Raúl de Arriba Bueno

Images of reciprocity

"The absence of the motive of gain; the absence of the principle of laboring for remuneration; the absence of the principle of least effort; and, especially, the absence of any separate and distinct institution based on economic motives. But how, then, is order in production and distribution ensured? The answer is provided in the main by two principles of behavior not primarily associated with economics: reciprocity and redistribution" (K. Polanyi: The Great Transformation, 1944, p.49). The inhabitants of Villastrada (Italy) have been doing this for years.

The objective of the project is to document social relations of production of a collaborative nature that are based on the principle of reciprocity (in Polanyi’s terms). These phenomena are to be discerned from the new wave of mercantile colonization of any sphere of social, and even intimate life, typical of the so-called "collaborative economy". The result of this research will be concretized in a piece of video-art.