Transforming Narratives: Reaction, Context and the Emerging (IM)-Possibilities of Social Discourse on Art in Cluj-Napoca

Abstract The aim of this article is to comprehend the register of existence and the developing of social art practices and discourses in Cluj-Napoca, citing the example of the contemporary art space The Paintbrush Factory, established in 2009. Analysing the operation mode/modus operandi of artists, curators, and cultural agents of Cluj-Napoca, I study the creative pattern based on reaction as a response to the undergoing changes within the socio-political environment of the city as well as those on a global scale. The wider expansion of the urban regeneration theory, that attributes an economic growth factor to culture (based on the existence of creative industries), persuades the local authorities to create a new narrative of a Cluj-Napoca based on the image of a creative city. The Paintbrush Factory is precisely the success story – with a grassroots background, and international standing – that Cluj-Napoca Town Hall needed to legitimise its new development project that sought to put the city on Europe’s map. This ambition of the authorities is reflected in the application for the title of European Cultural Capital 2021. The story of the Paintbrush Factory mirrors this precise transformation of the city, which sees the industrial production being replaced by symbolic production. During this process factories are literally replaced by IT firms and adjacent services, while The Paintbrush Factory that had benefited from a long-term rental of a factory space is eventually displaced in this massive gentrification course of the city.