CHANTICA- Culture, History and Nature Together in Contemporary Art
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The 24 month project will involve five partners; Grampus Heritage & Training Limited (England), ARCH (Scotland), Vitra Sustainable Development (Slovenia), STROPEK (Slovakia) and e-ISTOS (Greece). All co-organisers and their network partners are quite peripheral to the heart of Europe and have a desire to support regional (mostly rural) development.
Each partner brings local partners and works with young people who are disadvantaged, either physically, mentally or geographically. The young people (up to 40 per partner) complete actions in each other’s countries and form multi-national groups/teams.
Each team is supported by trainers and artists from each partner/ partner’s network. These persons have skills including craftwork, the arts, applied history and interpretation and have the ability to train, teach, mentor and demonstrate.
After a plenary session in Slovakia to develop the theme, all partners will run an action (at 4 month intervals) and receive 4 young people 1 artist (trainer) and 1 supporting staff from each partner, they will have their own groups of young people and support staff. Each action will involve a minimum of 40 persons. Together they will investigate an element of the local cultural landscape, including sites, the local population (often older people), historical costume, music, dance, legends, festivals, superstitions and local traditional skills and materials. From these investigations, they will create contemporary art, costume and a multi-faceted performance. The theme will be selected by the young people themselves but will be drawn from that specific locality (the partners/ co-organisers base). The young people will also learn new cultural and traditional skills, learn some principles of sustainability (Local Agenda 21) and understand how culture and art can be a strong tool for rural development
The actions will all be videoed and a DVD will be produced; there will also be a book published to illustrate the project and present it as a model of best practice.
There will be continuous dissemination through a web page and internet discussion group. A major dissemination event at the end of the project will be attended by all partners – it will be at either Leipzigger Messe in Germany, Kezmarok International Crafts Fair in Slovakia or the ‘Vital Spark’ Festival at Aviemore in Scotland.
Our cultural landscapes have been formed through many years of interaction with man. Man first created the landscape then sought inspiration from it, like the prehistoric people who carved the cup and ring marks in the living rock at Kilmartin Glen in the West Highlands of Scotland (a network partner of co-organiser, ARCH).
Our aim in the CHANTICA project is to bring together young people from the rural outlying areas of Europe to celebrate and value their own cultural landscapes through music, drama fashion, applied art and all of the traditional skills and resources of their heritage. The fashion element is selected to especially appeal to young people with an average age of 18 years.
During the project the young people will learn traditional skills, including crafts and art from international and local artists & trainers and they will investigate contemporary uses for those skills. The young people involved in the project are drawn from rural areas in the periphery of Europe; they are disadvantaged by being far from the centers of education and culture. Some have either physical or mental disabilities. CHANTICA will provide an equal opportunity for them to work together towards a common goal.
There will be a plenary meeting in Slovakia to plan in detail the project – this will be attended by representatives of the young people as well as artists & administrators. There will be ‘brainstorming’, testing of ideas in the youth theatre / Arts Centre in the town of Stropkov and a cultural programme looking at local crafts & traditional music and dance. The cultural periods and elements of the cultural landscape are not yet fully decided, the young people must have opportunities to select periods which are of personal interest to them; for example, ancient history is often less tangible, and it may be that some selections will involve more recent history, arts and events, such as post World War II social and cultural change, the development of ‘pop art’, punk & rave music, etc. The partners welcome this and feel that potent and innovative art can emerge from the mixing of ancient and modern influences
In each participating country, there will be a major cultural action, attended by 6 persons (1 artist/trainer, 1 administrator & 4 young people) from each country. More participants from the hosting country will augment this core group. Each action will focus on a particular element of culture, history & art and the young people will learn skills and develop a multi-faceted performance to contemporise and celebrate the theme. Examples of these actions are :- Grampus (N W England) – The Viking impact – from Norse burials at Aspatria, etc., transference of customs and language and images of historical costume expand the theme to create contemporary fashion, art and drama. Skills and products include metal / wool / fur / wood & leather working, jewellery-making, bone carving, bead reaming, etc. Literature is Icelandic sagas, Anglo-Saxon chroniclers and W G Collingwood (Torstein of the Mere) and Blackie (Stories from the Norse).
For e-ISTOS in Greece – the Minoan Thalassocracy – from cultic images of priestesses and bull-leaping to the rise of aristocratic Mycenaean warrior clans, the images from Cretan frescoes and Kamares pottery depicting scenes of hunting and feasting and the writings of Homer. The relationship that the Minoans had with nature and how they captured it in art - the ‘wasp pendant’, sea creatures, etc. The multi-national teams create a contemporary work and fashion; the skills include gold and silver working, body decoration, etc.
