One of the granted projects in our 2019 grant call ‘Democracy Needs Imagination’ was ‘Il Nuovo Vangelo’, by the International Institute of Political Murder [IIPM]. The New Gospel entailed an interdisciplinary project [campaigns, public events, performances, and a film] to talk about global human injustices, but rolled out in Matera, one of the two 2019 European Capitals of Culture.
The film ‘The New Gospel’ premiered at the Venice International Film Festival 2020. We had a mail interview with Elisa Calosi, production manager, and Giacomo Bisordi, dramaturg.
NOOR Images - Green Shoots
The European Green Deal is Europe’s roadmap for making EU’s economy sustainable. By 2050, the EU wants to be climate neutral. For this to happen, societies have to believe in the power of green initiatives. Our Culture of Solidarity grantee NOOR images aims to create iconic work documenting the recovery of Europe from one of the biggest economic crisis of our times.
Read MoreThe Supermarket Museum
We interviewed Weronika Koralewska and Joanna Doyu of our Culture for Solidarity grantee Agro Perma Lab on their project ‘The Supermarket Museum. Living together within limits’. Agro-Perma-Lab is an educational initiative working in the fields of agroecology, permaculture, deep ecology and food sovereignty in Poland. It is part of the global food sovereignty movement.
Read MoreIsolation versus solidarity
By bringing together artists, creators, and heritage experts in inclusive activities the foundation wants to help in making the city of Gjirokastra accessible. The project offers a rediscovery of traditional themes as inspiration and drive for young artists in the multicultural context of European identity.
Read MoreTools for a science fiction of the present
Studio Rizoma's first public action is Pandemos, a one-day exhibition-performance which will take place online on October 27. The exhibition has been conceived as an artistic initiative entirely usable online, and all the works have been produced imagining a situation of lockdown and closure of public spaces.
Read MoreStories from the balcony
The project ‘Stories from the balcony, Stories from the Balkans’ by ATAK (Alternative Theatre Active Company) plans to organize, through a public call, a competition for unemployed, independent and all interested writers, primary playwrights from the Balkans, in the form of a short play. We interviewed Vasko Raicevic from ATAK to have an in-depth look at their project ‘Stories from the balcony, Stories from the Balkans’ and what topics these plays will touch on.
Read MoreThink with Mushrooms
We interviewed our Culture of Solidarity grantee Csilla Hódi on her project Fair-y Circles and how it will provide practical knowledge of working with mushrooms (local food production, habitat restoration, eco-architecture) and mentoring for community and network development.
Read MoreA silent walk for solidarity
“I do this trajectory almost daily, but now the uncanniness of the situation - this stranger that I just ‘met’, made me hyper-attentive of the public realm and the bizarre moment we’re all in. What struck me is the consciousness of my personal character, my social identity that is evoked by the other’s presence,” recalled a participant of silent walk in Brussels.
After the walk, a scripted conversation takes place and the participants are invited to record or write down their experiences. The feedbacks are then added to the project’s online Archive Of Solidarity, where fragments of these digitalized ‘analogue encounters’ are shown throughout the scope of the project. This is an existing, yet prototyped tool, that will be further developed the coming months.
The European Parliament of Urban Rights
“We have always been inspired by the idea of a network based on cities or towns rather than nations, connecting different territories with the same concerns as opposed to constructing relationships built only on the basis of the nation state,” say Aurora Adalid Núñez and Luis Galán of ZuloArk’s project ‘Universal Declaration of Urban Rights’.
Their European Parliament of Urban Rights takes the form of an online platform and a series of virtual encounters to compile, exchange, and learn from local innovations from throughout Europe.
On questions of mobility, matters of belonging and our perception of public space
“….the perception of the public space can be altered very rapidly, and the dynamics of mobility and accessibility in public spaces can be all of a sudden questioned at political, economical and environmental levels. Those are the layers we would like to touch upon while walking and listening during the festivals to come,” says Jacek Smolicki of Walking Festival of Sound.
Read MoreLocal community networks: an example of European public space
“It is in the process of mutual recognition, a growing sense of belonging, and in mutual support that we believe the European public space is really built,” says Almudena Caso of Thriving Regardless.
Read MoreArt Workers Italia: European acknowledgment of the value of cognitive work
Art Workers Italia is an autonomous non-partisan group of contemporary art workers focused on cognitive work rights in the field of contemporary art, in Italy and Europe. We met members of AWI to tell us more about ‘Hyper Unionisation’.
Read More