LEARNING FROM GRIGRI PIXEL. Artistic pluricultural co-productions as assets for public place-making.

ALICE BUOLI, Politecnico di Milano BLANCA CALLÉN, Universitat de Vic / Grigri Cultural Projects SUSANA MOLINER, Grigri Cultural Projects DAVID PÉREZ, Grigri Cultural Projects

Learning from Grigri Pixel.

Artistic pluricultural co-productions as assets for public place-making

The paper presents the experience of Grigri Pixel (Spain), a programme of residencies, meetings and workshops devoted to the creation of urban interventions and common furniture elements in public spaces based on collaborative practices and digital manufacturing strategies from the African continent.

In a context of increasing contraction of the public action and local / national welfare systems in (Southern) European cities, the project suggests other narratives for urban public spaces through the activation of non-conventional and peripheral imaginaries and by providing spaces of knowledge-exchange and collective imagination between local communities, invited artists from African cities, new and old citizens.

Drawn on the project rich documentation and perspectives of the Grigri Pixel network participants, the contribution aims to provide some insights about the transformative potential of pluricultural and artistic co-productions in shaping contemporary public spaces, as assets for the active participation of citizens in practices of place-making.

Keywords: cultural cooperation, co-design, creative productions, public spaces, African makers.

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Social Innovation in Southern Europe | 4-5 June 2019, L’Aquila | Buoli, Callén, Moliner, Pérez

1. INTRODUCTION Over the past and current decade, the combined effects of the global economic turmoils, the reaffirmation of international political borders, along with the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean, have dramatically affected (Southern) European urban societies (European Commission, 2016). On one hand, by escalating the (economic, social and political) distress of already vulnerable local communities and neighborhoods — whose needs and demands the traditional welfare states are no longer able to respond to (Raco, 2018) — on the other hand, by amplifying the marginalization of non-European citizens (Costa & Ewert, 2014).

The concomitance of such dynamics, together with the emergence of stereotyped images and representations of (intercultural) diversity (Gilligan and Marley, 2010; Doc Next Network, 2014) have been reducing the possibilities of access to public, cultural and political participation for those citizens, amplifying their (in)visibility in the public sphere (Heller et al. 2017).

At the same time, a number of cities in the Southern-European / Northern-African / Mediterranean region have been witnessing in recent years a fruitful season of artistic coproductions and cultural projects, performed by groups of self-organized citizens, creative practitioners, artists, activists and researchers, often in cooperation with cultural institutions and centers of artistic production, which have been advocating for new and plural imaginaries around intercultural diversity. Through the co-creation of collective actions and interventions in the urban and digital public field, a number of international ‘creative communities’ have been imagining and producing other narratives and opportunities of public agency for new and old citizens, providing a fertile terrain of debate around the field of ‘social innovation’1.

In this light, and in relation to the ongoing interdisciplinary dialogues between urban research, intercultural studies and creative practice research, the paper will address one exemplary experience among the most recent and influential intercultural artistic projects in the southern European / Mediterranean area: the Grigri Pixel project (Spain)2 , a four-years programme of residencies, meetings and workshops devoted to the creation of common urban furniture in urban public spaces based on collaborative practices and digital manufacturing strategies from the African continent.

In West Africa, a ‘grigri’ is an amulet, a magical object that protects you; while a pixel is the smallest part of a digital image. The mixture of the invisible, digital and artistic practices, and collaborative work, understanding the magical as the insights and experiences that arise in the limits of the unexpected are key elements of Grigri Pixel strategy.

This paper refers to an understanding of ‘social innovation’ according to Moulaert, Martinelli, Swyngedouw and González (2010) as the combination of three main dimensions: ‘a) the satisfaction of human needs (material and immaterial) not otherwise met or considered; b) the empowerment of marginalised social groups, through the enhancement of capabilities and the (re)creation of identity, thereby increasing their visibility, recognition, access or voice rights; c) changes in social, power and/or governance relations within the community and between the community and society at large’ (p. 199).

