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Plenary meeting DETAILS
IETM Spring Plenary Meeting in Berlin, 15-18 April 2010
From 15-04-10 till 18-04-10 - Berlin, Germany
Plenary meeting - All Parts - posted by IETM on 06.10.09
Searching for Plan C - Celebrating and Cerebraling the Crisis
Dear IETM members, friends, colleagues,
Having tried Plans A and B, from Capitalism to Communism, from market economy to protectionism, from surrealism to post-modernism, the democracies in which we live are looking for new ways of getting out of this so-called crisis… a third way… a Plan C.
We are confronted with crucial conflicts and challenges in our world. Creativity cannot escape the crisis - in contrast we have to take care about the future of our children and even turn the crisis of this new century into a chance for culture. It is not a contradiction – chaos and creation are close comrades and between cooperation and competition we have to find the right centre. It is certain that culture is the catalyst of our cities and the human capital of our community. The conclusion? Let’s build new clouds, core groups, clusters and crazy crowds. This is our claim: We are searching for new connections and conceptions; we are searching for new ideas and concepts. We don’t have to tear down each wall; we can also climb over it.
Will the culture sector work with the new obsession for “creativity” as the new savior, or try to stay out of it, hoping that art can maintain an autonomous status? Many artists have already decided: they are plunging headlong into the complex natures of our glocal communities. Whether engaging in the climate change agenda, questioning advanced capitalism or critiquing political agendas, they are using their artistic creativity and creative artistic approaches to bring alternative perspectives on our current realities.
Cultural operators are creative too. Finding the artists, finding the spaces, finding the materials, finding the audiences, finding the partners, finding the money, finding the relevant legislation, etc. and putting all these elements together in new and ‘innovative’ ways... while keeping an eye on local politics and the advancement of communication technologies.
Especially at this moment, between a seemingly unsustainable ‘public service mission’ of public subsidies, the evident collapse of the sponsorship model due to the financial crunch and a fear of a subsequent drop in ticket income....
Our sector has coped with (and still is coping) with a variety of economic-political systems engendering their own cultural policies. We have obeyed, rebelled, followed, fought, even supported...we know the good points...and the down sides. But as Beckett told us, ‘Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’
Searching for Plan C, IETM’s first ‘OpenCamp’ meeting, aims to build a temporary cluster to challenge the crisis. It’s a cross between an Open Space meeting and a Bar Camp (...we hesitated to call it an OpenBar).
Our central theme is creating a new framework for contemporary performing arts
• new economic models for supporting the work
• the creation/production/distribution/documentation/training value chain
• articulating our work with the main agendas of our large and small universes
• engaging with the ‘creativity and innovation’ discourse alongside universities and enterprises
• combatting the artistic brain drain and forced nomadism of ‘advanced artistic mobility’
But actually YOU will make up the agenda for Searching for Plan C. At the start of an Open Space meeting, participants write their own propositions for discussion topics and hope others will come. At the start of a Bar Camp, participants propose sessions they can teach or share knowledge with others. IETM Berlin will be a mix of the two, with a few extra sparks to light our way. Read more about the concept of this meeting here.
In the coming months, we’ll be sending you some ideas to provoke; some ways to feed into the planning stages. We want to catalyse enough ideas to feed IETM for the next 3-year period, and to set the stage for Berlin’s upcoming creativity conference in 2011.
So, don’t come empty-headed; sharpen those grey cells and come with something to share. Let’s be curious, creative and communicative.
Be ready. Be C. Be in Berlin 15 - 18 April 2010!
The IETM Secretariat: Mary Ann DeVlieg, Michel Quéré, Milica Ilic, Anaïs Gabaut
Virve Sutinen, IETM President and the Board members
Jochen Sandig, Folkert Uhde, Bettina Sluzalek (Radialsystem V)
Matthias Lilienthal (HAU)
Michael Freundt (ITI Germany)
P.S: Of course after constructive and collaborative chats, there will also be time to celebrate, and lose control, for clubbing and chill out.
Photo: dusk on Radialsystem, Photo by Sebastian Bolesch.
