Zuky Serper, centrally involved in the Art and Culture side of things at the London ESF reports on behalf of the Art & Culture working group.

Report about the work of the ESF art & cultural working group, October 2004

The 3rd European Social Forum closed yesterday, October 17th 2004. The global public sphere met for three days of discussions, exchange of thoughts and perceptions about future developments, the conduction of the world in matters of war and peace, condemnation of the war in Iraq and call to pull the troops out, commitment to fight against the rise of racism, protection of the global environment, support for social justice and objection to neo-liberalism and privatisation policies. The different groups included various social forces, representing numerous people: trade unions, NGOs, charities and campaign groups, red and green political parties, faith and ethnic groups. They were united on the main issue: the state of the world needs radical change; the ways to do it are varied.

The ESF art&cultural working group started to meet early in the year (2004) and became responsible for:

*The integration of culture into the main ESF programme, so art and culture will not function as decoration only.
*Emphasising a non-hierarchical and horizontal participation and evaluation of art and cultural proposals, which was reflected in the fact that the art&cultural working group was open to all, and the inclusion of all proposals in the programme.
*Becoming the address for the art and cultural events, proposed by artists from the movement and artists interested in participating in the ESF. We received 180 proposals for events in music, theatre, visual arts and photography, installations and performances.
*Preparing the cultural programme and arranging the practicalities for them: venues, publicity, equipment. This was done by the small working groups for each art form, who reported back to the ESF art&cultural working group.
*The ESF art&cultural working group disseminated the above objectives to artists organisations, local and minority groups cultural organisations, trade unions, art colleges and universities and the institutions of main stream art: galleries, museums and theatres.
*The ESF art&cultural working groupís work included: contacting and sharing all information with the Autonomous Spaces, initiating cultural events before and during the ESF, including allied events in the ESF programme, and securing free netrance to all cultural events, inside and outside the official ESF. There was cooperation between the The ESF art&cultural working group and the European Creative Forum, the Solidarity Village in Conway Hall and members from Indymedia. *There is a need to further develope this cooperation in the future.
*Focusing the debates in the seminar: Culture - A Weapon of Mass Construction; Art Overcoming Racism, War and Neo-Liberalism, that took place in Alexandra Palace on Saturday, 16th October from 14:00 in Marquee 1.

Report from the seminar:

Culture - A Weapon of Mass Construction; Art Overcoming Racism, War and Neo-Liberalism. (Alexandra Palace, Saturday, 16th Oct. 2004, 14:00-16:00, Marquee 1). Chair: Golam Mostafa.

The seminar dealt with reporting about current ways that the movement is building an alternative and replacing the existing forms of operation of the institutions of art, art funding and presentation. This is done mainly by self-organising, which suffers from the imballance distribution of public resources.

A great deal of the discussion was about ways of providing information about events and issues that the main stream media doesnít show us, by employing sources of alternative media and film making from the movement.

In the context of alternative media, the speakers expressed our solidarity with Indymediaís demand to return its hard-disks, that were seized by the FBI last week from the UK based service provider. It is a worrying threat to open and free speech, access to information and the movementís tool of creating global links and providing information.

Some speakers emphasised the movementís commitment to work on a grass roots level (NOVOX), for the people, pointing to the contradiction between articulating a radical critique of new-labour policies in culture and remaining within the framework of state funding.

There is a need to educate the movement about cultural forms that do not correspond to the traditional forms and functions of art; art done by activists as an expression and the promotion of the movement sometimes speaks the language of provocation, it is de-materialised, not-necasserelly aesthetic or employs non-aesthetic values.

There was a call to the movement, to recognise the particular way in which art and culture help changing peopleís perceptions, raising awareness, of the world. Art has a liberating power, that can be joined to the straight forward political work. However, art and cultural workers should reject any attempt by the movement to administer their freedom of expression or holding them as mere instruments.

Art of the movement started initiatives, that were later adopted by main stream cultural institutions (here came a discussion of the experience of Artists Against the War in political theatre.)

Art and cultural workers address three fronts:

*artists and the (anti-capitalist) movement: educating the movement from inside.
*artists and the institutions of art: educating the authouritative institutions of art and culture: introducing the movement to main stream art and cultural worlds.
*artists and the world: our main goal is taking part in the struggle to change the world, based on the WSF Charter of Principles and/or beyond.

Decisions that the seminar has taken:

To continue the work of the ESF art&cultural working group between now and the next ESF in 2006, in order to use the experience and momentum of this yearís process.
To set up a network of art and cultural workers for the above purpose accross Europe, to coordinate and cooperate future actions and participation in global events. Contact details that were collected during the ESF will be the initial list, and emails will be sent out as soon as they are processed.
The network will continue the efforts of the ESF art&cultural working group to promote culture as an integral part of the programme, as discussed above. It will initiate deeper theoretical discussions about the forms and roles of art and culture between ESFs.
The ESF art&cultural working group will organise its network to prepare for three main dates that are on the movementís calender: - 19th March 2005: global demonstration against the continuing war in Iraq.
- 1st May 2005 (Mayday): raise the issues of fight against racism, for peace and social justice, and prepare for the G8 events.
- July 2005: counter conference and protests against the G8 in Scotland.
Include a chapter about culture in the Call of the Assembly of Social Movements, London, 17th October 2004.

Zuky
for the ESF art&cultural working group