2 Grigri Pixel is an initiative born in Medialab Prado (Madrid) by curator and cultural producer Susana Moliner Delgado, who has extensive experience in cultural production and mediation, having devoted herself in recent years to implementing Free Culture programmes on the African continent. The production workshops have been designed by David Pérez (Madrid) independent architect specialized in tactical urbanism as well as Yago Torroja Fungairiño (Madrid), an electronics engineer and professor at the Technical University of Madrid, and Blanca Callén Moreu professor and independent researcher who collaborates with HANGAR (Barcelona).

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Fig. 1: Grigri Pixel Network Map 2016-2019. Source: Grigri Cultural Projects.

Starting from its first edition in 2016, the programme has been indeed proposing spaces of collective creation in response to the need for other narratives, imaginaries and other ways of intervening in the city from the experience of invited artists from Africa, and local and migrated communities from the cities in which it operates (Madrid, Barcelona, Dakar).

To date Grigri Pixel has involved fourteen invited artists from Cameroun, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Togo hosted in the different sites of the workshops. It has involved more than one hundred international collaborators with different disciplinary backgrounds and interests (architecture, visual art, dance, music, cooking, digital culture, intercultural mediation, civil rights and neighborhood activism) and more than thirty local partners among citizen initiatives, public institutions and governmental organizations in different African and European cities 3.

From Madrid: ETS Ingenieros Industriales, CEI UPM, Asociación Garaldea, Esta es una plaza, EVArganzuela.org, Matadero Madrid, Intermediae, CSA Playa Gata, AV Floss, La Ingobernable and Cocinar Madrid. From Barcelona: HANGAR.org, BAU, Gredits.org, Biciclot.coop, DiomCoop.org and EixPereIV.org. African supporters were: Kër Thiossane, Defko Ak Ñiep Fablab, VxLab and Côté Jardin from Dakar, Collectif Yeta from Bamako, OpenStreetMap, Minodoo and Woora Make from Lome, Opentaqafa from Casablanca, Madiba&Nature from Kribi and IWAYA Art Festival from Lagos.

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2. RESEARCH AIMS AND (META) METHODOLOGY The paper aims to bring to the discussion about social innovation in southern European cities, some insights about the transformative potential of pluricultural artistic co-productions in shaping contemporary urban, social and cultural spaces in our cities (and neighborhoods), and as assets for the active participation of new and old citizens in the creative field, and for new practices of place-making at the urban level.

The paper is drawn on a variety of direct and indirect sources of information, and on an empirical approach that involved the curatorial team of Grigri Pixel project (Blanca Callén, Susana Moliner and David Pérez) in conversation with an external researcher (Alice Buoli).

The authors adopted at the same time a ‘self-reflective’ and ‘meta-research’ approach towards the project genealogy, methodology, contributions, tensions and horizons.

They first reviewed all the documentation produced during the editions of the programme, from the preliminary research documentation on the different neighborhoods to the ex-post reports and evaluation forms filled in by participants.

Of particular importance has been the analysis / use of the visual documentation (photos, drawings, hands-on and processual visual materials) produced by the curatorial team and collaborators.

Additional relevant information has been collected through semi-structured short interviews with workshops participants and other actors which have been involved in the 2017 (EVA, Madrid) and 2018 (Las Letras, Madrid) editions of the programme.

Two different profiles of interviewees have been identified in order to collect their impressions, experiences and perspectives about the programme: a. invited artists and collaborators; b. representatives from local organizations and institutions supporting the workshops4.

Topics discussed with participants were: a) Early perception / ideas / imagination / knowledge of the neighborhoods and the cities and their impacts on the workshops; b) The design and making process for Grigri Pixel and the tools / methods you developed both individually and as a group; c) Main effects / impacts of Grigri Pixel for / on the neighborhoods; d) Main contributions of participants to the workshop on both the design and production of the Grigri, in the re-activation of the neighborhood, also in terms of skill and knowledge exchange and new skills acquired from Grigri Pixel; e) Effects on current practice / projects / work of participants.

