November 2022
For main curiosities about the Arts and Culture Under Pressure project, consult www.artsandcultureunderpressure.net;
or contact the Project Coordinator: Mohab Saber, saber@mitost.org
For other curiosities about the publication curator consult Farah Makki, www.mediation-culture.com
Arts & Culture Under Pressure initiative is implemented in the framework of Bosch Alumni Network by International Alumni Center Berlin in collaboration with MitOst e.V. We present for you a publication with stories around «pressure» in the Arts and Culture sector.
Through an open call, we gathered voices of cultural realities in Europe and the MENA region. With 5 of them, we try to depict the diversity of responses actors are bringing to thrive.
These visual and textual narratives wish to reverberate with their daring voices. We share them in the same words the artists and actors have chosen to narrate their vital impulse preserving their freedom(s) and cause(s).
« The landscape of oppression is illustrated by the more than 1,200 violations of artistic freedom worldwide documented by Freemuse in 2021: A record number of 39 artists who were reportedly killed that year. More than 500 artists faced legal consequences for challenging the authorities, and traditional values.
Half of all artists recorded as detained in 2021 were held for expressing their views about political and social issues both offline and online, while the rest were targeted for the content of their artistic work». In 2021, restrictions of artistic freedom took place in all world regions:
32 % in Europe
17 % in Middle East and North Africa
4% Online of documented restrictions.
* is implemented in the framework of Bosch Alumni Network by International Alumni Centre Berlin in collaboration with MitOst e.V.
Revolution and uprisings in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa are creating an inherent imbalance in the way the cultural sector operates. Some realities were born out of rebellion. Then, they quickly slipped into a turbulent social and legal environment. Many cultural workers can relate to the increasing political and economic pressures across geographies and disciplines. Artists, practitioners, and organizations are facing intimidations. Their spaces of expression are shrinking. Restrictions on groups and stressful working environments are hindering artistic endeavour. Entities face risks of bankruptcy or are being weakened by the lack of funding and permits.
The war in Ukraine is resulting in a wave of refugees in Europe, bringing additional pressures to the Arts and Cultural scene. This forced several actors to leave trying
to recreate their homes and civic spaces where possible. Driven by the will of protecting their own existence, those actors multiply the mediums to raise and channel their voices. Therefore, cultural actors face ethical, emotional and existential questions. Some of them must migrate towards more centralized locations in search for opportunities. Others move to find refuge or seek support elsewhere because of war and violence.
While migration and traumatic events are challenging the balances in our contemporary societies, creators of independent critical narratives are getting less room for exercise and expression. However, the sense of urgency and care is showing more grounds of action, alternative forms of mobilization and artistic practice. Where these territories are frail, sensitive and humanly consuming, cultural actors are
finding motifs to enhance their efforts. They are gaining nuanced ways to approach, understand and transform these pressures into media and productions to relief the burden, reveal the truths and advocate for their causes.
How to preserve the forces of change?
How to resist and connect with fragile individuals or groups experiencing trauma or pressure? What happens when entities become the community to save? They become the ones under threat, jointly with the people they serve. What are the transferable responses and mechanisms to strive against and thrive again in difficult and uncertain times?
This third edition of Arts and Culture
Under Pressure is to hear from artists at risk in Europe, MENA and beyond. It aims to create a space to exchange strategies and practices of resiliency for overcoming
pressures. This publication presents five stories of transition, Profiles of cultural realities that are deploying actions to keep running despite challenges, conflicts and unrests. Even with the limited number of stories showcased, their consistency embraces the complexity and diversity of responses. This highlights their common ground too.
You will read about Egypt, Poland, Sweden, Sudan and other European and MENA communities. You will dive into the contexts of practitioners operating under high risks, yet with a growing sense of urgency and social duty. They are the most relevant proposals we have selected through an open call. We tried to be respectful of the voices of peers and their strategies. Therefore, we share the words and images they chose to invite you to their world(s).
“Sense it”, “Noise it” and “Be it” represent the three relations we identified
to tell the stories of pressures. These human capacities in the stories shared represent attitudes towards the forces that disturb and disrupt us in the social and political environment we operate in. These three choices are supporting the consciousness of the threat’s origin, the planning of response, the capacitation and transformation of resistance into a suitable alternative. When coming together, these 3 actions can shape a pathway to preserve the energies of independent arts and cultural practices despite the turmoil.
