[Blueprint for a Breakthrough (2013)]
Shane Koyczan
Why not encouraging people to express their own vision of Europe differently, in face of crises? Why not supporting proactive development of resilience by means of creativity and artistic projects? The time has come to start looking to the outcomes that such an institution has on citizens and how they, the people and especially the youth, experience it, rather than focusing on what this institution is and how it works.
This proposal means to approach the subject of Europe, its resilience, its heterogeneity and its diversity of voices from the perspective of art. It proposes an innovative process on how to outline areas where culture’s relationship to resilience creates openings for art to enhance community vibrancy, civic engagement and p’ART’icipation, while sparking the imagination and pursuit of desirable options to the status quo, ignorance or populism that young people are facing more and more.
Culture and art are the backbones of every society. It is our first education and it is every generation’s right and responsibility to enjoy it. Thus, concrete european projects, as the three described in the paper, linked with art or an artistic approach, would allow people to feel, see and think differently. These projects help facilitate an understanding of how European citizens see themselves in an always more complex Europe, and how they can become tomorrow’s resilient citizens of the world.
Amidst struggle and despair, art can inspire and give hope.
