Culturescapes

Culturescapes (proper spelling: CULTURESCAPES ) is an autumn in Switzerland held annually with a focus in Basel Culture Festival, in which the cultural landscape of another country or a region is presented. Founded in 2002, especially Eastern European countries were first introduced. With spending that was devoted to Turkey, Azerbaijan, China and Israel, steps were taken beyond in recent years. By 2012, Moscow Culturescapes presented for the first time the cultural topography of a city in the focus of the festival. The output Balkans 2013 illuminated not only a country, but an entire culture region. The festival cooperates with existing cultural institutions such as the Theater Basel, Kaserne Basel or the theater Gessnerallee, but also with the official representatives of both Switzerland, for example, per Helvetia, as well as the host country at government level. The festival is vielspartig, besides performing arts such as music, theater and dance and film, visual arts, crafts, literature, or new media are presented. In the focus area of each focus area are addressed and discussed in collaboration with Swiss educational institutions such as the University of Basel and the University of Zurich present topics Popular culture, and history. Controversial issues are not left out, so it has repeatedly been protests and clashes came as about the Armenian genocide or aspects of the Middle East conflict were discussed or Azerbaijani dissidents had their say. Founder and curator of all past issues is of Dutch culture entrepreneurs Jurriaan Cooiman.

Idea and Perspective

The original idea of Culturescapes was to trace transformation processes and their expression in the work of contemporary artists in the then almost unknown countries of the former Eastern Bloc. By and by this reference dissolved and it became the focus of a new " cultural landscapes" with a long tradition of artistic diversity their current form is characterized by a specific constellation of historical, political, social and economic tensions.

Festival editions

Venues (selection)

• Aarau: Theater Tuchlaube
• Baden: Kurtheater
• Basel and Region: Basel Marionette Theatre, Basler Munster, Cartoon Museum, Fondation Beyeler, Goetheanum, Gare du Nord, House of Electronic Arts, iaab, Barracks, cult cinema studio, House of Literature, Museum Tinguely, new cinema, Open Church Elisabethen, oslo 8, Philosophicum RappazMuseum, SUD, theater Basel, Roxy Theatre Birsfelden, the bird 's eye jazz club, Basel University, flighty club creates.
• Bellinzona: Teatro Sociale
• Bern: bee-flat in PROGR, Dampfzentrale, Movies Art Museum, Kornhausforum, ONO, Punto Buchowski
• Boswil: Künstlerhaus Boswil
• Churchill: theater
• Geneva: BFM, Cinelux, Théatre du Grütli
• Kriens: South Pole
• Lausanne: Théâtre Vidy -Lausanne
• Lörrach courtyard
• Lucerne: Lucerne Theatre, South Pole, Culture and Convention Centre Lucerne. Kleintheater
• St. Gallen: Lokremise
• Scuol: Fondation NAIRS
• Solothurn: Castle Waldegg
• Thun: In the town hall by 4
• Winterthur: puppet theater in the weighing house
• Zurich and Region: moods in shipbuilding, Riffraff Cinema, Literature House, theater Gessnerallee, University of Zurich.

Rückspiele

Starting with the issue of Azerbaijan there was more and more also to back games in the Swiss artists in each focus country occurred. So hosted the Basel Sinfonietta, 2009 in Baku, in 2011 there was a "Swiss Season" in Israel and in 2012 toured the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Under the name "Swiss Culturescapes " current Swiss art was shown in the eight countries of the Western Balkans in 2013. Among other things, the Knabenkantorei Basel, the musician Nik Bärtsch with his project " Ronin " or " Imitation of life " by Boris Nikitin. Christoph Marthaler's " King Size" was received with great enthusiasm at the International Theatre Festival, Sarajevo (MESS ) and the World Theatre Festival in Zagreb.

Resonance and criticism

For the issue of Armenia, there were several confrontations up to the highest political level for theming of the Armenian genocide. Also, other issues were controversial because of individual topics, the host country concerning: so when outputting Turkey critical articles in the festival newspaper, as well as the feature film " gitmek " at the festival to Azerbaijan of speech and freedom of the press and in Israel, as could be expected, the Palestinian issue, a number of actors in Switzerland campaigned for a complete cultural boycott of Israel.

Sponsorship and patronage

Culturescapes was operated in the early years as a label of the association PASS ( Performing Art ServiceS, Basel ), but has been operating since 2009 as an independent foundation Culturescapes. President is Rembert Biemond, director Jurriaan Cooiman. The patronage often took the president of the respective host countries together with a Swiss Federal Council. 2008 Abdullah Gül, Turkish President and Couchepin, 2010 Hu Jintao President of the People 's Republic of China and Doris Leuthard, 2011 Micheline Calmy- Rey. The composer Sofia Gubaidulina, the philosopher Hans Saner, as well as the Basel Councillor Guy Morin and the writer Iso Camartin also include patronage.