What does it mean to be many?

This is adapted from the welcome words by Natalie Giorgadze, Culture Action Europe General Director, for the opening moments of this year’s gathering, BEYOND 2025: Being Many, which took place in Turin, Italy, 4-7 June, 2025.

The title of this year’s Culture Action Europe gathering is both an invitation and a declaration. Over the coming days, we will ask ourselves: What does it mean to lead, to act, to imagine as many? What does it mean to lead ethically, collectively, differently- taking into account today’s social challenges and cultural transformations? What does it mean to act in solidarity and with care towards one another? And, perhaps most importantly, why must we do so now?

We are living in times of critical urgencies.

Brutal war in Ukraine, horrors unfolding in Gaza, humanitarian crises and armed conflicts in Sudan, Congo and other parts of the world force us to reconsider what peace truly means. Our planet is on the edge of climate collapse. Our democratic spaces are shrinking and freedom of expression, including artistic expression are under pressure – from outside and from within. Young people face deep uncertainty about their futures, with anxiety and depression on the rise. Nearly one in two young Europeans between 15 and 24 report having mental health care needs.

In such times, it is tempting to retreat and isolate ourselves in bubbles, to build protective walls, to take refuge in binaries and the illusion of simplicity. But the world resists simplicity. It is layered, nuanced, and interdependent. And so must be our responses. Now more than ever –  in times when systems shake and tremble – we need ethical and cultural leadership. Because arts and culture know how to live with complexity. They hold ambiguity without collapsing into confusion; they make space for contradiction, they welcome paradox. And in doing so, they show us the direction.

This is why this year’s BEYOND is built around the concept of cultural democracy and leadership. Cultural democracy promotes active cultural participation, recognises diverse cultural expressions and encourages a more inclusive, community-based cultural landscape. Cultural democracy is a practice, sometimes messy, but always courageous, making space for every voice to be heard and every story to count. For us, cultural democracy is an approach that makes us look beyond representation and towards true participation. It shapes leadership that actively listens as well as leads, and rethinks culture that is not simply accessed, but importantly, co-created. 

Cultural democracy is the point of departure for this edition of BEYOND. But it is also the ‘way of doing’ by which we have curated it. Together with so many of you: our co-hosts Fondazione Fitzcarraldo and Club Silencio, Culture Action Europe’s board and network members, the local Young Board, the cultural organisations across Turin, our partners and supporters – we have collectively created this gathering. Even during the coming days we will continue this co-creation with all of you through a collaborative zine.

This journey, which began last summer in Malmö, has reminded us of something important: that culture is not a commodity but a commons. That cultural belonging is a moving, mutual process not a static state, it’s making meaning together, as many. Precisely this notion of ‘cultural becoming’ lies at the very heart of Cultural Democracy.

I was recently struck by an idea from a book I read, a thought that resonates deeply with what we are exploring here. That books, and by extension culture and the arts, are both the One and the Many. They are an ever-changing plurality: they pass through us: through our eyes when we read, through our ears when we listen, through our bodies when we move. And in this passage, they merge, multiply, and transform. Every encounter with a work of art is an act of co-creation. We bring our memories, our dreams, our wounds, and our hopes to it. And it, in turn, becomes something new – and so do we. 

I invite you to kick-start these days of encounters and learning with not just hope, but an actionable hope. The kind that resists, the kind that imagines, dares and does. Hope that chooses to act again and again for justice, for joy and for each other. Let’s be many!

Photo Credit: Studio Madonna, images from the DanceWell presentation during Beyond 2025: Being Many