Future Hospitalities: Exploring new forms of solidarity through cross-sectoral exchanges

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We are exploring new forms of hospitality through cross-sectoral exchanges on 2 February 2023 in Brussels.

Forced migration due to war, persecution, or crisis (climate, economy, etc.) is no longer an exception, rather a new reality. In the past year, we have seen how quickly artist-in-residence programs and the cultural sector in general are able to respond and offer support to artists and cultural professionals who are forced to leave their countries. Residencies, cultural institutions, and creative professionals joined forces and provided an ad hoc first line of support. But the question remains: how can the cultural field be permanently open to professionals who are forced to move, regardless of their country of origin?

Future Hospitalities brings together professionals from the cultural and humanitarian field from Flanders and the Netherlands. DutchCulture | TransArtists and Kunstenpunt organize this peer-to-peer meeting to explore new forms of hospitality and collaborating with different sectors, in and outside of the cultural field.

The programme includes working sessions for the participants on subjects such as protocol, access, policy and practice at Globe Aroma. In the morning we will visit Doucheflux and Cinemaximiliaan. In the afternoon we will go to Globe Aroma.

After the summer, a follow-up public meeting will take place in Amsterdam.

Contact

• Kunstenpunt | Flanders Arts Institute (BE) – Dirk De Wit: +32 (0)478 37 76 65 / dirk@kunsten.be 
• DutchCulture | TransArtists (NL) – Heidi Vogels: +31 (0)614644742 / h.vogels@dutchculture.nl

Program

Download the program and participants list here!

Brussels, Thursday 2 February, 2023

10:00-10:35 Location Doucheflux
public transport: Brussel-Zuid/Midi
Veeartsenstraat 84, Anderlecht
10:00 Doors open
10:15-10:20 Word of welcome by Dirk De Wit (Kunstenpunt)
10:25-10:35 Presentation by Doucheflux
10:35-11:00 Walking to Cinemaximiliaan

11:00-12:00 Location Cinemaximiliaan
public transport: metro station Delacroix
Manchesterstraat 36, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek
11:00-11:15 Introduction of the participants
11.15-11.30 Presentation by Cinemaximiliaan
11:30-12:00 Short film Cinemaximiliaan and Q&A
12:00-12:30 Walking to Globe Aroma

12:30-18:00 Location Globe Aroma
public transport: metro station Beurs
Moutstraat 26, Brussels
12:30-13:00 Opening of the program by David Joao Ramos (Fameus)
13:00-13:30 Lunch
13:30-13:45 Introduction working sessions moderated by Kirsten van den Hul (DutchCulture | TransArtists)
13:45-14:00 Forming groups
14:00-15:00 Working session 1: First crisis response
15:00-16:00 Working session 2: Policy and practice 
16:00-16:15 Coffee & tea break
16:15-17:00 Sharing the outcomes 
17:00-18:00 Conclusions, follow-up & drinks

Locations we will visit

DoucheFLUX, Veeartsenstraat 84, Anderlecht, Brussel
is a social platform that offers shower cabins, a launderette, lockers – and an array of complementary services to those living in precarious circumstances, whether they are homeless or living in poor housing, documented or otherwise. These basic yet essential services, activities, and training courses help restore energy, dignity, and self-esteem. More info: Onder de douche, de hemel, a documentary about Doucheflux by Effi & Amir

Cinemaximiliaan, Manchesterstraat 36, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Brussel
is a social and cultural platform with and by newcomers in Belgium. The initiative started in an improvised camp at the Maximiliaan Park in Brussels with daily film screenings. Through the commitment of a vast network of volunteers, Cinemaximiliaan brings films to remote asylum centers around Belgium and organizes encounters and debates in private homes and cultural venues.

