ArtRadius Saksala

VOZ DO CAMPO

Voice from the fields :
Presentation letter Future Capital project by Sara Serrão Today, in the Occidental(ized) countries, the trench between the rural and the urban spheres is growing, as a big number of people moves towards the cities, towards the promises of satisfaction of new arising human needs. People are looking for specialized and higher education, jobs away from the ground and its agriculture, economic and market centres, accessibility to consumption goods and to comfort, cultural and entertainment dynamics, meeting a bigger number and variety of people, individual success, new opportunities, new horizons.

As population moves, it leaves behind the intimate relation with nature, the community living and the informal exchange of goods and services, the availability for others and for the family, the fading of material wealth before human values and the physical and spiritual well-being, social systems which are smaller and more equilibrated.

Time has come for the cards to be shuffled, for the trumps to be mixed, for the inversion of fortune. Life in rural sites can become the coherent alternative to the social and economical disequilibria we face in occidental societies. Bringing rural lifestyle up-to-date will be allowed through re-vitalizing traditional knowledge, valorising the potentialities of the country side, creating a new cultural and social dynamic aware of contemporary questions.

Which is the specific role of centres for contemporary art in the building of the present and future reality of rural sites?
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“Voz do Campo” aims to propose an answer to this question.

The first phase consists in knowing the ideology, methodology and experience of different residential art centres in rural sites, spread around Europe. As a starting point, 22 centres from 11 different countries will be contacted. The result will indicate existing similarities and divergences and will allow to determine the common line of action (or, eventually, its inexistence), opening the doors to a common work strategy with international impact. A web portal will be created for broad public to get to know and to access all interested centres, the mailing list will be reactivated, a discussion space on the Internet will be created.

This project has been ended. The website is closed and unfortunately there is no further information available.

Individual co-operation and contact is still going on and with different residencies Saksala ArtRadius is working on new projects.