The profile under “Sense it” brings us to Egypt with El Madina for Arts to speak about critical pressures turning into an imminent danger for the organizational vitality and existence. These can be structural obstacles like a change in law or financial regulations and operations permit, forcing entities to no other choice but closing
and changing operational routines. Sensing these pressures, recognizing their levels and their consequences becomes essential to make informed choices for facing and overcoming them.
Here, pressures go hand in hand with human urgency to act and have a say. A call for the social responsibility of each person and reality disagreeing with abuse or being aware of the resources they can bring to assist whom in need. Cultural actors direct their channels and invest their abilities to support the refugee and displaced (Letter to Mom from Ukraine and Germany), the forgotten (Mind the Gap stories from Sweden and Egypt), and the human vulnerability (Resilient creatives from Sudan). They make noise to tell important truths about injustice or weakness to assist and face these criticalities in solidarity and by connecting across boundaries. They play a
role in shaping safe spaces, homes to heal, or experience the fear, the fatigue, or grow the courage together. They make noise, making their voices louder in critical issues in public domain. Cultural and creatives approaches unfold into valuebased missions and civic spaces where to exert their own capacities and emotions; where to reinvent own processes to adapt in new changing realities; where to resist, relief, survive, and reconnect with dignity, safety and human rights.
Last, pressures are forces carried out by someone wanting to exert power to influence the course of other realities against their own choice. Pressures and influence are a relation and a communication between two poles: the power and the counter-power.
“Be it” represents the attitude of some cultural actors who existed as a “counter power” to ruling pressures. In Poland,
Arts and culture melt into activism with Heartbreaking Performance Art Group. They challenge the status quo and denounce cruel practices facts publicly and creatively.
burden of carrying them alone. And the more we share the ideas and instruments to overcome obstacles, the more we can grow together and influence the world we want to live in and experience.
This publication shares actual threats for the existence of democratic creative space. Happy stories and endings are certainly not the dominant tone of this publication. Rather, you will experience “determination”, unpopular choices, and pragmatic approaches so it hopefully be contagious and inspiring for you, for your search of solutions or a critical friend.
The following pages give access to authentic stories. Feel them, share them and maybe reach out to their heroes to bring yours. The more we share promising truths and clues, the more our solidarity world can come closer. The more we express our struggles, the more we can relief the
“The revolution began in the street; people were experiencing freedom together for the first time and created peaceful techniques for expression.
(...)
One day... In 2018, our street activities were banned and we were asked to stop working. The whole of our ex-istence became under threat”.
ELMADINA ARTS
Alexandria, Egypt
An organization concerned with social issues and active citizenship
Sensing Pressures // Structural, threats to organizational vitality with the voice of Ahmed Saleh
The revolution began in the street; people were experiencing freedom together for the first time and created peaceful techniques for expression. And, one day... In 2018, our street activities were banned and we were asked to stop working. The whole of our existence became under threat”.
Following the uprising in 2011, activities conducted in the street were threatened due to lack of security, and non-acceptance especially for foreigners. It was necessary to rediscover the streets again through arts. It was not just about promoting acceptance towards others, human rights and tolerance. However, it was also
important to reflect with people on the freedom they chanted for would entail. The future of arts lies in its co-creation with the people and the establishment of societal dialogue around the issues that need to be heard.
Describe the main risk(s) addressed by your work
We started to get used to the new reality that we had not dealt with before. Reaching out to the audience—whether young people, women, or minorities— proved difficult. In a context like ours, working in the performing arts became a risk.
At the beginning of 2018, our street activities were banned and we were asked to stop working in the street, which was
Street Carnival is highlighting the ability of the Nubian culture to integrate with the main Egyptian culture to overcome social challenges through street theatre performances, inspired by the Nubian culture’s richness and diversity. Street Carnival is working on training artists to produce a collaborative tour of thirty performances to be presented in ten Egyptian cities. The performances will tackle several social issues such as discrimination and sexual harassment against women. These performances aim to break prejudices, stereotypes, promote diversity and acceptance, and praise the overlap between the minority cultures and the main Egyptian culture. The project will ultimately encourage Nubian artists to promote their culture in wider communities and it will support artists from Alexandria who will continue working with ElMadina in future street theatre projects.
