change itself is not always a bad thing, gentrification happens at an accelerated rate, out pricing the lower income and marginalized communities from the neighbourhood and dislocating them from their existing connections to urban space.

Groups of lower socio-economic people such as artists, students, migrants and working class communities seek out cheaper areas to live along the way building communities and raising the cultural capital of these areas. Ironically these groups are often the first to be moved on when real estate speculators and governments see the value they have added to these areas and seek to enhance and develop them for more middle class residents and established cultural institutions. Of course in some places in the world there is an opposite process of de-development and de-urbanisation occurring, but this emptying out of space is usually associated with a deeper acceleration of wealth and urban growth in neighbouring more powerful centers of capital.

As Henri Lefebvre reminds us “the social relations of production have a social existence to the extent that they have a spatial existence; they project themselves into a space, becoming inscribed there, and in the process producing that space itself”. The tussle over gentrification/or de-gentrification is always one over the social relationships which are generated within the logic of space.

The project will bring together a smallish group of artists (around 8) who have worked in various artistic projects which have explored the politics of space and invite them to develop these issues further in the local environment of Redfern.

Two key existing projects which would help establish the framework for the exhibition would be SquatSpace’s exploration of Redfern through the Tour of Beauty and the 2016: Archive Project a 10 year archive of community attitudes to change in Redfern. These projects indicate a long term commitment to the local area and will help provide depth of understanding of local issues for the exhibition. But we are also inviting artists who have explored radically different studies or urbanism in places as diverse as Hong Kong, Russia and America. The idea is not to glorify the local, but situate it within a broader context of issues such as democracy, urban change, development and people’s control of their everyday lives.

Project initated by Keg de Souza and Zanny Begg: For more information: www.theregoestheneighbourhood.org.