At Beyond the Obvious 2019, Culture Action Europe hosted a ‘Culture Crops Agora’, giving arts and cultural practitioners working in non-urban territories an opportunity to share their experiences. An open space for discussion and dialogue, the Agora hosted over 25 unique projects from non-urban territories, rural areas and peripheries. Check out a few of the highlights below!
Working to engage new audiences with art in northern Germany, the Ortsgespräch project is a participatory initiative led by eck_ick. Through their socially-engaged art exhibition at Städtische Galerie Nordhorn, museum visitors from the local community have been empowered to were able to engage with culture in new ways, by voting on projects and public art. Similarly, eck_ick has pioneered several different high-level, community-made exhibitions across Germany in recent years.
The Portugese project Creatour focuses on creative tourism destination development in small cities and rural areas. Through their human-scaled, interactive tourism activities building on both local traditions and knowledge and emerging artistic practices, Creatour contributes to sustainable development in rural communities. Creatour is also part of a national, three-year pilot project that aims to up-scale across Portugal in coming years.
Hinterlands is a new German publication documenting European rural narratives and realties through bridging local journalism and a transnational platform. Combining articles, photos essays and prose, this print-only magazine will be first published in 2020, creating a network for rural journalists and original-language, international publishing. Through this, Hinterlands will reduce local and global geographic discrimination through the proposition of fluid boundaries and transitions between urban and rural.
Fantasy festival Sibyllarium was launched following the earthquakes that rocked central Italy in 2016, which consequently resulted in a decline in tourism. A creative and mythological experience, Sibyllarium has boosted local cultural production and increased the number of visitors to the region. Moreover, the festival furthers local traditions through the use of central Italian folklore, and welcomed over 5,000 visitors this year.
Fold & Rise is an intimate, multi-disciplinary workshop that combines performative action, discussion, and audience participation to explore the contribution of women in culture and politics over the last 100 years. Through the metaphor of the ‘fold’ as the progression of time, as well as bread making for the symbolic labor of women, participants are invited to an experience that evokes both the senses and discussion. With people as its medium, Fold & Rise these extends conversations beyond the workshop space, changing and challenging dominant perspectives.
Thank you to all our Culture Crops Agora participants!
Photos courtesy of Chris Danneffel.