Background: The revolution began in street; people were training on freedom together and created peaceful techniques for expression. Over time, there were threats of damage to the street due to lack of security, denial of others and hatred for foreigners. It was necessary to rediscover the streets again through the arts. It was not just about practicing arts in street and public squares with people in order to reflect the idea of acceptance towards others, human rights and tolerance. It was also important to discuss with people the multiple meanings of freedom that they sought. The future of arts lies in its creation with the people and establishment of societal dialogue on the issues that need to be heard..
one of our key initiatives. This included our work on the ground in Egypt in 12 governorates, as well as at the regional level in Morocco, Tunisia, and Palestine. We were even nominated, among another two worldwide, for the Index on Censorship’s “International Freedom of Expression Award” in 2019. After a year of slowing down to a partial stop of operations, our activities came to a complete end in May 2018, which resulted in the loss of our office. Consequently, we moved to a temporary office —a room in
a shared office— and we lost all of our equipment in the process. The biggest loss was the organization’s team— the frustration they experienced, with many of our team members moving to Cairo to join other more stable organizations.
Describe the approach used to tackle the problem. Describe the activities carried out, timeframe and the stakeholders involved: We focused on developing regional cooperation programs, organizing exhibitions, setting up space, and conducting research.
We used our survival experience over the past two years to learn from and monitor the existing situation, in order to determine what position we would like to take. We made a strategic adjustment to adapt; one that was built through observation, analysis, and experimentation. We began a project titled “Bridging the Gap”, which is concerned with young people’s stories and their ability to overcome challenges in their lives.
31 Performances
12 Cities
14,000 Audience
limited Arab knowledge production available online in the field of the performing arts. We were able to reflect on, deepen, and strengthen our previouslyproduced knowledge as a result of the crisis. After three years of trying to survive major and minor challenges, and with the different kinds of support we received, the parameters of a new five-year strategy have started to materialize.
Audience in Cairo and Giza 4500 percentage 32 % Audience in Upper Egypt 5000 percentage 36 % Audience in Canal cities 3500 percentage 25 % Audience in Alexandria 1000 percentage 7 %
During the project, we gathered various stories and published them on the project platform, as well as hosting two remote training workshops in social theatre, and establishing regional partnerships. We investigated the reasons behind the weak and
20 Local partners
We aim to develop a strategy reflecting our assessment of the overall context, including the pandemic’s conditions as well as the region’s political and economic factors.
This strategy aims to empower women, youth, artists, and cultural actors to develop skills
45 Evaluation Interviews with about 120 persons
in the arts and culture sector. It focuses on the connection between social and public space issues. Furthermore, it aims to strengthen two principles: the right to culture and active citizenship. Describe the challenges encountered in the implementation and how they were addressed?
15 Interactive impact measuring scene with about 500 persons who interacted
Total 620 with percentage 4.5 % of total audience
Media Coverage:
https://youtu.be/yLFsqWej-ec?
1- A more flexible organizational structure was formed to suit the coming period,
list=PL1bXoc4OogXmiEQJ5BrTNy-bWXw9wj1sv
which included changes in the organization’s Legal Activity record to align with the new legal procedures in Egypt.
2- A new equipped office to host El-Madina’s team.
3- A new visual identity for the organization that reflects our tenyear vision.
https://youtu.be/1AEHvPunDrE?
list=PL1bXoc4OogXmiEQJ5BrTNy-bWXw9wj1sv
Falafel Records • May 2021 - April 2022
It’s a project that comes out from a deep observation of the Egyptian art of «festivals songs» which excludes women’s voices and it’s not just a matter of the little female singing presence, but rather the level of women’s vision around the topics and the way they address it. Falafel Records is an attempt to support and empower young female voices and talents to break through this type of music that is male-dominated in order to present and address social issues in a different way and to discover festivals as a cultural experience resulting from the Egyptian environment.
Link
January - December 2017
A platform of research, implementation, monitoring and observation of cultural policies in the MENA region, in partnership with Racines (Morocco), Me’zaf (Lebanon), and Our (Culture First) Tunisia, supported by South Med CV and the European Union within the framework of the Med Culture program (2017).
Link
Social Theatre • March 2005 - April 2022
Carnival Theatre: It’s the future theatre, in which everyone can participate. It’s a theatre where everyone is considered an artist. It also takes into account the environment, cultural and religious pluralism, respect for local cultures and global human rights. It helps us to express our feelings, enhances our ability to grasp reality, enables us to open a dialogue with people around us, encourages social success and leads the way to positive social change.
