O mercado público da Boa Vista como espaço público: usos, resistências e ressignificações

Abstract

Located in the homonymous neighborhood, in the central area of Recife, the Mercado of Boa Vista has lost its role as a public market, in a traditional sense, and has become a space for leisure and cultural appropriation. Public markets are losing importance as supply centers for cities, with competition generated by shopping centers, supermarkets and hypermarkets. As a way of resisting this reality, these spaces have been appropriated by groups that transform them into the locus of cultural manifestations, as seen in the Mercado of Boa Vista, located in the central area of Recife, whose relationship with the dynamics of the homonymous neighborhood is very strong. The market is the oldest in Recife and before taking on such functionality it had other uses such as cemetery, stable and public jail. Currently, consisting of 31 boxes in operation and one third of them turned to the bar segment, the market has become an important leisure space on weekends and on dates in the Recife cultural calendar. The general objective of the research was to understand the metamorphoses of the use and appropriation of the Mercado da Boa Vista, with regard to the role of agents in the requalification and reframing of this public space. As a procedure, in addition to the survey and reading of the theoretical and conceptual basis, the uses were recognized in 1948 and 2018, identifying changes and permanence of uses. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with permission holders and representatives of CSURB, responsible for the management of public markets in Recife. The legal basis governing such urban facilities has been taken. Among the results, it was found that the Boa Vista Market is undergoing resignification, becoming less public market and more leisure space. However, it maintains characteristics of public space considering the accessibility, functioning and plurality of users. This space has an intimate relationship with the neighborhood in which it is located, being the locus par excellence of bohemia, the diversity of visitors and the expression of various cultural manifestations, having even led to the formation of the Association of Friends of the Market, which, in partnership with the government or on its own initiative, promotes events that contribute to the resignification of this space.