Topics discussed with local organizations were: a) Main lines of intervention / commitment of the organization / citizens initiatives and role in of the organization in public spaces; b) Perceptions of the inhabitants about their neighborhood; c) Changes observed in the neighborhood during Grigri Pixel and after the workshop: the role of the grigris in producing new imaginations; d) Current conditions of the furniture and the uses are they being given; e) Desired changes for the neighborhood; f) New tools and approaches learned / observed during the Grigri Pixel workshop and their potential relevance of other projects.

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3. LEARNING FROM GRIGRI PIXEL 3.1 The Grigri Pixel formats and editions (2016-2019) The first Grigri Pixel workshop ‘Makers and energy in African cities’ took place in Madrid from February 22 to March 13, 2016 in the context of the project 'Objetos Comunes' (Common Objects) organized by Medialab Prado.

The workshop brought together four African makers5 for three weeks along with a group of twenty-five collaborators. Working closely with each other, they all together designed and made two open code grigris: an energy truck equipped with self-made solar panels and a rocking chair able to produce electric energy and lighting from the joint movement of two or more people. The project was carried out in cooperation with Esta es una Plaza in Madrid.

The same year, the workshop ‘Prototypage d’éclairages urbains à énergie renouvelable’ took place in Dakar between April 25 and May 3, 2016 within the framework of Afropixel Festival #5 ‘Ville en Commun’. The festival, organized by Kër Thiossane digital arts center based in Dakar, was devoted to reflect on cities and the urban realm, digital fabrication and the production of urban common goods. During the two weeks of the workshop a new prototype was co-designed and self-made, a 2.0 version of the prototypes built in Madrid during the first workshop: a sewsaw able to light the space of the Jardin Jet D’Eau thanks to the energy produced by the movement of children when playing.

In 2017 there were two different editions of Grigri Pixel, during which the fabrication and research experiences were located in two different cities and in collaboration with two different communities in Madrid and Barcelona.

The edition also saw the participation of new partners / curators in the core team and the introduction of additional research and dissemination activities.

‘The Grigri of EVA’ took place in Madrid on October 2-15, 2017 in collaboration with EVA Espacio Vecinal de Arganzuela, during which a grigri was manufactured in the form of a mobile, modular, expandable and self-sufficient kitchen6 .

The manufacturing experience was completed with a video-mapping workshop led by Bay Dam, from Senegal, together with the AV Floss team; the meeting 'The invisible, the common and the magical', with the participation of Marina Garcés, Abu Ali, Simon Njami and Paz Núñez; the workshop 'Cocina tu Grigri', organized by the Cocinar Madrid collective; and a workshop to build 3D printers from recycled computer equipment, taught by Afate Gnikou.

‘The Grigri of Passatge Trullàs’ took place in Barcelona on November 2-12, 2017 in the neighborhood of Poble Nou and was developed in cooperation with the centre of artistic production HANGAR, the BAU School of Design (University of Vic) and the neighborhood initiative Taula Eix Pere IV. The outcome of the 2 weeks workshop was a mobile and versatile furniture in the shape of four benches-carts, incorporating LED lighting powered by selfproduced solar panels.

Mamadou Coulibaly (Collectif Yeta - Bamako, Mali), Koukou Eolo (OpenStreetMaps / Minodoo - Lome, Togo), Zineb El Fasiki (Opentaqafa - Casablanca, Morocco), Modou Ngom (Fablab Defko Ak Ñëp Ker Thiossane - Dakar, Senegal) 6 Invited guests were Mané Ndeye (Coté Jardin - Dakar, Senegal), Aderemi Agabeti (Iwaya Community Art Festival - Lagos, Nigeria), Ismael Essome (Madiba & Nature - Kribi, Cameroun) and Afate Gnikou (Woora Make - Lome, Togo).

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Fig. 2: Grigri Pixel editions 2016-2018. Source: Grigri Cultural Projects.

Photo ‘Derecho a la ciudad’: Oscar Parasiego / La Máquina de Fotos ©.

