Learnings and reflections from Gnesta - a day loaded with impressions and thoughts, 25 March 2019
Here are impressions and thoughts and learnings of the tour guide for the day, Iwona Preis
A big day for both hosts Iwona and Jasmin from Intercult, and visitors Martine, Hilde and Mattias from Ostend Library. The day was to be spent on site visits to Gnesta, a city 1,5 hours drive from Stockholm. Planning the C6, we wanted to see more of the small scale community work, like the one did by our primary change maker LivetBitch which was to be visited next day.
Here are impressions and thoughts and learnings of the tour guide for the day, Iwona Preis from Intercult
I decided to take her car and drive to Gnesta as I must admit that I never visited the city before and felt that places could be difficult to find and move around to.
We packed ourselves in the car and talked all the way, a very pleasant and affective way to update on all subjects in an effective way.
Nothing more wrong about Gnesta. It is a small city, belonging administratively to another municipality than Stockholm, the municipality of Eskilstuna. Intercult has contacts with Eskilstuna
before, hosting a seminar of the big culture convent Folk & Kultur and through some communication with the politician responsible for culture Mona Kanaan. We also participated twice in Folk & Kultur, so there is some knowledge about the context of Gnesta. Easy to move around with very short distances to all places, for a while even accompanied by ducks.
The first visit was unexpectedly moved one hour ahead and we visited a local library, passing its windows and noticing that this place can be worth a visit. Well inside new windows opened
especially for Ostend, to my delight looking carefully at the details and immediately initiating contact with the head librarian. There was a common denominator, the European Digital week organized both in Ostend and Gnesta and all over Europe. A very good feeling of belonging to the same community was all over us and we left the library exchanging business cards and already planning a future cooperation.
Vår Lokal
During the vegan lunch at Vår Lokal ( Our place) the visit was thoroughly discussed, taking into consideration the important role of a library in a small community, connecting people in general but especially for the newcomers with no other places to go. The lunch place was thoroughly populated by local cultural elite ( as we learned during the two following meetings ). A wonderful place with people speaking English because the personnel could only speak English ( we call it audience development ..) , and apparent meetings at most of the
tables. We got those looks, of course, as an apparent strange appearance in an otherwise not much changing social context.
As you see, our learning started far before the meetings itself. Than Mani appeared, and together with his friend Gabriel walked with us to his pride, telling most of
the story on the walk. Visions ( like Intercult ) , applications which take time ( like Intercult ), counting both on the local municipality and national sources ( same as Intercult), lack of resources ( like Intercult ). At the same time they perceived us as much bigger and much stronger, just by coming from the big city and representing European cooperation. But also: those big visions can be created and implemented by everybody, if you believe in what you do and have power to convince others. In the short time given the conversation was intensive and right to the point: finances, plans, audience. Ostend, Intercult and Vår Lokal found so many common subjects to talk about.
2
1. Lesson confirmed: coming with people from outside your own country strengthens your own organization in the eyes of spectators. Exactly the same tool Venti is using while approaching
the stakeholders!
2. Lesson learned: we all need platforms to meet and exchange experiences. There is a role for Intercult to play being a hub for competence and creative meetings. A new target group will be the community actors from both Stockholm and outside
3. Follow up: to I invited Mani to a seminar at Intercult gathering similar actors to talk about community work
GNESTA ART LAB
Meeting with founder and director, as well as artist herself: Signe Johannesson
Signe welcomed us already in front of the hoose showing a winter dry plantation of tomatoes, framed by walls bearing signs of an event. The story of tomatoes was the red thread through Signes presentation of her very personal engagement in the local community, of artists and migrants. We were not in a hurry and Signe started from the beginning, as everything was connected. The presentation and the conversation took more than 2 hours! A brain storm, an exchange, a story telling, a place making, an amazing engagement. All in the same place and in one person operating as a professional and running a place for critical thinking in a small place like Gnesta.
Some points in the discussion:
Learn to talk to the power structure you are a part of
Limit of the activism while being an institution at the same time.
Art productions combined with taking up critical subject
What is Art Lab Gnesta working with ?
Residency program
Culture politics with the project “Arts organizations out of office”
Working locally and internationally with the house as a starting point
Find ways for art to take new arenas, fields; opening blood stream between artists and society
Blurring the lines between arts, artist and society, fining new place for arts
Being self organized allows you to be inside but also step outside of the frames
Important to be process oriented
Envision the place like Gnesta Art lab
What kind of language are we using while talking about subjects ( Ostend experimenting on
languages at public library with a new research program on different services at the library in
national languages )
Art Organizations out of office- a new network, a long term network is a goal, strong partners’
needed for flash light on the projects
Suggest an alternative, if you don’t like the situation suggest a solution
Share the privilege you have
Build alliances, refuse to work alone and you will be less lonely- work together
1. Lesson learned: is Signe actually our Change maker ?
Gnesta Art lab, starting as activist group is now rather an institution with both productions and theory. Intercult is definitely not an activist group but very much an institution. Looking for
own activist is a wrong step. Concentrating engagement to a few chosen subjects, enhancing in fact those we already work with in European projects, is a key to further development.
International relations are not interesting any more for politicians and this not for cultural organizations either. The invitation to cultural organizations we reach today must change
content to include new, tangible subjects. We could include climate (Jasmine learning at Horizon ); participatory community work ( continue on Baltic Audience Links ; Participatory
community work again ( organize thematic local labs connected to Memory of water in Stockholm ); continue on the network thread but building a strong network of local
organizations; also urban development as a part of community art work. Is it possible to find art practice connected to those subjects? Combine artistic production with political and
social work ( work on different layers)
Intercult already DO & SHARE
2. Follow up 1 : Invite new actors/ stakeholders and discuss the needs and what Intercult can
deliver , together envision a place like Intercult ; built new alliances to again gather a network around the organization
3. Follow up 3: application to Nordic Fond for a network ( do not agonize, organize)
4. Seminar: Everybody has power, important to learn where and how; discussion about how the new politics concerns arts? Freedom to work with public funding; Why is it important for public funded organizations to be progressive thinkers ; What kind of space do I have within my position ? handlingsutrymme; space beyond my organization
5. Squid Squad Gnesta wants to go international!!
6. Art Organizations out of office- a new network, a long term network is a goal, strong partners’ needed for flash light on the projects
7. Build alliances with other organisations- to get in artists ( ex LivetBitch)
C6 Sweden - a Host for Ostend
