Where there was once an active sugar mill which closed down, leaving locals with no job or hope for many years, nowadays a private art museum and botanical garden has become the village’s centrepiece. Many villagers and the museum founders explained that the idea behind this phrase was that each person could now invest in their own business, making the local economy revolve around the tourism provided by the new museum Artesin. Artesin was established in the mid-2010s by the couple Marcelo and Laura and has ever since been impacting the everyday lives of its residents.

There is, however, a contradiction: while the museum founders aim for the villagers’ economic emancipation, the way the initiative is implemented through a development project with neoliberal elements maintains locals’ dependency on the founders. To comprehend this contradiction, this paper draws on the concept of debt within the context of gift-giving. The lens of gift-giving allows us to identify the creation of social bonds between founders and residents through indebtedness. As this paper argues, the museum founders’ generosity stems partially from a sense of responsibility from their ancestors – the sugar mill owners who left the village after the government confiscated the mill due to financial mismanagement. While the villagers appreciate the generosity of the museum founders, it often makes them feel indebted, creating a sense of imprisonment.

Onderwerpen: 2020-heden beeldende kunst-wereld geven aan culturele instellingen autonomie

Auteur: Andrea Friedmann Rozenbaum MSc