Gentricity

Gentricity presents a series of photographs focusing on urban change in a context of intense post-industrial regeneration. In recent years, cities have become sites of massive redevelopment where the synergies of culture and capital play an important role. The continued deindustrialization of cities, the rise of the service sector, the changes in labour and economic processes, and the gentrification of large urban regions are now receiving attention in cities all over the world, particularly in relation to the roles of culture and of the “creative class” in the urban process in general. Are these strategies improving living conditions in the cities, or, on the contrary, do they increase existing social inequalities? What is the current state of the “creative city” and how does it relate to trends like gentrification? This project focuses on areas in South-East London that are paradigmatic of these changes.

Lorena Sanchez Pereira is an independent visual artist and cultural producer based in London. Her photographic work focuses on the politics of urban change in the context of intense neoliberal regeneration.