For Vitra from Slovenia, the focus could be the Celts from development of the Urnfield culture with beautifully crafted iron objects and weapons typical of the Hallstatt period to the creation of the Celtic state of Noricum. The offering of valued treasures by throwing in the Ljubljanica & development of lake villages. Images and veneration of nature & clothing and body decoration of Celtic tribes known from Romans plus archaeology as the basis of contemporary work. Skills include metal-working, body tattooing and textiles.
For STROPEK in Slovakia the folk tradition from later Medieval period, focus on Easter, fertility, witches, etc. Coincide with the first of the witches' days on the 25th of November, St. Katarina's Day. People believed that from then up until the 21st of December, evil powers in the form of demons and witches ruled the Earth. The role of the church and the art of the church, such as iconography is important too. The skills are those of creating the elaborate costumes, i.e., lace-making, spinning, weaving and dyeing, also dancing and story-telling.
For ARCH, vernacular costume and skills associated with Highland villagers and crofters. The costume of the plaid and later, emergence of tartan, the sporran and the skirl of the pipes. Story-telling, warrior clans and links to agriculture. The settlement of the Scotia in the Kilmartin valley and clatter crofters at Auchindrain (a ‘Kailyard’ celebration is planned). The contemporary fashion, music and drama stemming from the rich cultural landscape of the Highlands.
There will be a major dissemination event towards the end of the project – this will be at some internationally recognised festival – it could be at Leipzigger Messe in Germany or at the Crafts Fair in Kezmarok in Slovakia or the ‘Vital Spark’ conference in Aviemore in Scotland.
The CHANTICA partners are aware that 2008 is European Year of Intercultural Dialogue and recognise and agree current European thinking… “The cultural and natural heritage provides a sense of identity and helps to differentiate communities in a climate of globalisation. It allows cultural communities to discover and understand one another and, at the same time, constitutes a development asset’ (Council of Europe 2006). The partners especially recognise that cultural and natural heritage is a development asset and we wish to explore this on a European level.
European policy has shaped the partners thinking on cultural co-operation and provided a framework that is applied to each project and each action within a project…
1. Respect of identity and of cultural diversity
2. Respect of freedom of expression, of association, of opinion (cf. the articles of the European
Convention on Human Rights)
3. Support of creativity
4. Development in the involvement and democratisation of culture
(Main principles held by the Council of Europe in cultural matters)
From the project will emerge performances that have a truly European dimension. These will be a combination of truly European art and a celebration of the contemporary and the historical links between European states. Links from the past will be emphasised through storytelling, legends and exploring of theories… such as Britto, the son on Aeneas (a vanquished hero of Troy) sailing to Britain and giving the country his name and the Celts moving through Central Europe along the great river systems. Also the festivals and events celebrating culture, such as the ‘witches days’ in Slovakia, have synergy with other cultural events which illustrates the commonality of our continent. The former movement of European peoples has made our continent what it is and a focus will be made on (contentious to some) current movements – for example Eastern & Central Europeans coming to work in the Mediterranean and the west; those critics may be able to see that the cycle of movements is nothing new but enhances our continents cultural diversity.
Many of the young participants are from remoter and more peripheral regions of Europe. England, Scotland and Slovakia have different racial tensions and xenophobic attitudes. The Highlands of Scotland and the mountainous region of Cumbria in North West England, have very low numbers of ethnic minorities and people can be inward looking and not understanding or appreciating that they are part of the European Union. The CHANTICA project, will go a small way towards rectifying that situation.
It is important that young people, especially disadvantaged young people, have increased access to and opportunity to create art. Art and the culture it can be used to celebrate, is belonging to all and our partnership want to create a model that allows for more people to be involved in art and culture. The CHANTICA therefore seeks to create a model of best practice that others may wish to follow. The model not only increases opportunities for disadvantaged youth but facilitates training and the passing of craft and art skills from older people to younger people and between states and artists. This is a goal that matches closely to European policy and the CHANTICA partnership want to work within European policy but also to shape it.
For the partners Grampus, ARCH, STROPEK and Vitra, there is some familiarity through joint working in the past. The Greek partner e-ISOTIS are a new partner for all and it is thought they have special skills that will add to an expanding network of cultural professionals who will continue to do joint working in the future. ARCH, STROPEK, Vitra and Grampus have done very limited work with disabled young people but e-ISOTIS are specialising in this area and will assist all partners to move more into this area (where there is great need) if that is in their organisational plans.
The work within the Culture 2000 programme will assist the partners to enter into other EU programmes such as ‘Youth’, Leonardo da Vinci’, Leader Plus’, EUMED, Interreg III; thus spreading their cross-sectoral and international joint working ideas and successes.
For further
information please visit the main website for the CHANTICA project at www.archnetwork.eu