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The third edition of Grigri Pixel, held on October 15 - 28, 2018 in Medialab Prado (Madrid), revolved around the theme of the 'Right to the City' activating objects, actions and a collective research which has resulted in a festive intervention as a Pilgrimage in the Las Letras neighborhood in Madrid. The 2018 edition saw the presence of four invited creative practitioners7 who guided an international team of contributors in the design and production of the collective actions in the public spaces of the neighborhood of Las Letras.

The current edition of the programme — titled ‘Hospitality’ and launched in May 2019 — will include a larger set of activities between May and October 2019: it will involve three different open construction workshops in Madrid (May-June), a conversation between Marina Garcés and Felwine Sarr in Madrid (‘Dar lugar'), and a workshop in Niamey, Niger. In addition Medialab Prado will host an intensive construction workshop on October 18 - 25, 2019.

3.2 Grigri Pixel methodology Grigri Pixel intertwines various disciplinary fields such as international cooperation, sustainable urban development, citizen participation, creative practices and pluricultural dialogues.

The project methodology draws on practice-based / hands-on participatory action research tools and formats. Every constructive workshop is indeed conducted through collaborative work methods and based on open and cooperative design strategies, often through the support of fablab equipments and tools. Grigri participatory processes also act as test-bed for new models of diversity management wherein the point of connection that unites a community is rooted not in national identity, religion, language or shared history but in creation and enjoyment of common spaces of creation and agency.

Along with the design and manufacture of the urban furniture elements, the programme also includes the organization and production of: • Collective mapping and diagnosis of the context where the constructive workshop and final action will take place in order to develop site-specific interventions by knowing the necessities, conflicts, agents and resources of the area.

• Public events (seminars, round tables and specific workshops) to share methodologies developed by the people affiliated with the different host spaces. These include both presentations by the invited artists / residents and by guests including creative practitioners, representatives from local organizations and citizens / activists. Some of these guests have also been involved in more operative moments of the workshops, providing references and support in the design and production phases.

• A network-based platform for the exchange of social innovation and digital manufacturing practices between African communities and European network nodes.

• A fanzine featuring the workshops experiences • Video / photographic / graphic documentation of the workshops.

Musician and sound-designer Abdellah Hassak (Musée Collectif - Casablanca, Morocco), architect and artist Mmakhotso Lamola (Limbic Resonance - Cape Town, South Africa), performative artist Mama Kone (Festival Art Femme - Bamako, Mali) and artist Lalya Gaye (Newcastle, UK).

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Parallel to the organization of constructive workshops, Grigri Pixel has set into motion a research process aiming to enunciate common questions concerning the different participative experiences with the goal of uncovering different synergies, meeting points and differences in regard to the practices and processes of care and maintenance of the urban spaces in Africa and Europe. Some questions guiding the preliminary research are for instance: what are the common public spaces which facilitate encounter in our cities like? What are the threats and weaknesses that put them at risk? What conditions should a grigri that takes care of and protects the cohabitation in our metropolis have? What are the practices, the knowledge, the tools, the narrative and imaginary that could redefine and transform our cities into more cared for, more inclusive and welcoming places?

3.2 Decolonizing technology: peripheral and non-conventional know-how From the first edition, Grigri Pixel has been exploring, in a critical way, how (digital) fabrication processes and urban re-activation can be performed from places and by people other than those managing fablabs located in western countries, and also how practices and knowledge emerging from these other places and people are able to question all those socio-technical practices and imaginaries that we identify as processes directly engaged with innovation.

In this sense, the programme aims also to render visible the current state of the art in digital creation and innovation in Africa, in relation to the capacity of those activities to have an impact in urban public spaces. The objective is to connect these ways of doing originated in Africa with participating European communities in order to put together strategies capable of offering solutions to common urban issues, weaving networks for the cooperation between participating cities in both continents.

In order to do so, the project has been relying on the generation of alliances with artists and makers coming from African cities, a movement that goes from south to north in a quest for construction processes able to create the ‘objects in common’ that can help local communities recovering their urban public spaces as relational places.

