The best we can. Re-establishing priorities for arts professionals in times of crisis

Arts professionals think that their work is important for society. Nevertheless, when it comes to defining or formulating this value in concrete terms, most of them fail to do so. Far from being able to establish the relevance of what they do for the people they aim to serve, they often seem to be totally unaware of what is going on around them and little informed on contemporary issues that affect their communities. Cuts in budgets for Culture, shrinking teams and an absurd demand for “doing more with less” have further intensified the disconnect between cultural organisations and society. The uncritical execution of repetitive tasks, therefore, has become a comfortable norm, where there seems to be little place for critical thinking, imagination, creativity and, ultimately, happiness. Can there be a way out from this swamp?

Podcast form Lublin Forum // Alexandros Mistriotis: Resisting Help

If you missed the RESHAPE Forum in Lublin at the beginning of April 2019, here's a chance to hear what we talked about.

Fatin Farhat on cultural sector in the MENA region

Fatin Farhat, a Palestinian based cultural worker from Ramallah talks about art sector in Palestine and MENA region, as well as about RAWA, a bottom up funding initiative. Fatin is currently enrolled in the Cultural Policy program at Hildesheim University as a Ph.D., examining the potential of inviting new practices to grassroots cultural initiatives, while highlighting the potential role local governments can play in fostering community/citizen participation and cultural development in Palestine.

Value of Art in Social Fabric: Wide Field and Complex Questions

Role of art in society considers complex relations between artists, public, media, founders and institutions. It is determined by different social and political contexts, but also by individual artistic practices. The group has opened different theoretical questions in order to establish a framework which would impact their artistic and living environment. The main keywords were: equality, solidarity and sustainability in-between mentioned instances: artists, founders and institutions, and people.

How to encourage understanding of and promote the value of art in social fabric?

The fourth Reshape workshop will take place in Prague from 18 to 20 September 2019 and it will deal with the question of the value of art in the social fabric.

The Center of the Periphery (Zagreb / Žitnjak, Croatia) ...and its values within the art world as a part of social fabric

Žitnjak (Serbo-Croatian) ― a place to grow wheat, a meadow, a field

Jana Svobodová: On Theatre in Social Context

Jana Svobodová, a theatre director from Prague, talks about theatre in social context and involving ordinary people into the teatrical processes and .

The purpose of art and its value in the social fabric

When I hear this topic, my first reaction is to resist: do we have to give a value to art, and so justify its necessity ? While it should have as only goal to just exist, in its own imperfection.

Do it Together. Practices and Tendencies of Participatory Governance in Culture in the Republic of Croatia

Participation does not imply only joining in the game but also the rules of the game, i.e., the conditions under which the game is played. Understanding these rules and the possibility of creating them make the key difference. Participation in this case becomes a tool for positive changes

What kind of art should we develop so it could match social needs?

We are asked how the ‘value of art’ could be promoted in the ‘social fabric’? But, based on the practices we are developing in the Minipogon, we would feel more comfortable reversing this question in the following way: What kind of art practices should be developed so they could match real social needs, while making art finally purposeful for the society as a whole?

A conversation about Reshape at La Lleialtat Santsenca guided by La Fundició and Radio Cava-Ret

Listen to the radio talk about the Reshape project that was made in Barcelona during the Art and Citizenship workshop. The radio talk took place at Lleialtat Santsenca and was guided by La Fundició and Radio Cava-Ret.

Pascal Gielen: On Commonism

Pascal Gielen, a sociologist of culture based in Belgium, leading the Antwerp Research Institute for Arts at the Antwerpen University, talking about the concept of commonism and its powerful role in society, arts and culture.

Artists are citizens: active, creative and responsible

To be an artist without a political responsibility is also a statement. The artists gathered in the group emphasize their citizenship; social and political dimension of their individual, as well as collective work. The main focus of this group is to find that space of creativity, where they could use the imagination in the most expandable manner, but also keep active. Due to the recent COVID 19 crisis, the artists stress the importance of their activist work, but also of collaboration/empathy as one of the most powerful tools of art in general.

In Digestion

Rébecca Chaillon is a performance artist, author, and director. Her article is a deeply personal account on the processes of racialisation and an artist’s pursuit to unpack, interrogate and confront them in the context of her art. In this powerful plea for artistic and personal emancipation, Chaillon deconstructs assumptions, mixes and overlaps identities, shares questions and personal victories intertwined with society’s reluctant transformations.

Lockdown Theatre (2): Beyond the Time of the Right Care: A Letter to the Performance Artist

Under the title ‘Lockdown Theater’ Schauspielhaus Zürich gathered theoretical thought experiments on theatre and performance during the Covid-19 pandemic. ‘How do a virus, a pandemic disease, and theatre affect each other? The texts do not address the crisis head-on, but touch it tangentially, without submitting to the information and opinion regime that it entails.’

Coffee

A poem by Muanis Sinanović. Translated from Slovenian by Lukas Debeljak.

Opening of the RESHAPE Conference and Lecture by Alenka Zupančič: The End of Fantasy Versus the Fantasy of the End

Opening speach by Tamara Bračič Vidmar and Milica Ilić at the RESHAPE Conference in Ljubljana and a lecture by Alenka Zupančič, moderated by Marijana Rimanić.

Workshop 1: Art and citizenship

Introduction into RESHAPE: Imagining alternatives

Joris Janssens (Flanders Arts Institute) and Milica Ilić (Onda) introduce the what, the why and the how of the project.

Workshop 2: Art and citizenship

Workshop in Potsdam: How can we model economic & funding systems towards more solidarity?

The second workshop in trajectory Solidarity funding.

Value of art in social fabric: Remote Lisbon Workshop

The remote work within the RESHAPE group continues, this time in remote Lisbon. The group Value of Art in Social Fabric will work from 26 to 29 May on shaping their prototypes that will offer new approaches to this topic. They will work collectively on identifying their narrative on “reshaping the value of art in the social fabric”, in order to propose concrete, sustainable and realistic solutions for the art sector.