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Giving centrality to the culture of the peripheries
Professor Iscte Social Sciences and Humanities
Researcher and Coordinator of Cities and Territories Dinâmia'CET-Iscte
Organisations from ten countries, led by Portugal through Artemrede and with the participation of
Dinâmia'CET-Iscte, seek to strengthen the capacity of cultural agents in southern Europe with participatory approaches.
What are the objectives of this project, which is based on a coalition of countries from the South?
The coalition proposes to put the specificities of the south and periphery with the centre of Europe on the agenda in the cultural field. This project is supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, which combines the research dimension with the most creative intervention: we associate artistic creation with science and the research component, but the core is artistic creation.
This "Southern Coalition" brings together Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, and Romania, countries of southern Europe and the Balkans. There are 15 partners (eleven creative partners and four universities). Some are cultural networks or networks of municipalities. We have an artistic residency centre in Italy, a festival, six creative structures, and three networks. These projects are very demanding in terms of project meetings and project management.
How is this artistic creation worked?
The project has three strands of action. One is artistic creation, in the aspect of collaborative strategies between partners that result in new creations. How can we collaborate between creative partners and these communities? How are we going to involve them in artistic creation?
The second pillar is empowering people, that is, working with cultural agents, universities, and people in several countries. The idea is to carry out a set of activities, such as workshops – here at Iscte, we are developing two toolkits. It is about giving tools for those on the ground to reflect and act in cultural and artistic terms, in the organisation of the cultural institutions themselves, in the relationship of the public, and in getting to know the public. The third strand will try to influence European policies, and to this end, two major conferences are being held. The first has already taken place here at Iscte, and the second will be in Serbia at the end of the project. A book is also planned. There is also the purpose of trying to advocate for changes in policies in the various activities, whether at the national level or the level of the European Union, in favour of making these peripheries the centre.
When we talk about peripheries, is it in the literal sense?
When discussing peripheries, we talk about the south to the north of Europe. Still, we are also discussing the global South concerning the global North, including the asymmetries within the countries themselves. Most of these institutions are not in the capital's centre; even in this case, they work with peripheral communities. A good example is the project's leader, Artemrede, an association of municipalities that goes from Pombal to Palmela to Abrantes and works a lot on the outskirts of cities or with less central communities.
Within the project's scope, two toolkits are being prepared at Iscte. What is it all about?
One of them is a tool for monitoring audiences for getting to know audiences. It is based on a "matrix" on a computer platform, which can be used in eight languages, where we accumulate the data contributing to getting to know the public. This is a joint construction work: the matrix is being tested and refined with issues relating to various countries. The other toolkit has to do with the question of the quality of participation. These are projects anchored in the idea of community participation at various levels. We have hosting communities that welcome artists in their creative processes, and they work in two different countries; in some cases, they also work in a third one, the so-called artistic residency centre in Italy. They work with the community, develop, and present in their community and other countries. That is one way, but there can be participatory processes at other levels. We are also doing another toolkit on how to understand quality in participation, how to foster it, and how to evaluate it, and we hope to present this toolbox in Lisbon in a workshop now in May, which will be available after the project.
What are the key ideas that guide the development of this project?
The artistic production is organised into twelve tandems of creation, one partner from one country and another from another. In this combination of two partners, a call is made for artists to be chosen; the artist will work in both communities/two countries and then premiere the creation in the two communities in different countries. These tandems are organised into six major themes that question artistic practice in southern Europe. The themes are work and happiness, having a voice, connecting dots, bridging the gap, daily bread, and right to the future – issues that, in essence, are the challenges posed to artists and communities. And the universities – we, Iscte, Barcelona, Montpellier, Belgrade – have the mission of helping artists in this reflection. We try together to discuss the project's themes to influence policies. We recently had the conference held by Iscte and Artemrede in Portugal, "Having a Voice: Peripheries and Participation at the Heart of Cultural Policies". Another dimension to research is only on our side: monitoring the project and its impacts, which is done a lot in European projects. In addition to the two toolkits mentioned, we have another toolkit developed here at Dinâmia'CET to measure the impact of cultural activities so that people can evaluate their effects in 75 dimensions! It concerns economic issues, social and environmental impact, participation and citizenship, and cultural impact. It is a grid that allows you to evaluate impacts from a large festival to a small initiative.
The discussion of what is central and what is periphery has been vibrant. Cultural activity is legitimised by being marginal. Concerning the centre, the most creative alternative activity is the separate one.
The discussion of what is central and what is periphery has been very rich. Cultural activity legitimizes itself by being marginal in relation to the centres. The most creative alternative activity is the one that is not central.
How do universities contribute to something led by civil society?
The idea was for the four universities to be complementary. We, Iscte, have been working on culture concerning the territory, impacts, the idea of periphery, south, etc. The Dinâmia'CET team includes Ricardo Venâncio Lopes, Margarida Perestrelo and Elisabete Tomaz.
Then we have the University of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where they are, for example, more interested in artistic careers and articulation with UNESCO's major cultural policy issues. The University of Montpellier and the University of Barcelona have collaborated in cultural management, policies, and cultural participation with specific communities and general audiences.
Which arts and culture sectors do the project partners' initiatives cover?
Most of the partners are from the performing arts, very much on the border between different arts. The calls have been relatively open; many people have been in the performing arts, dance, circus arts, and visual arts. So, for example, very different people have been selected on the border between architecture-installation-performance. There is a lot of interdisciplinary work here, even in cultural terms. Not least because of a language barrier: for example, performing a play in Portuguese Greece is difficult. Not long ago, we had a tandem with a Greek artist who performed at Torres Vedras. It was a dance performance, but some words were translated.
What particularities were detected in the peripheral countries that led to the need to carry out this project?
This was discussed a lot, including at the "Having a Voice" conference, for example, in the face of the paradox of having a conference in English when none of the partners is English! We are using a language from the centre because, usually, artistic legitimation is done in England, Germany, France, and the big European countries. The idea is to discuss this condition of our peripherality and where the South is more imaginary than geographical.
The discussion of what is central and what is periphery has been very rich, not least because much of the cultural activity is legitimised by being marginal in relation to the centres, and the most creative alternative activity itself is that which is not central.
The starting point was to create a network that wanted to question the centre and consider what policies are essential to get there. It has also been discussed whether these people want to be the centre. From the moment you are in the centre, will you not have the vices that you complain about in the centre?
What is the output that is expected to exist?
In addition to the artistic creations, we have held technical training workshops on the relationship between the public and the artists. The idea is to have a set of shared logic, techniques, and routines in which people learn from each other. There are people to be trained in the various workshops. This project has three networks: Artemrede in Portugal, Transversal in Catalonia, and, in France, Occitane. They often have the same problems, so there is effective sharing of know-how between them.
For us, it also has a vital advocacy side: to put these spaces with different problems, such as the language barrier, the legitimacy of their schools, and issues in relation to the scale of the markets themselves, to take on these characteristics. The link to cultural and territorial development practices and policies is always very important.
What will last at the end of the project after the conference in Serbia in 2024?
The creations made have, in practice, two shows, but the idea is that they will then be available for sale and to circulate with other audiences. In the end, there will also be a report. Still, we have the idea of making a publication aimed at the public, cultural institutions, people in the sector, and policymakers, with a section for public policies on culture. It's not in the project, but the idea (in Portugal) is also to make, in the end, a kind of festival with the shows that were shown, to group them in one place, to provide further visibility to what was done.