Those urban furniture objects, in the form of amulets or grigris, collectively fabricated, are not only functional for the community of users that design and build them, but also able to open the possibility to generate a dialogue with peripheral and non-conventional know-how through the story and process of their construction.

On the other hand, as a matter of fact (digital) and fabrication practices and know-how among communities from the African continent are barely known in Europe. In Casablanca, Dakar, Johannesburg, Lomé, Bamako, etc., there is a rich, numerous and diverse cultural production, initiatives and projects capable of using (digital) tools to intervene in modern cities while simultaneously recovering and valuing traditional know-how and practices.

In this respect the project associates to the need to promote a common conscience on the use of common resources in cities and an understanding of innovation and technological progress related to social welfare, good living and recovering public space in cities as a relational space.

This pooling of issues but also of construction techniques and urban strategies among a network of European and African cities is the way in which the project proposes to delve into values and conditions for equality, justice and respect for everyone and that are proposed from an intercultural perspective.

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Because of that, the aims of the project incorporate a de-colonial vision of processes of production of technological know-how and of the geographical spaces where this production of knowledge is supposed to happen. This is why mentors invited to join each workshop come from projects and initiatives originated in Africa.

This also explains that people participating on the workshops and research process include both design students and local makers at European cities participating, as well as groups of (new and old) citizens residing in the neighborhood that hosts the intervention.

David from SERCADE (a local organization working with refugees and migrants in Madrid) recently interviewed, underlined the empowering potential of the 2018 edition of the programme outside usual “exclusionary” spaces in which migrants are segregated, by providing them a space for the visibilisation of their culture in their own terms, allowing them to participate in a project at “equal conditions” along with “locals”, and creating opportunities of mutual learning and for new social relations.

3.3 New imaginations of / for diversity: the role of amulets in the public space The idea of accessible and inclusive urban commons and commodities advocated by the project, relates to a precise conception of the city and its mechanisms of (social and material) production. The urban objects produced during Grigri Pixel workshops incorporate different sensitivities, uses and experiences of public spaces, able to de-standardize the mainstream urban imaginaries. Such an approach towards “the public” allows to improve and adapt common spaces and facilities in order to equally incorporate in the design stage different needs and visions expressed by different users.

David, along with Jacinto (EVA) and Ndèye (invited artist from Dakar) in the 2017 and 2018 workshops in Madrid suggest that the main changes in terms of perception of the public spaces of the neighborhoods were due to the (temporary) neighborhood re-activation with festive activities, the massive citizens participation in the streets and in some spots which were perceived as lacking in terms of publicness and identity. Christopher — who participated in two different editions as collaborator in Madrid — suggests also that, through the ‘visualization' of other uses for the neighborhoods, new spaces of socialization and encounter emerged. In the case of ‘Grigri Las Letras’ in Madrid 2018, Christina (collaborator) also suggests that ‘on the day of the parade presentation of the Grigri object the square was full of neighbors that, I believe, started to think and approach that specific space in a different way. The aim of the intervention was not solving the problems of the square but a symbolic 'proposal' of how a group/movement could develop the tools to reclaim the public space’. She further adds ‘I also learnt that to create an effect in the public space you don’t necessarily need a well designed beautiful object but a combination of diverse actions’.

In Madrid, citizens have been experimenting with these forms of collective and individual action for years, through neighborhood movements, the experience of 15M or the different social movements. As Angel explains about EVA, it’s about the proliferation of ‘places where things happen. And this is a place where things happen, where people unite to do things together, with no money involved nor individual interests, but simply the belief that doing things together is good for individuals and for the community’. This also meant for local partners to exercise co-responsibility for the creation and maintenance of common spaces and furniture elements, and not necessarily waiting for the local administration to provide them.

