Thursday March 6 2008 / Internationalization
Café Mediterrané: An Alternative Gaze – A shared reflection on cross-Mediterranean cooperation in the arts
There is a general feeling in the Mediterranean region that cultural operators rely heavily on Western approaches when designing their projects and ignore local traditions that are inherently familiar to local audiences. Instead, certain topical themes, especially those that receive media attention, such as the position of women, are favoured. But do local audiences recognise themselves in such abstract ‘meta'-discourses as these, rooted as they are in an external perspective on the region, on trend-influenced perceptions from outside? Would it not be more productive to engage with issues and subjects that have a clear domestic resonance, that touch the hearts of people in the Mediterranean region, and not only Western audiences? And what does this all say about the relation between artists and arts organisations from the Mediterranean region and their European counterparts?
These and more questions will be discussed in the third Café Mediterrané, hosted by Chris Keulemans. An Alternative Gaze, a new ECF publication on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the arts, will be launched prior to the discussions. The book presents the fruits of the ECF's Mediterranean reflection process which took place in 2006 and 2007. Among the speakers are participants in this reflection process such as Basma El Husseiny (cultural manager, Egypt), Charlotte Huygens (curator, The Netherlands), Diala Khasawnih (performance artist, Jordan) and Nat Muller (curator, The Netherlands).
This is the third edition of Café Méditerrané. In this series of informal meetings, Dare2Connect regularly invites leading international cultural professionals from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab world.
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