Within the framework of the European network RESHAPE, 3 137 artist-run space, with the support and in collaboration with Onassis AiR, sets the ground for a dialogue on cultural management and policy in the contemporary art sector in Greece.
Together we imagined ourselves as Monsters, as entities going beyond the normativity, finding our own ways based on shared values, joy and dreams. Later it led us to understand collective work as mycelium, where the individual becomes many and vice versa while trying to listen to the intuition as a hypha.
During the session, we talked about knowledge and especially the sort of knowledge which is not necessarily coming from the institutions (universities, academies, ..). We were talking about how much we are able to learn from each other, from particular experiences, but also how much we tend to forget the need for knowledge that we receive besides the official, canonized streams of education.
For this occasion, I created a new reading pattern, called after the residency format, OutsideInInsideOut. Through 4 cards we are observing and exploring “what benefits/practices/thoughts we can take from this experience (of being in the residency) to design our own systems/constellations/relationships” - in other words how to abstract obtained experience/knowledge/emotion and transform them in our future processes.
The proposal for the reading session was to think about collaborations, and ask ourselves: what do they actually mean for us? The idea to approach this frame was to take a step back, to de-construct the role of facilitator and make the session a collectively shaped reading.
The results of the RESHAPE research are here – at the final conference, the RESHAPE community will come together and welcome artists, art workers, researchers and policy makers to discuss their ideas, test their proposals and join in on the conversation on the future evolution of the arts sector.
At the working sessions and open plenary debate on the struggles for the better conditions of work in the sphere of visual arts we presented our work done within the RESHAPE project and contributed to the understanding of the needs of artists.
On June the 10th Reshapers from different trajectories and backgrounds participated at the Political Forum, a manifestation which has been organized by one of the project’s partners, Artemrede (Portugal) since 2015. The debate and the presentation of the RESHAPE project has been held in the context of this year’s concerns of the Forum: five central challenges of the cities, in which culture can and should play a fundamental role - Territory, Democracy, Sustainability, Cooperation, and Development.
During the weekend of 11th - 13th June, Reshaper Petr Dlouhy and his colleagues from Prague based Studio Alta went out of the town and settled in a small camp in the countryside to have a plenary meeting whose main aim was to identify the collective vision of the institution’s future.After sunset, Petr gathered the core team of Studio Alta counting 10 culture workers for a tarot session by the fire. He provided the team with a special reading which was focused on embracing the potential of collective imagination to deal with the current issue(s).
An online conference organized by ACT Association (Bulgaria) took place on the 10th of June in Sofia. The multilingual event presented for the first time in detail the RESHAPE project to general Bulgarian audiences.
On June 8th, the leading partner of RESHAPE, ONDA, in collaboration with the Biennale de la danse de Lyon, Institut français and CCN de Rillieux-la-Pape organized two workshops. In the workshops, two prototypes have been represented - the Gamified Workshop Toolkit and the Tarot Reading Session.
On June the 2nd members of the Reshape community represented their work and results in the frame of conference that gathered a broader audience of the European performing arts practitioners and experts. Twice a year, TEH organizes meetings and conferences to exchange knowledge, to start conversations and to connect with other cultural changemakers. These events serve as a hotbed of new ideas and collaborations, reflect diversity of the network and explore topics that matter to cultural workers all around Europe.
The dissemination of prototypes has continued to the partners’ countries. In the last few days, the representatives and Reshapers visited Ljubljana, where they talked about the project and organized a group tarot reading session. Around 30 people participated in the program on May 31st, and on the following day facilitators organized another, individual tarot reading.
The testing of another prototype, developed in the frame of Transnational/Postnational Artistic Practices Trajectory took place on May the 21 at the RIDA - International Programming Meeting of the RESHAPE lead partner, ONDA.