Training in The Street: Training in The Street fostered the idea of creating art in the low-income areas which have no cultural facilities. Thus, allowing the residents to become partners in the art industry.
https://elmadinaarts.com/social-theater/training-in-thestreet/
SAWP - Cultural Pathways: SAWP is a strategic concept initiated in 2013. It aims at supporting the economics of creative culture and raising citizens’ awareness on how to use local resources in order to improve the social image.
The African Forum for Social Theater •
January 2020 - April 2022
The African Forum for Social Theatre Project is the fruit of a direct partnership between Guerrara Association for Arts and Cultures (Morocco), Les Artivistes (Tunisia), and ElMadina Foundation for Performing and Digital Arts (Egypt). They were all looking forward to meeting as much as possible the recommendations of the 2017 forum that aimed to establish an organizational form that works on the continuity of the theatrical forms that get their essence from the society and its variants. In other words, to study society by keeping up with it, push it forward, and work on developing it into a better society.
For more info: ahmedsaleh@elmadinaarts.com www.elmadinaarts.com
story. The healing power of storytelling gives a voice to the unheard and cultivates active citizenship.” NO I SE
Mind the Gap
National Museums of World Culture (Sweden) & Elmadina Arts (Egypt), 2022-ongoing
// Noising Pressures in relation to social and gender minorities
With the voice of Rasha Shaaban
We are a creative programme led by the National Museums of World Culture (Sweden) to facilitate inclusion, equality, intercultural dialogue and active citizenship through digital storytelling and performing arts.
We investigate how our daily life
gaps can bring us closer. We create a space for a safe dialogue for ordinary people from different cultural and social backgrounds to reflect on gaps in our daily life and help individuals become more active citizens. We ask ourselves «can our gaps bring us closer to each other?»
We believe... Everyone is living with a gap. Only by speaking about it and sharing experiences, we can overcome these gaps. Everyone has the right to own and share their story. The healing power of storytelling gives a voice to the unheard and cultivates active citizenship.
Describe the main risk(s) addressed by your action
The topics we discuss are risky. We
explore sensitive topics and taboos that exist in the Egyptian society, such as abuse, female genital mutilation, and sexual identity.
We look forward to breaking social norms, identifying and addressing existing gaps in Egyptian society. For example, we produced the first Mahraganat «festivals» music album by women. Our work often includes carrying out research that is often criminalised in Egypt.
Describe the approach used to tackle the problem. Describe the activities carried out, timeframe and the stakeholders involved:
Democracy isn’t a given state of being nor does it appear out of the blue.
We create it and make it happen. Our programme “Mind the Gap” aims at strengthening democracy through arts and creativity.
We organise collaborative residencies for young talents to express themselves through storytelling, music, theatre, among other means. We try our best to empower them to own the creative outputs they produce, as well as practice active citizenship.
We carried out several activities in this context:
A creative residency in Siwa and public shows in AlexandriaMarch 2020
The Mahraganat
4 ALLFalafel Records creative residency in AlexandriaOctober 2021
Describe the challenges encountered in the implementation and how they were addressed?
The main challenge we encountered is one that we regularly face— reaching the target group whether for recruiting participants or for disseminating the final creative product.
In order to overcome the latter challenge, we reached out to media outlets and BBC Arabic made a report about Falafel Records Album “Bakhaf Awi Awi”.
Describe the main lessons learnt from the action?
Every time we had a public event for Mind the Gap, we had a fully booked theatre. There aren’t many cultural events conducted in Egypt due to a lack of funding, the absence of spaces to hold them,
and limited freedom of expression. People are thirsty for Arts & culture activities. We received a lot of praise as well as criticism, especially for the Mahraganat album because it conveyed the message that women can sing Mahraganat songs too, they are not exclusive to men.
That said, it is hard to overcome patriarchal ideologies that are supported by misinterpretations of religious doctrine. Through our programme, we will continue to address gender inequalities and identarian divides in the Egyptian society.
Did other realities benefit from or made use of your strategies to strive against similar pressures in your context?
We produced the first Mahraganat
music album sang by women. We dropped a “bombshell” in this stagnant musical field that was exclusive to men. We showed that women can do it too. This will hopefully pave the way for other women to be engaged in this field.