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The collectively created amulets or gris-gris produced during the workshops, not only serve as useful or functional purpose for the community of users, but they also serve as protectors of the common space where they are located, thanks to the narrative surrounding their manufacturing and the affective network they are rooted in. It is again the case of the self-sufficient kitchen produced for the ‘The Grigri of EVA’ in 2017: Jacinto says that the furniture elements are in very good conditions and that are used for special occasions like collective meals and celebrations.

Some participants also highlighted the impacts of the project on the local organizations involved in the workshops: Ivan (collaborator from Madrid) stressed in this regard the importance of the project in ‘feeding’ and consolidating the existing bonds between neighbors and local citizens initiatives.

Fig. 3: Grigris / amulets in the public space. Source: Grigri Cultural Projects.

3.4 Collective learning and knowledge(s) transfer The workshops are conducted through open, cooperative design and the implementation of strategies for modification of the urban space and habitat based on the exchange of formal and informal practices and knowledge among the invited mentors, the tutors, the collaborators and other local actors. This methodological approach allows to operate from a situated and contextualized perspective by which every spatial intervention is adapted to every particular conditions, needs and contexts.

Participants in the workshops acknowledged the Grigri Pixel clear methodological toolbox in which individual skills are optimized and organized in the different tasks to be performed during the workshops.

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At the same time, new knowledge and competences are acquired during the conception, design and making of the interventions and furnitures: some of the participants to the Madrid 2018 edition had, for instance, the chance to experiment with sound-recordings, music writing and performance which were not part of their own skills.

In addition to practical skills the project allowed participants to acquire more awareness about teamwork while exchanging experiences, time and spaces with other people. This is the main point underlined by participants, who stressed the relevance of empathy, conviviality and the ‘learning from’ / ‘learning together’ process adopted by Grigri Pixel, rather than only specific skills or the use of technical tools. In this sense, both spontaneous and planned social moments outside the workshops have been very important for exchanging personal experiences and perspectives in more informal environments.

The importance of communicating and documenting the project has been also stressed in the interviews. In fact the workshops are accompanied by a research kit and a series of references / visual materials shared among participants prior to the workshops kick-off.

Andrea (collaborator and cultural manager) for instance highlighted the importance of such tools / materials for the implementation of cultural projects and the quality of the documentation provided, as well as the importance have a ‘real time’ documentation of the workshops. In this regard, photographic and audio-visual media are key tools in the production of effective narratives about the Grigri Pixel process and dissemination, along with the recordings of the public seminars, and video interviews with guests and participants. For instance, again during the third edition of Grigri Pixel, the artist Sara Fratini documented through drawings all the activities of the program and the work process from the design till the construction of the grigris.

3.5 Impacts on participants trajectories and practices In addition to the imaginative outcomes on the public spaces and places addressed during the workshops, participants also stressed the relevance of their participation in the programme for their own practice and professional life in the short and long term.

Among the participants, Fatoumata explained the importance of her participation in the workshop in clarifying her current professional trajectory — as young women born in France with African origins involved in different activist / artistic activities in her home city — and in which direction(s) she would like to proceed in her future career.

Together with Fatoumata, Mama Kone (invited artist from Bamako), Alejandro (collaborator from Venezuela) and Reuben (meta-collaborator and musician from Casablanca) acknowledged the positive impacts on the way in which they considered ‘collaborative design’ and possibility to transmit the knowledge acquired to their own communities, in some cases mentioning the desire to start a Grigri Pixel workshop / festival in their own city.

Finally as stressed by young participants the project acted as a kind of ‘resonance chamber’ for the implementation of new networks and collaborations with other creative practitioners, collectives and local organizations in different cities.

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Fig. 4: Documenting Grigri Pixel. Source: Grigri Cultural Projects (see acknowledgements).

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3.6 Critical dimensions, difficulties and (productive) tensions Some of the difficulties and limits that affect the project are related to communicative issues and some of the distinctive features of institutional projects. On one hand, it is not easy to work collaboratively with such heterogeneous and large team of work. The co-design and conceptualization of the workshop together with the group of African artists and creators demands a huge quantity of working hours from distant places with uneven internet connectivity and by different languages. In addition to the difficulties of African guests for designing activities and workshops for a place never visited before, despite the efforts from the Spanish team to transmit the maximum quantity of information about the context and its specificities. Nevertheless, the face-to-face work during the workshop development demonstrates the power of non verbal language in the creation of human groups, even enough to compensate the initial difficulties at a distance.

