Bridging the Gaps. Connecting the Dots

Exhibition of artistic works of the project Deconfining

As part of the residencies and collaborations during Deconfining, a series of short films, essays, podcasts, dramatic texts and studies have been produced. These explore the blurring and manifestation of boundaries between Africa and Europe as well as perspectives on the proximity and distance between the continents. Insights offers a glimpse into these works. They will be on view daily from 9:30 am during the conference at Hartmannfabrik.

Samba Yonga (Ku-Atenga), Vydia Tamby (Editions Vives Voix), Malin Nagel (ITI Germany), and Dr. Antonia Blau (Goethe-Institut Madrid)

Faye Kabali-Kagwa and Ndèye Mané Touré (Curators of THEATER DER WELT)

For the first time in the history of THEATER DER WELT, a nine-member international team of curators is sharing the artistic festival direction. The program brings together works created under very different cultural and political conditions in various regions of the world—yet all address common global themes. Questions of identity, origin, power dynamics, and visibility run through many of the productions. On behalf of the curational team, the curators Ndèye Mané Touré (Senegal) and Faye Kabali-Kagwa (South Africa) will welcome the guests of the conference to the festival and give a glimpse into the collective process of curation across time-zones, continents, and realities.

Presentation of the studies of On the Move (Marie le Sourd), Culture Funding Watch (Ouafa Belgacem) and the Czech Culture Institute (Barbora Novotná)

This session is spotlighting valuable research and outcomes from the Deconfining project, exploring how cultural mobility and cooperation can be reimagined across regions and borders. The session will feature brief presentations of the following publications:

• Schengen Visa Code and Cultural Mobility (On the Move)

• Movements of Translation and Return: Art Mobility and the Diaspora (On the Move)

• Rethinking Cultural Mobility: Lessons from Morocco (Culture Funding Watch)

• Cultural Cooperation between the African Continent and the States of Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Culture Institute)

These four conversations will take place in parallel and bring together experts, partners, and invited guests to reflect on key questions shaping contemporary cultural collaboration. Four central themes will be discussed in the rounds: sustainable models for cultural cooperation, the freedom of artistic expression, strategies for dealing with unforeseen risks in transcontinental collaboration, and the vision of an Artist Visa. Moving between different perspectives and concrete challenges, these sessions open a space for dialogue, exchange, and critical insight. Altogether they invite participants to rethink the conditions, responsibilities, and future possibilities of working across borders in the arts and cultural field.

1) Sustainable models for cultural cooperation
Rodrigo González Alvarado (curator of Theater der Welt) & Pavla Hivert (Czech Culture Institute)

2) Freedom of (artistic) speech
Sara Amini & Alex Díaz Loo (Mentors of the ITI Academy)

3) Dealing with unforeseen risks in trans-continental cooperation
Thomas Engel (ITI Germany) & Nikos Mavrakis (Curator THEATER DER WELT & Next Stage Project)

4) The vision of an Artist Visa
Samba Yonga (Women's History Museum, Zambia & Ku-Atenga) & Sebastian Hoffmann (ITI Germany/ Touring Artists)

These four conversations will take place in parallel and bring together experts, partners, and invited guests to reflect on key questions shaping contemporary cultural collaboration. Four central themes will be discussed in the rounds: sustainable models for cultural cooperation, the freedom of artistic expression, strategies for dealing with unforeseen risks in transcontinental collaboration, and the vision of an Artist Visa. Moving between different perspectives and concrete challenges, these sessions open a space for dialogue, exchange, and critical insight. Altogether they invite participants to rethink the conditions, responsibilities, and future possibilities of working across borders in the arts and cultural field.

