dēmos is sinds 2025 deel van publiq vzw. We blijven maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen die de cultuur-, jeugdwerk- en sportsector vormgeven volgen en werken aan gelijke participatiekansen. We staan voor cultuur, jeugdwerk en sport die aansturen op maatschappelijke veranderingen en bouwen aan een meer open, inclusieve én democratische samenleving.
Open Call: Rest for the Wicked is looking for stories around vulnerability and resilience in participatory art practices
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Rest for the Wicked vzw (c) Ewout D’Hoore
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Open Call: Rest for the Wicked is looking for stories around vulnerability and resilience in participatory art practices
Wed - 30/10/2019 - 00:00
Artist collective Rest for the Wicked vzw - led by Ewout D’Hoore - started a research trajectory around failing within participatory art practices. They are gathering stories and experiences that can help artists and art organisations to orient themselves better in this artistic practice.
Participatory art practices have many shapes and many contexts today. In Flanders and Brussels their growth is closely linked to the fight against social and cultural exclusion. Artists and organisations chose to put stories on stage that corresponded more closely to social realities in their city. The way they did this - with the immediate cooperation of the people who were removed from the arts - was not always easy. From their success and failure Rest for the Wicked wants to learn.
Today participatory practices are everywhere. Internationally there’s talk about a ‘participatory turn in the arts’. Participation is a function in the flemish art decree. Organisations are pushing it forward as a strategy for art education and creating a dialogue with the public. Administrations look at it as a way to reinforce integration, fight poverty and emancipate citizens. Rest for the Wicked wants to know how artists are looking at claims like this.
Call for stories
During this stage of the trajectory Rest for the Wicked is looking for artists that want to share their failures within participatory art practices. The aim is to get a clearer image through 6 relevant cases of where we are, what the potential is and where it goes wrong. The 6 selected cases will be documented through a podcast. Based on that we will develop a phase where we would reflect about the most pertinent aspects of the work field en working towards the development of a toolkit for participational art practices.
Do you have experience with participatory art practices and do you want to share something about where things went wrong? Did you learn something valuable by failing? Is failing inevitable and did this lead to another approach?
Send an e-mail to rftwicked [at] gmail.com (subject: Open%20Call%3A%20Rest%20for%20the%20Wicked%20participatory%20art%20practices) before April 15, 2020 and we’ll get in touch.
This open call is part of three-year long participation project by vzw Rest for the Wicked, with support from the Flemish Government in collaboration with Demos vzw, Kunstencentrum Vooruit vzw and UGhent research group Culture and Education.