On the other hand, this kind of collaborative projects launched from cultural institutions are crossed by a certain inevitable tension between the level of needed uncertainty, risk and openness to give room to plurality and creative process, and the level of control and planning that the organization needs to work with to follow their own protocols and rules and for the aim of production tasks. Certainly, institutional times and manners clashes, in many occasions, with the openness of collective, collaborative and processual projects. In relation to time and agenda issues, it’s also very common that annually action projects with such demanding level of production and preparation become into a succession of events without enough time for a paused evaluation or follow-up work of their results. Somehow, however, this paper means an opportunity for stopping and think about carefully, together with the aid of external visions of the project, the main own goals and contributions, future challenges and limits to get over.

4. CONCLUSIVE REMARKS By drawing on the rich documentation produced during the different editions of the project (2016 Madrid and Dakar, 2017 Madrid and Barcelona, 2018 Madrid) and by referring to the direct voices of the actors involved in the programme, the paper aimed to present some main contributions that the Grigri Pixel programme brings to the contemporary discussion on social innovation in Southern European neighborhoods.

In particular the paper focused on exploring the following qualities and impacts of the project: • Capacity to produce and visualize new images and imaginaries of / for diversity as triggers for the participation of communities with pluricultural origins in the public sphere; • Ability to question innovation, socio-technical practices and imaginaries from a nonEurocentric / non-western perspective through ‘peripheral’ and un-conventional know-how; • Ability to facilitate the pooling of competences, knowledge and skills across different creative disciplines and cultures, with a focus on the Africa-to-Europe knowledge transfer; • Integration of multimedia methods, practice-based, hands-on approaches to urban research and neighborhood re-activation; • Collection and activation of relational networks and short/medium-term impacts on participants’ professional trajectories and local citizens organizations’ practices of placemaking (in the city of Madrid and beyond);

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In addition the paper also pointed out some features of the Grigri Pixel programme that suggest its potential scalability, (social, economic, environmental) sustainability and transferability also in methodological and cultural terms to other neighborhoods and urban contexts.

The polyphonic exploration of the Grigri Pixel programme gave evidence to the role and potential of collective creative practices, new artistic languages and media in supporting more inclusive physical and social spaces for horizontal and equal exchange among citizens, shifting conventional North-to-South knowledge-transfer discourses and representations.

At the same time, some questions remain open for the further discussion and the implementation of both the Grigri Pixel programme and the meta-research that draws on its results, methods and horizons.

• How to foster the long-term sustainability — in time and financial terms — of the project, its capacity to trigger new economic values for both participants and local organizations and communities?

• How to generate a durable ‘closed circle’ in environmental and economic terms in relation to the production of the urban furnitures, as possible prototypes to be replicated with different technological media and conditions?

• How to ‘translate’ pluricultural methods / tools and insights of the programme into public policies and actions?

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Zapata Barrero, R., Wiebke S., Martiniello, M. (2017). Introduction. Diversity incorporation in the cultural policy mainstream: Exploring the main frameworks and approaches bridging cultural and migration studies. Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture, 8(1). _______ The paper is the outcome of the common work among the authors who share the authorship of the essay. The authors acknowledge the precious contribution by the Grigri Pixel Network team and participants and by all those who have been available to discuss and share their own experience about the project. All Grigri Pixel guests and participants are credited in the project website (https://www.grigripixel.com/). Videos presented in figure 4 are by: Raul González, Leticia Pedrosa (Asaltamentes Creaciones), Cecilia Barriga (Madrid 2016-18) // Eva Banderas, Bárbara Mójer, Joan Román, Míriam Quílez and Ainhoa Lasheras (Barcelona 2017)

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