Our territories have been subjected to very long processes of structural, economic but also symbolic violence that have resulted in the stigmatization of our cultural expressions and ways of doing. In a way, the living conditions of our peripheral territories are sustained by a cultural process of dispossession and thus we believe that cultural and artistic practices play a critical role to build strong, flexible and welcoming communities to counter hate speech and build plural European identities. With this project we aim at sharing situated cultural practices that put play, conviviality and (grassroots) urban regeneration at the centre to boost the autonomy and critical capacity of its residents to collectively build resistances and new imaginaries that break the stigmatization of peripheral territories. 

There are many ways to define and to become a “periphery” in Europe: by being at the margin of urban centers, by being in rural areas, by being a member of a cultural, sexual or ethnic minority, by not having access to a legal administrative status, etc. And with the current rise of divisive politics and the spread of hate speech on public debates, all peripheries play a crucial role. Because our peripheral identities suffer from the consequences of hate speech policies and are the embodiment of their populist depiction of what Europe shouldn’t be.

Cultural practices have played a crucial role in the process of building narratives that disempower peripheral communities. The ways in which our peripheral territories have been portrayed or the folklorization and stigmatization of the cultural expressions of the populations living in our territories are a good example of this

process. However, in our neighborhoods there is a situated collective intelligence that has created community building mechanisms such as Conviviality, play, celebration and commoning public space. Such mechanisms constitute our intangible heritage. We must create channels and spaces of exchange among artists, cultural operators and neighbours in order to reflect and produce new collective representations and artistic expressions that respect, acknowledge and reshape our communities.

This partnership has developed out of a desire to be better equipped to confront these challenges through sharing and reflecting on our practices and developing new strategies together. Our consortium is composed by partners with a shared approach to working with communities and audiences in long term projects to articulate and challenge the systemic violence and localised issues they face through art and culture. Projects that bridge differences and create shared cultural experiences that feed from the intangible heritage of underrepresented groups to activate a space to deconstruct some of the exclusionary narratives gaining momentum in our territories