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Narratives

Articles, news, interviews, conversations, podcasts, critics… Exchanges on topics related to public space between artists, the civil society and cultural operators. Keeping the dialogue with European cultural policy makers and the cultural and creative sector in general, this section explores how art can have an impact on society, and vice versa.

IN SITU Podcast — Episode 6 — S2

Cultural identity

Cultural Identity

How to be united in our diversity?

Forged in hardship: How artists survived and resisted in the segregated Kosovo of the ‘90s

Cultural identity

A conversation with Florent Mehmeti by Lura Limani

Theater director Florent Mehmeti recounts the fledgling underground arts scene in Prishtina and how it spurred his interest in public space.

IN SITU Podcast — Pristina Special Episode

Cultural identity

An introduction to Kosovo cultural landscape

IN SITU Podcast — Episode 5 — S1

Cultural identity

Cultural identity

From identity to inclusivity

Find out all IN SITU Podcasts here!

Regeneration of places

Conversations on art and public space from the voices that do it

Artistic Acupunctures: a dialogue with the civil society

Cultural identity

Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio

What is happening when you let nine artists explore nine European places, asking them to respond to social, cultural and urban local issues?In this podcast Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio, author of the "Acupuncture series", gives insights on the concept of this experimental artistic research project.

Acupuncture #7: The con(temporary) monument: questioning meanings, forms and symbolic expressions

Cultural identity

Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio

In 2019, the artist duo zweintopf formed by Eva and Gerhard Pichler were invited to do an Artistic Acupuncture in Prague (CZ). For this mission the artists decided to work on the specific subject of the monument, the sculptures, and their meanings - in collaboration with 4+4 Days in Motion.

Acupuncture #6: "The last drive and the first dance | The shifting identity of Genk"

Cultural identity

Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio

In 2019, Francesca Grilli was invited to do an "Artistic Acupuncture" in Genk (Belgium). She found creative potential in the city's background by connecting different times, eras and generations. In close collaboration with Provinciaal domein Dommelhof.

Acupuncture #3: "A space to call their own | The voices of the community in the post-industrial district of Csepel, Budapest"

Cultural identity

Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio

Artistic Acupuncture 3#: In 2019, Nada Gambier and Mark Etchells explored the post-industrial district of Csepel, Budapest (Hungary). Within this artistic research, both artists focused on concepts of cultural identity and urban renewal, in close collaboration with Artopolis Association / PLACCC Festival.

Bottom-up vs Upside down

Cultural identity

Mathieu Braunstein

How do artists adapt to the contemporary world? How do they react to more limited resources and increasingly stringent policies? What new forms of collaboration are they coming up with? From Exeter to Budapest, Amsterdam to Bordeaux and Marseille, creative ecosystems, funding, and cultural references have changed.Join us on a quick tour of Europe. 

Follow me young man

Regeneration of places

Mathieu Braunstein

4 + 4 dny v pohybu or 4 + 4 Days in Motion. For the past twenty three years, this festival has been combining the performing and visual arts in unusual places across the Czech capital. The themes it covers make for a truly unique event…

The Babel tricks

Cultural identity

Mathieu Braunstein

Invited to the La Strada festival in Graz, choreographer Chris Haring recently presented an adaptation of his play, “Foreign Tongues” in a church. Don’t the juggling feats of acrobats also have their own way of evoking religious imagery? From the roots of dance and balancing acts, we’re on our way to the museum.

WHISPER OF THE DANCE

Cultural identity

Fanni NÁNAY | PLACCC Festival

We count it as progress if we survive in the first place,’ replied Emilie Petit, art director and founder of the Alexandrian Nassim el-Raqs public dance festival, when I asked how the event has developed over the past seven years and what direction it would take in the future.

Brendan Walker's feedback on Pristina's ATELIERS 2017

Cultural identity

Brendan Walker

Sat in Pristina International Airport waiting for my flight to Vienna, and on to London, I’m wondering what this week has been all about: why do I feel so damned tired, and why do I have a photograph of a boy-mannequin, wearing a crocheted waistcoat, posed in front of a badger pelt on my phone?

Extraordinary Travels

Social justice

Mathieu Braunstein

In Hull, recently voted the “least romantic city in England”, Freedom Festival celebrated the 210th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. It strikes an appropriate political tone, in the wake of recent racist incidents and discourse in Charlottesville, Virginia. Thought-provoking debates and shows combined with lighter entertainment, which were also steeped in the city’s history.

From both sides

Cultural identity

Maddy Costa, journalist

Jay Wahl is the former artistic director of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Vladimir Us  is a curator with the Oberliht Group in Moldova. Both organisations are members of the IN SITU platform. They examine the concept of popular art and compare their approaches to working in public space.

KLAXON #6 : For an Inclusive City

Social justice

CIFAS

A periscopic perspective

Regeneration of places

Antoine Pickels

This article makes no pretence of being an exhaustive account of everything that happened during the Neerpelt Hot House, but offers a specific and partial perspective from a curator and artist who has recently become a network partner. It offers a periscopic perspective, much like that of a submarine – enough to identify what is on the surface, and maybe even to target what is under the surface.It breaks down into three parts: examination, diagnosis and cure. First I will endeavour to identify what struck me in the artists’ personalities and in their projects, then what bringing together these personalities and projects can tell us about the context and the broader situation in society, and finally what could, perhaps, be refined in the Hot House approach.

Column #2 : The Balkan Route

Cultural identity
Mathieu Braunstein travelled in the Balkans during the 1990's and is the author of the book: François Mitterrand à Sarajevo, le rendez-vous manqué, éd. L'Harmattan, 2001

Artists And The Foreign Presence In Europe: Productions That Buck The Trend

Social justice

Jean-Sébastien Steil

"Arab revolutions" on one side, xenophobic withdrawal of European countries on the other, and moving from one to the other, immigrants holding on to glistening hope. On the European stage, artists are seeking to present and help us to identify with the ambivalent experiences of migration and exile.