As_Tide is an open platform to connect individuals and institutions active in the promotion of Art as a Socially Responsible Transformation and the Intercultural Dialogue in Europe.
The project was born form the of five European entities who operate in the fields of art and creativity:
deBuren (Brussels)
Hangar (Barcelona)
next – Verein für bildende Kunst (Graz)
St. James Cavalier (Valletta)
Cittadellarte (Biella)
in collaboration with Love Difference and Atelier Culture Projects.
“In the European year dedicated to intercultural dialogue, As_Tide has invested in a programme of initiatives launched within the living body of a Europe that seems to have lost its way inside an economic system that it thought to be unifying, but has instead revealed itself to be unsustainable. Where does any fertile terrain remain for Europe if not culture or cultures? Europe as a common multiple (more than common factor) that unites us in a common project and aspiration, more than being just a minimal element of everyone’s identity.
As_Tide recognises that this constructive prospective is based on art as a short circuit between social commitments and creative autonomy.
Our initiative aims to promote and liberate the potentiality of change through artistic practices, processes of auto-structuration, auto programmisation and bottom-up. It also proposes to contribute towards the formation and development, in the micro-community and in urban communities, of a vision of the change in the social fabric in the direction of responsibility and trans-culturalism.
This recognises the existence in all of Europe and the world of a living humus, ready for this change, made up of organised structures, individuals, common interests, public entities and of one extraordinary scenario in which the cultural associations meet the urban planners, the innovative businesses satisfy the social needs and where the activists meet the institutions.
The artists don’t simply participate in all of this, instead they develop a funda mental role, inspiring, connecting and producing factors and processes of change from within the social fabric”.
Paolo Naldini, Managing Director of Cittadellarte, Head of the As_Tide project
With the opening of 5 sites for Social Transformation, run by the partners of the As_Tide project, the new geography of change in Europe expands, through the exploration, experimentation, promotion and diffusion of the use of art and creativity as means for a responsible / sustainable / sharable change from within the social fabric. It also contributes to the promotion of culture and cultural differences as a base for the creation of a shared European identity.
- Biella – UNIDEE in Residence, “Campus of socially engaged art” at Cittadellarte, looks towards the formation of activators of projects of a Responsible Transformation of Society. The abilities of the activators are superimposed over artistic and curatorial skills and the development of projects. In 2008, four artists (Christoph Schwarz, Yolanda de los Bueis, Elisa Marchesini and Sarah Vanhee) participated in Unidee as part of As_ Tide, realising the project “Untranslatables” (www.untranslatables.net).
- Brussels – Flemish Centre – Dutch deBuren. Artists, theatre and museum directors, curators, writers, sociologists, religious representatives and politicians explore how creative processes influence socio-cultural economic relations.
- Graz – next – Verein für bildende Kunst. Artists from all over Europe participate in an “artist in residence” project to work on the concept of “heimat”. Many public events and collaborations with local institutes involved in various aspects of the question of integration. Development of new ideas and concepts to confront the questions opened up during the integration at Graz.
- Barcelona – Hangar Centre for Production and Research in Art. Workshop on the rapport between ethics and aesthetics. The launching of a reflection and workshop for the production of web TV in real time. Space for socialising and sharing knowledge.
- Malta – Centre for Creativity, St. James Cavalier. Workshop in the Marsa Open Centre, day centre for political refugees. Operators, artists, researchers, administrators of the local community have worked on a “portrait” of the Centre and on its future role through a process of dialogue.
