Unmute ArtsAbility and Wildwuchs Festival join forces on residency project
How do we present inclusive art works? How do we frame, define and communicate “marginalised” arts within a festival? What are the responsibilities when forming and shaping the discourse of “inclusive”, “intercultural”, or “diverse” arts? How do we define diversity, depending on our contexts? What is integration, what inclusion? What are hybrid forms, fusions of cultures? Where do we find the “underrepresented”? What (other) words do we find to talk about artists and their work? What does it mean to be working with cultures of “difference”, acknowledging “others”, bringing the “margins” into the center of the artistic discourse? Which ways are we searching to dismantle a system of oppression of the “marginalized”? And how do we reflect on our own position as festival makers?
The two festivals, Cape Town-based Unmute ArtsAbility and Wildwuchs in Basel, share very similar interests and questions and support a common festival spirit. Artistic diversity, inclusion and new ways of collaborating are in the focus of both festivals. In this project they create spaces for the reflection of different curatorial, programmatic approaches of festivals that have the aim to present the “underrepresented”. The goal for this residency project is to establish a long-term relationship for the ongoing discussion of the above questions within a growing global network, to strengthen the artistic exchange.
In exploratory research residencies around the two festivals, associated artists of the UnmuteArtsAbility and Wildwuchs will be engaging with local artists and their contexts and will be actively involved in the festivals. Artists will have time for a process-orientated research, be linked to local artists and network to be able to immerse themselves into a different context. At the end of their stay they will be given a specific responsibility to be challenged within the festivals (for example documenting the festival, facilitating discussions with artists and the public, giving workshops etc).
