Don’t Border Me, residency, Arles, spring 2009

The “Don’t Border Me” Residency • Arles • Spring 2009

by David Drury

From the 28th to the 31st of January, 2009, the Don’t Border Me association assembled a group of 7 artists and arts administrators in Arles, France.

The organisations represented at the conference were:

Don’t Border Me – Arles, FRANCE
SAT – Montréal, CANADA
Khayal – Beyrouth, LEBANON
Gudran – Alexandrie, EGYPT
Love Difference – Biella, ITALY
IMAL – Munich, GERMANY
St James Cavalier – Valetta, MALTA

Born in part in Montreal (former resident Christelle Franca being the founder) DBM was conceived as a means through which to solidify links between artistic groups, projects and individuals the world over who share common aims and interests (link to manifesto).

These interests can be summarised in part as:
– A desire to use art and music as tools for effecting social and political change.
– A desire to create strongly networked communities of artists and arts organisations engaged in both individual and collective projects.
– To reach, through such initiatives and networks, creative solutions to the often alarming fragmentation imposed by a world of heavily contested borders.

The group assembled in Arles represented a wide array of backgrounds – both artists (visual arts, theater, film, music) and arts administrators. Each of us was attending both as individuals with a specific practice and as representatives of a larger social/cultural network. Much of the first two days were spent with presentations from each of the delegates about the nature of their work and the goals of the organisations they represent. These were followed by periods of discussion, slowly giving shape to a common mandate.

In terms of artistic practice, the conference was an excercise in interdisciplinary possibilities. The original focus of the DBM’s activities was mostly based in sound (both music and sonic documentary). In Arles, these fields were represented by Christelle and myself, whose activities continue to have a strong sound basis, and complemented by the work of Michael Quinton, a Maltese musician who has organised an ongoing series of highly innnovative musical projects in Malta and abroad. Uli Glass also brought a strong background in musical projects, having mounted (among other things) a full length Hip-hop Opera (West End Story, 1999-2001) with youth groups at IMAL that toured in Europe and North America. Nemeh Nemeh has a background in theater, puppetry and storytelling, often working with art as a therapeutic means of approaching youth heavily affected by the legacy of war in Lebanon. Sameh El Halawani has a background in visual arts and in recent years has devoted himself to community-based projects aimed at giving cultural recognition to marginalised communities in Alexandria. The work entails elements of visual art, but equally traditional artisanal forms such as textiles. Through Love Difference, Emanuella Baldi has been engaged with a host of projects, most recenly the Recipes project which has created a network of artistic initiatives expressed as culinary creations.

Sound, visual art, theater, storytelling, textiles, gastronomy. Part of the aim of the conference was to conceive of ways to create mult-disciplinary projects that span such a wide range of activities. The ‘Solutions Toolkit’ was one proposed means of doing this, from the DBM manifesto

We are building a “Solutions Tool Kit”, a library of sounds, images, texts, and objects, based upon the idea of “Arts of Celebration” consciously chosen as an instrument of social and individual creativity, freedom, awareness and harmony.

The toolkit would comprise elements created in the context of individual projects, be they recipes in Italy, soundscapes in Montreal, or puppet theater in Lebanon, and assemble them as an integrated package to be disseminated throughout the network. The thematic unity of the toolkit comes through the notion of “celebration” (alternately called “festive resistance”), a term that denotes any activity that refutes conditions that might be oppressive (whether economically, socially, politically) by creating a space for people to reconnect with a sense of joy in life – a practice traditionally attributed to many social arts be it dance, music, theater etc…

The toolkit is designed as a participative project. While each element is conceived by a particular group, the toolkit then becomes a sort of multimedia palette to be used as raw material in further projects by other satellites of the network. An ever evolving open source artwork.

The SAT’s involvement with DBM goes back to 2006 when it was the chosen location for a concert that linked artists in Montreal with artists in Beirut. This first concert established many of the aims of the project, namely building international networks and using art as a response to difficult situations (in this case the war in Lebanon). The SAT was a unique participant in the Arles conference in that it was the only non-European /Mediterranean organisation. Ironically this removed position makes the SAT an ideal focal point for coordinating some of the organisation’s activities. Because one of the SAT’s ongoing missions is to further technological possibilities in the realm of networked diffusion, it makes perfect sense that Montreal might be seen as a central point in the group’s activities, a hub for networked performances and events. Already a conference has been planned at the SAT in June of this year to discuss the activities of the DBM orchestra both past and future, as well as the ways in which these can be integrated within the framework of the SAT’s own projects and vice-versa.

Over the course of the four days in Arles, what emerged was a spirit of solidarty. There was a recognition that while the material circumstances in different countries may be quite different, the fundamental issues are the same: how to integrate art into the greater social fabric through creative use of the available means and technologies, and how to extend and strengthen the mission of local organisations through colaborative exchange with a wider international community. Much was learned in this first residency, and much remains to be done. We are all excited about the possibilities that lie ahead and the involvement of the SAT in such a project is a major and meaningful step in expanding its international presence and brining its tools to an ever widening international scene.

David Drury, Montreal, 2009