Arrested development: Taking to the streets against Redfern’s rebirth

Focusing on the global phenomenon of gentrification with a local focus of Redfern, There Goes The Neighbourhood is an exhibition, film festival, workshops and publication about the ‘politics of urban space’. Creator Zanny Begg hopes this is one art festival that will engage the public in the debate.

“Keg De Souza (co-creator) and I lived in Redfern for years and we loved the place, and were disturbed by the rapid gentrifying and the targeted government response to change the area. Redfern is a very special place, it’s not just a place for poor people but it is also very clearly an Aboriginal place of significance,” said Begg.

“We realised during another collaborative effort that there were other artists doing work on Redfern and we decided to organise an exhibition that would bring together those projects.

“We also invited six artists from overseas all to look at these issues from around the world. This sort of rapid gentrification of dilapidated underdeveloped inner city areas is not unique to Redfern.”

One of the main venues for the exhibition is an art-space that was built as part of the gentrification process in Redfern, an irony not lost on Begg.

“We are trying to involve the community and hopefully this venue will bring people in who perhaps wouldn’t normally come into that space in to come and look at their suburb and what’s happening to it,” she said.

Not content with using just walls and canvas to communicate, Begg says the interactive elements of the exhibition are its true strength.

“This exhibition is not just taking place in the gallery but spread out through the community. ‘The Tour of Beauty’ is an exhibit taking groups of artists and interested people through the community to various sites being contested where they meet a local community member who talks about these ‘hotspots’. It goes for about four hours and there is a very thorough description-interrogation-discussion where the crowd can get involved in a dialogue about the changes taking place in Redfern.

Begg says that change is not necessarily the problem: “We’re not saying that areas can’t change. They can and they do all the time, and that’s natural. It’s not ok when you find that suddenly certain socioeconomic demographics can no longer afford to live in that area that they use to live in they’re getting pushed out and that’s what we object to.”

Source:  www.altmedia.net.au/arrested-development-taking-to-the-streets-against-redfern’s-rebirth/6299