Public policy and colonial project: the Usina of Gasômetro Cultural Center

Abstract

This paper intends to discuss the closure of the Usina do Gasometro Cultural Center, the displacement of performing arts groups from the Usina das Artes municipal project and their relocation to an unauthorized space in the city's artistic circuit. Relating this event, as well as some others recently occurred in the cultural life of the city with the writings of Elisa Belém and André Augustin, we can infer that the changes in cultural public policies are linked to a project of devaluation of forms of intellectual, artistic and cultural activity. recurrent in developing countries. This process of subordination is linked to a broader neoliberal economic plan to maintain the colonialist project of domination, seeking a monopoly on the distribution of public funds by the private sector.