Cultures of Work (Les cultures del treball)

Abstract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Barcelona became a hub of working-class radicalism. In particular, workers and intellectuals in the Catalan capital were instrumental in the spread of anarchist and socialist praxis and thought to Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Lima, although, of course, their influence was felt beyond Latin America. Today, however, Barcelona is a city undergoing an acute process of gentrification. Working-class districts have been refashioned to house the new Catalan well to do. On the Ramblas, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT, or National Labor Confederation) militants who sell old syndicalist texts and Gabriel Jackson's histories of the Civil War seem particularly out of place, yet another curiosity for the tourists to gape at, like the kiosks that sell live animals and the street artists. For this reason alone, the exhibition “Les cultures del treball” (Cultures of Work) at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona was a timely reminder of the role work, and particularly manual work, has played in shaping recent history in Catalunya, Europe, and beyond. It served, moreover, to encourage reflection on how work continues to shape, and will shape in the future, the societies in which we live. “Cultures of Work” was exhibited from May 24 to September 17, 2000. It was shown simultaneously at Forbach, France, in the town's colliery, now in disuse. Curated by Josep Ramoneda, the exhibition drew on the expertise of a “scientific committee” that included Manuel Castells and Jacques Thevenot.