Flanders Arts Institute, Ettijahat - Independent Culture and Pogon - Zagrebački centar za nezavisnu kulturu i mlade organized an online session of testing ‘The Gamified Workshop Toolkit: Values of Solidarity’ prototype. The prototype was developed by Anikó Rácz, Doreen Toutikian, and Dorota Ogrodzka, within the frame of the Solidarity Economies trajectory group. It was especially designed for teams that are just beginning their collaboration, primarily in the field of arts and culture, but also in other relevant sectors.
'The Gamified Workshop Toolkit' is an online workshop about solidarity in collaboration developed in the framework of the RESHAPE project. During this workshop, we will test ‘The Gamified Workshop Toolkit’, which is a card game that is especially designed for teams from different cultures, backgrounds, or personal situations, who are just beginning their collaboration.
Finally together on-site!The Reshape team has been working hard during the months of pandemic - and the results are here! Tangible, intangible, in the form of ideas and concepts, but also games, cards and publication.
It is with shock and great sadness that we announce the sudden death of Nevenka Koprivšek, director of Bunker Ljubljana, a partner in the RESHAPE project. With her passing, Slovenian, Balkan and European performing arts lost a wonderful person, author, teacher, advocate and friend... A sharp thinker, full of dedication, love and empathy for the arts and artists, Nevenka's input has inspired and shaped RESHAPE and a tremendous amount of other collaborations. We will miss her greatly! In these sad moments, we express our condolences to Nevenka's family and close ones.
The last week of April was supposed to be the time for a meeting of the trajectory Transnational/Postnational Artistic Practices in Marseille, but the lockdown that is in power in many countries due to the Corona virus outbreak conditioned us to deeply reshape our project that is largely based on travelling and physical meetings.
Unfortunately, we are canceling the public programme of the Reshape Intensive Zagreb that includes lectures by Renata Salecl, Vincent Liegey, Juliette Hennequin and Pascal Gielen, as well as announced walks and talks. The programme of the Intensive was primarily aimed to the participants of the Reshape project that are coming from various countries across the EuroMed region. Due to the current situation of the spreading of Corona virus across Europ, travelling and larger meetings represent an additional threat of the spreading of the virus. Although we wish not to contribute to the panic presented in some media, we are convinced that we should take the responsibility for the prevention of the further spreading of the infection. We apologise to all of those who planned to attend the Reshape Intensive Zagreb programme and announce that the lectures will be held as a part of other Reshape activities. The working part of the Intensive will be held online.
Under Power. Care. Municipalism. Creativity. Feminisation. Conviviality. Commoning. Activism. Ethics. Solidarity. Empathy. Internationalism. Citizenship. Generosity. Decolonisation. Collaboration. Storytelling. Agency. Systemic Change. Hope. Non-violence. Learning. Humour. Sociality. Invention. Listening. Diversity. Humility. Resistance. Horizontality. Poetry. Cooperation. Discovery. Artivism. Migration. Rebellion. Vulnerability. Courage. Justice. Sharing. Struggle. Civil Imagination. Lived Experience. Joy...
The first workshop in the Fair governance models trajectory will take place in Tangier, Morocco, 4-6 September 2019, and it will be organised and hosted by Goethe-Institut Barcelona in collaboration with Tabadoul and Atelier Kissaria.
A university created and run by refugees > Social enterprises forged through vulnerable street children creating a circus > Historic injustices and everyday niggles aired and shared through joining a complaints choir > An energy cooperative developed from street parties > A nation-wide exchange economy fuelled through independent music festivals > Urban transport nightmares tackled through graffiti vigilantism > An inclusive cross-generational school fashioned collaboratively inside a recently re-opened nuclear exclusion zone ...
The notion of transnationality/postnationality offers a tempting perspective. It inspires to change the mindset for a while; to get rid of currently dominating patterns of thinking and operating, that most often represent the dominant structure of national states. However promising it may sound, to most of art workers it would be a misleading fantasy: for the actual political map does influence our professional and private lives on the every day basis, shaping our ways of thinking and enabling or interrupting relations.