Globe Aroma, Moutstraat 26, Brussel
is an artistic work- and meeting place that offers space, time, and their network to artists and co-creators with a precarious citizenship status. Globe Aroma, therefore, builds in alliance with the Flemish, Brussels, and international cultural, educational, and migration sectors, an in-between space for its community to create, discover and share their art practices with a broad audience.

Working sessions

1. First crisis response – Lotte Geeven, DutchCulture | TransArtists
What happens first when a crisis breaks out? How do we organize ourselves? In this session, we look at examples of communication structures and role assignments in search of new strategies. Among other things, Lotte explains how she worked with a team during the fall of Kabul to get people out of the country and link requests for help.

2. Policy and practice – Jelle Burggraaff, DutchCulture | TransArtists
The cultural community often responds to crises bottom-up – hosting colleagues via artist-in-residence programs, organizing support via fundraising campaigns, creating visibility through exhibitions, discussions and performances. Concerning refugee work, there are professional organizations who act quickly. Governments also respond and wish to be advised, also by the cultural field, on what is needed. How can art communities, refugee workers, and governments interact, while assuming that bottom-up initiatives work in different timelines? Geopolitical agendas also play into policy actions. And as the crisis continues, the demand for help changes. How do we deal with this?

3. Navigating networks and match making – Dirk De Wit, Kunstenpunt
With the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, questions arose from professionals and organizations fleeing or staying on the scene and, from the other side, suggestions of what to do for them. Formal and informal networks found each other around those questions during the past year: Residence programs offered accommodation, art institutions set up public programs for newcomers (M HKA), guest artists participated in organizations (Timelab), workplaces were found (Agalab), buddy schemes were set up, programs opened to applicants from Ukraine (JvEyck), etc. Can this supply and demand be made transparent and accessible to all? How can this become a permanent structure suitable for responding to any crisis? Can this be organized digitally (google form, e.g.), or is physical contact needed to ensure a good match?

4. Unlocking the cultural sector for newcomers – An Vandermeulen, Globe Aroma (session 1), Jozefien Stevens and David ‘Ramos’ Joao,Fameus (session 2)
How do we build a welcome structure as a formal and informal network between various arts organizations, arts professionals, and (civic) platforms working around newcomers? Organizations such as Globe Aroma, Cinemaximilian, Fameus, and others are committed to opening up the cultural sector in Brussels and the region to newcomers, offering workspace, their networks, and organizing presentation moments. What are their current challenges, and what could be the next step? How can you develop a welcome structure within your city?

5. Embracing broken languages – Dušica Dražić, wpZimmer (one session)
One of many requests in the mandatory integration processes is to learn a local language. However, it takes a long time until an accent that situates the speaker outside the hegemonic West is successfully suppressed. In other words, language proficiency makes one more “deserving” to become a local community member. In that case, how to claim a public voice, communicate needs and demand fundamental human rights when one does not (or is not allowed to) speak? How to welcome professionals whose expertise is invisible due to broken languages, their often unrecognized legal and/or educational status, or simply due to cultural biases, hidden racism, or ignorance?

Questions for this session:
– How can we create conditions in which cultural and linguistic diversity is considered when developing cultural activities and artistic research processes?
– How can we support artistic research practices that are also a tool for informal language learning?
– What gets lost in the absence of the mother tongue, and what poetics emerge when languages interfuse?

6. Career development in a new context – Basel Adoum, artist (one session)
Artists and art professionals who arrive in a new country take their practice and knowledge into a new context: a different society, arts ecosystem, and valuation frameworks. For most, it feels like starting all over again. How can displacement become a transformative part of your history and practice without the stigma? How to further develop a career where past and present have their place?

From Flanders Arts Institute the following colleagues will join this event:

• Lissa Kinnnaer: (inter)national support for visual arts
• Dirk De Wit: Innovation and development: visual arts, international policy observation
• Ward Bosmans: (inter)national support for classical music
• Julia Reist: (inter)national support for performing arts
• Sofie Joye: Innovation and development: performing arts
• Zuena Kahitani: data management