Address: ul. "Emil Berzinski" 5, 1408 Yuzhen, Sofia | Event Map | Venue Accessibility

In his opening keynote, sociologist Pascal Gielen will direct our focus to a subject that threads through the tapestry of our professional and personal realms: the intricate entanglement of nature, culture and our mental condition.

The lecture will illuminate the cultural sector's ongoing conundrum — the imperative of cultural mobility for rich and authentic exchange versus the ecological footprint this mobility creates. As professionals in the arts, we grapple with this tension: the necessity of physical nearness to foster cultural dialogue stands in contrast to the pressing need for sustainability and environmental stewardship, while digital technology seems to fall short in each of these arenas.

In response to these dilemmas, Gielen proposes three aesthetic strategies that offer pathways toward reconciling these paradoxes. 

'Beautiful Thinking' which seeks to integrate the intuitive and the emotional with the intellectual, forming a holistic approach to our environmental and cultural crises. 

'Situational in-situ art' which emphasises profound engagement with local contexts, fostering art that emerges from and resonates with the specifics of place.

'Depth aesthetics' which encourages a dive into the underlying strata of our experiences, connecting with our ancestors and the historical, geological, and ecological layers that define our environmental cultures.

These strategies offer creative approaches to the tensions we face and form a call to action. They invite us to redefine our cultural practices, to seek solutions that honour our need for cultural proximity while respecting the ecological boundaries of our planet.

Speaker

Pascal Gielen, Professor of Sociology of Culture and Politics University of Antwerp, Belgium

Welcome by
Ása Richardsdóttir, IETM, Belgium
Veselin Dimov, Toplocentrala, Bulgaria

This session will be captioned and broadcasted online on Howlround.tv. Access the livestream on the day here. 

Address: ul. "Emil Berzinski" 5, 1408 Yuzhen, Sofia | Event Map | Venue Accessibility 

Apart from very small groups of indigenous people, the rest of the world population has lineage connected to colonisation, settling and migration. Contemporary cultures result from translocal flows of people, technology, capital, media and ideas. They are shaped by hybridisation and cultural exchange, and yet identity-based political tribalism seems to be gaining ground globally. Society at large is experiencing burnout symptoms, such as social unrest and polarisation, prolonged economic downturns, environmental degradation, political instability, loss of cultural vitality and cohesion. 

How can artists continue to make work when feeling the effects of this turbulence, and what role can institutions play in supporting them?

Through a number of historic and contemporary examples the lecture will trace how artists have reflected and responded to political and social challenges, and look into cultural policies and management models that could break a crisis cycle.

Speaker

Margarita Dorovska, Curator Christo And Jeanne-Claude Center, Bulgaria

This session will be captioned and broadcasted online on Howlround.tv. Access the livestream on the day here.