With the call for applications “Multiply Perspectives” (2022), Pro Helvetia aims to support projects that seek innovative ways of thinking critically about art and culture and about their function in society.
A total of 53 projects were submitted by arts practitioners following the call for applications under the heading “Multiply Perspectives”. The specialist jury selected eight projects that were most convincing in terms of multi-perspective approach as well as quality, originality, participatory elements and critical reflection.
The eight projects supported are:
Nutritive practices
foodculture days
Foodculture Days puts the emphasis on collaboration with the local population and aims to trigger critical reflection of the roles of art and culture. The biennial festival’s outreach programme was developed in cooperation with various artists and intends to initiate long-term and sustainable social and ecological processes.
Front Row
Camille Farrah Buhler, Tara Mabiala
A podcast on stereotypes in the fashion industry. Features such as exploitation, pollution and luxury dominate public discourse on the subject. Front Row however spotlights other aspects such as the sociological and symbolic dimensions of clothing.
The Futuress Syllabus: a critical design hub for everyone
Depatriarchise design
A one-year programme consisting of lectures, panel discussions and online events that focus on political, social and ecological issues as well as on elementary design topics. The aim is to provide a broad-based panorama of perspectives and, by critical thinking, lay the groundwork for a new discourse in design.
Volldabei und vollaufgeklärt
Transit Productions
An artistic and reflective discourse exploring the topics of flight and migration is to be initiated with a variety of participatory projects (including walkable installations and discussion formats) that take place at public cultural institutions. The project’s quest is for a new manner of sustainable and participatory collaboration between institutions, cultural practitioners, migrants and other specialists. The main focus is on an ongoing exchange of knowledge and experience.
[in]operabilites
Leo Hofmann
[in]operabilities is a research and production platform looking into the art form of opera with questions regarding its accessibility, possibilities of inclusive work, and the usefulness of opera-abilities for communal and social life. An event in the German-speaking part of Switzerland is to be held at which artists, institutions and other interested parties can attend a workshop with encounters and the sharing of knowledge and experience.
Stadt als Debatte
Public Culture Lab
An experimental debate format at the interface of art and culture, politics and science. The series of events is to be held in a different Swiss city each season. In collaboration with local partners from the worlds of culture, politics and media, it involves specialists and audiences in a transdisciplinary dialogue on important local, national and global issues (including questions such as: What are old white men doing? Is democracy in decline? Who cares about Africa?).
Encounters: activating presence
Deborah Macauley, Mira Rojzman
This public series of events spotlights people and groups that play a role in Swiss life, but are rarely visible in arts and cultural institutions. These are especially people with a migration background and queer BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) who, based on various experiences of oppression, have developed strategies of resistance. The public are invited to take part in multi-perspective encounters and dialogues that want to achieve more than just making marginalised people more visible.
Afropolitan Perspectives in Literatur und Kultur
Artlink
In a series of readings in Eastern Switzerland, Romandie and Ticino, Afropolitan Perspectives explores the long history of cultural influences and links between Switzerland and the African continent. The focus is on complex interactive relations between literary texts, local experiences and translocal developments in culture and society.
About Critical Reflection
In the “Critical Reflection” programme, Pro Helvetia supports projects that seek new forms of art outreach and education, and that strengthen critical debate on culture and contemporary arts production. For this purpose, we are launching three calls for applications in the 2022-2024 period, each with different focal points that build on one another.