IMore links to toolbox or publications
Mind the gap stories
TAn interview on Festivals & Gender with Mai Amer Falafel Records- Bakhaf Awi Awi album
For more info: rasha.shaaban@varldskulturmuseerna.se
www.mindthegapstories.com
Resilient Creatives
Podcast & Workshops2022
ZEESudan Social Club
Khartoum, Sudan
// Noising Pressures on the mental health of Creatives, Artists, Musicians, Cultural advocates
With the voice of Maya Gadir
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity. It is a necessary skill for coping with life’s inevitable obstacles and one of the key ingredients to success. When we apply resilience through the positive psychology lens, the learning is not only to bounce back, but to bounce forward. Our project wants to equip creatives working in the Arts, Music & Culture scene with skills which builds their resilience towards adversities and change.
Creatives may face different types of challenges where resiliency skills are essential: Physical illness; Work Changes; Transitioning from an employee status to freelancer status; Personal Changes in family
make up (divorce, break up); Change of friendship group, network and colleagues; Conflict with peers, coworkers and management; Conflict with family members; Managing workload; Economical & political changes; Safety & Security when working covering sensitive topics and issues.
Having resiliency skills minimizes the effect that negative, stressful situations can have on creatives. These skills allow not only young creatives but specialists and experts also to face challenges, learn from them and apply these skills towards living a healthy life.
Think -Impulse Strategy Card
1. Stop. Think. delay your response
2. Breathe!
3. Three Responses
Don’t say anything until you have thought of three responses
4. Respond.
B E I T
“A reality that wants to create a “safe space” to help dealing with trauma; to step out from the comfort zone and carry the courage of speaking about human rights, equality, cruelty or empathy.
Deep Experience art practice since 2020 from the Heartbreaking Performance Art Group - Warsaw Poland
// Be the pressure with artivism with the voice of Anastasia Matskevitch
Describe the main risk(s) addressed by the action
The main risks addressed by our projects are controversial and could sometimes be perceived as wrong or unimportant, mainly due to the fear people have confronting very intense feelings or themes that are connected with therapy, psychology or the concept of non violent «safe spaces”. Conception of power and emotional distancing, along with patriarchal perspectives are the main problems when confronting people who perceive kindness and pure intentions as weak or untrue.
Describe the approach used to tackle the problem. Describe the activities carried out, timeframe and the stakeholders involved:
Art is dedicated to helping people. The ways it can help are endless; however, our group chose to help with following:
• the beauty of the art itself
• educating through adding deep meanings into the art works
• reflecting on traumatic events through art
• collaborating with therapists to use art as an instrument of the healing process.
We want to spread the word about events and situation in western part of the world; help refugees and victims of repressions, war or tortures to heal and feel safe”.
In the last two years we created audio series about Belarus, three short films, theatre and street performances and numerous concerts. Everything was dedicated to the problem of cruelty in Belarus and cruelty in general. For the upcoming seasons, our theme is home and immigrants. We start it with an exhibition about Minsk for people who cannot return home - we create a safe space for them and a place to feel not alone.
The series is also educating people who are not Belarusians on the subject of immigration and refuge. We talk to people, explaining and answering the questions - for now it is the only way to deal with the problems listed above. Participants of our projects are different professionals who are involved based on their respective disciplines: actors, filmmakers, photographers, musicians etc… We work with many Belarusian and Polish NGOs and democratic institutions such as Belarusian Youth Hub, Free Belarus Museum, Strefa Wolnoslowa, among others.
We never do art for art, only art with a concrete purpose.
Describe the challenges encountered in the implementation and how they were addressed?
BTo be heard or seen, because few people understand the power and value of meaningful, therapeutic, honest, unpopular art, so we find it difficult to explain to the media and to people why the project is essential. We are not always successful in this pursuit. Another challenge is the absence of financial support.
EDescribe the main lessons learnt from the action?
1. Meaningful art is controversial - not everyone will take it seriously, some people will take it not as it is intended.
2. Lots of explaining is needed.
3. Ways to continue working in the absence of financial and/or media support, but still wanting to do what needs to be done.
4. No shame in asking for help.
5. People need to be Listened to.
Did other realities benefit from or made use of your strategies to strive against similar pressures in your context?
Realities of all groups that are under pressure: LGBT+ community, woman, emigrants, animals. The problems that these groups face start with cruelty and lack of empathy.
For more info: anastasiamatskevitch@gmail. com https:// heartbreakingperformance. wordpress.com/
Let’s talk about Arts & Culture Under Pressure moving from Egypt to Sweden/Egypt, Ukraine/Germany, and Sudan then ending with Poland!
