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.
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
As part of the (UN)COMMON SPACES project, the Hot House - an event introducing 20 new emerging artists to the network - is being held in Pristina, Kosovo on April 2023.Our partner, the ODA Theater welcomes the Hot House, and its associated citizen, Lura Limani, writer, editor and researcher, to prepare a series of articles introducing participants and readers to the unique territory that is Pristina.Discover the history, artistic landscape and future of the Kosovar capital in a series of three articles, introduced in this conversation recorded in April 2023.
IN SITU Podcast — Episode 5
Cultural identity
Cultural identity: from identity to inclusivity
How can we define cultural identity? How does it reflect with the work of a programmer, of an artist? How can we define inclusivity? What does it require?How to identify blind spots as artists and programmers?
The IN SITU Podcast is out!
Regeneration of places
Conversations on art and public space from the voices that do it
Halfway through the (UN)COMMON SPACES project, IN SITU is launching the IN SITU Podcast; a series of conversations bringing together the IN SITU community to discuss the realities, trends and challenges of art in public space at the European scale.
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.