1) Sustainable models for cultural cooperation
Rodrigo González Alvarado (curator of Theater der Welt) & Pavla Hivert (Czech Culture Institute)

2) Freedom of (artistic) speech
Sara Amini & Alex Díaz Loo (Mentors of the ITI Academy)

3) Dealing with unforeseen risks in trans-continental cooperation
Thomas Engel (ITI Germany) & Nikos Mavrakis (Curator THEATER DER WELT & Next Stage Project)

4) The vision of an Artist Visa
Samba Yonga (Women's History Museum, Zambia & Ku-Atenga) & Sebastian Hoffmann (ITI Germany/ Touring Artists)

Ukhona Ntsali Mlandu, followed by a Q&A with Marie le Sourd

In 2023 Mlandu wrote the manifesto text An Invitation To Transform Your Vision of the Cultural Mobility Ethic From An African Perspective. This work sought to amplify the critical and often missing and/or evaded element of the human in cultural mobility discourse. This narrative justice on what cultural mobility and mobility justice ethically demands for transformative engagement as an intersecting pillar for the social justice ecosystem. The human and (in)humane elements emphasis was a form of catharsis, protest and call to action: an invitation to witness the harmed and marginalised's wound. A healing justice antidote.The keynote reiterates some of the provocations and invitations, reflects on the influence, impact and shifts acknowledging adjacent efforts. And ultimately, in the context of growing international polarising tensions in the geopolitical landscapes a follow up invitation is issued. The invitation to stay a little longer- to linger from the lens of cosmologies of movement building and African hospitality. To understand and employ the role of momentum, audacity, defiance, collective care and solidarity in growing ecosystems that embrace relationality as collective survival and regenerative ingredients for alternative world building and emancipatory futures.

with Elgas (online), Ana Lessing Menjibar (online), Lilian Hipolyte and Annika Turnowski; moderated by Dr. Antonia Blau, organised by Goethe-Institut Madrid

Artistic residencies form a key part of the Deconfining project. Adopting a participatory and egalitarian approach, the project has promoted collaboration and co-creation between European and African artists through residencies. As Deconfining comes to a close, we will invite artists and cultural facilitators who contributed to it to share their experiences of intercontinental artistic cooperation over the past four years. The roundtable will explore residencies as a form of collaboration between different continents, focusing on the associated challenges and potential best practices. Providing an overview of international artistic collaboration, it will examine how it has worked and evolved over time.

Exhibition of artistic works of the project Deconfining

As part of the residencies and collaborations during Deconfining, a series of short films, essays, podcasts, dramatic texts and studies have been produced. These explore the blurring and manifestation of boundaries between Africa and Europe as well as perspectives on the proximity and distance between the continents. Insights offers a glimpse into these works. They will be on view daily from 9:30 am during the conference at Hartmannfabrik.

Vydia Tamby (Editions Vives Voix), Milena Gehrt (ITI Germany)

with: Lillian Hipolyte, Thobile Maphanga, Joshua Alabi, Milena Gehrt, Felix Sodemann, Joseph Wabwire, Beatrice Waruinge, Emma Beverley

Within the Deconfining project, Shaping Crossroads is a fellowship program bringing together eight experts on intercontinental mobility, who have been collaborating on different aspects of artistic mobility. Based on their research, the group has developed several formats to explore new perspectives on this urgent topic. One of them, the workshop Creating Spaces of Reflection, will take place during the conference.

Through interpersonal activations, participants will reflect on their own experiences of mobility and how these relate to their encounters with art. These reflections will be connected to the fellows’ research and discussions, with the aim of gaining new insights. The workshop also addresses how art institutions and venues can better highlight issues of mobility. More broadly, it seeks to connect artistic and research-based practices and to explore how questions of artist mobility relate to wider challenges that shape everyday life.

Panel discussion with Vydia Tamby, Samba Yonga and Sylvia Amann, moderated by Antonia Blau; organized by Goethe-Institut Madrid

From the outset, the Deconfining project has sought to promote 'decolonised, fair and sustainable intercontinental cultural cooperation'. After four years of implementation, three experts who have worked together on the project will discuss what has worked well, the challenges they have faced, and the valuable lessons they have learned. The conversation will focus on the project's practical aspects, providing a final evaluation from both continents.

During the roundtable, the experts will also present two significant contributions that were developed during the Deconfining project: The Intercontinental Governance Model and the Arnie-Toolkit. The former proposes shifting the focus from 'inclusion' (inviting Africans into European spaces) to 'sovereignty' (empowering African ecosystems) and 'common construction'. The toolkit has been designed to foster better relations between Africa and Europe by supporting local stakeholders and providing arguments, priorities and practical advice.