ACT – Art Cooperation Transmission

The Art Cooperation Transmission project aims to promote contemporary art in its ability to think, invent and represent the democratic changes of Europe in an era of globalization. It intends to be a joint laboratory and a factory for inventive and collaborative democratic building.

Statement

Because the withdrawal into separatist identities that occurs in many European countries is an alarming symptom of a crisis of democracy within Europe,

Because Europe is now reaching the limits of an economic model which is resulting in brutal social fragmentation and deepening inequalities among individuals and countries,

Because the conditions required for the exercise of democracy are now being suffocated by obsolescent administrative, legislative and communication structures,

Because the critical, educational and creative dimensions of art are fundamental conditions to the exercise of democracy,

Because in an era of globalization, we believe that interrelation between the commonplace and the singular should cultivate difference, discontinuity and contradiction as the basis of our representations of reality, we, the partners in the Art Cooperation Transmission Democ[k]racy project uphold the following convictions:

In the face of withdrawal into separatist identities, we believe that the ongoing progress of European democracies in the era of globalization depends on our ability to cultivate a continuous, inter-penetrable, porous dynamic with respect to otherness.

In the face of critical, educational and creative challenges, we believe that art has the capacity to bring historic, cultural and social elements into relationship with each other in order to generate unpredictable representations, unexpected encounters and innovative creations.

Amid an over-administrated and decreasingly inventive culture, we believe that the vitality of contemporary creativity involves the constant cultivation of a dynamic that encompasses tension, transformation and the invention of cultural and artistic projects.

We have thus designed the A.C.T. Democ[k]racy project to encourage theoretical research and artistic creativity as tools of critical analysis and inventiveness with regard to new ways of engaging in democracy.

The A.C.T. Democ[k]racy project calls for a permanent commitment in favour of powerful experiments which can contribute to the practice of democracy in both art and thought, notably by devising constructive attitudes with regard to new cultural challenges, as well as encouraging diversity in aesthetics, thought and culture.

The A.C.T. Democ[k]racy project is passionately in favour of movement, interchange and openness as the first conditions for the free circulation of ideas and works.