[artinfo] Transnational Dialogues Journal 2016

[e-artnow]

Transnational Dialogues

European Alternatives

www.transnationaldialogues.eu

<mailto:td at euroalter.com>td at euroalter.com
Ms Stella Tang

The TD Journal 2016 is now out
Transnational Dialogues is a project by European Alternatives

Extract from the Journal's introduction 
'Fragments of a Journey' by Luigi Galimberti

<<<
Transnational Dialogues started in 2011, 
embarking on a fascinating journey from Europe to 
China, then to Brazil, and eventually back to 
Europe. The first moves of the journey were with 
the relaxed but unpredictable pace of a flâneur. 
Translating flâneur into Chinese required a 
collective and disproportionate amount of effort, 
with unexpected findings; the Chinese translation 
of the word suggests the gentleman stroller of 
city streets is a 'thug' when exercising his 
investigative power in the hutongs of Beijing.

A curious, and each time larger audience gathered 
for those first ephemeral discussions. 
Competences and perspectives were mixed and 
matched. The leisurely stroll became the 
relentless procession of a series of Caravans, 
which for more than two years followed both old 
and new routes, attempting crossings that had 
been largely unexplored. The step from China to 
Brazil was ambitious, but unavoidable. It was 
pushed by the desire to go beyond the limits of 
the nation-states that dictate the rules of 
politics and economics, to gain a more 
comprehensive vision of this globalised world, 
and to create and strengthen independent networks 
of individuals and organisations in these areas.

The Caravans involved about a hundred young 
researchers, practitioners and political 
activists from the fields of architecture, 
urbanism, design, visual arts, philosophy, 
poetry, as well as other fields of work and life. 
They exchanged and co-created against a backdrop 
of what was rightly perceived as the first cracks 
of three fragile utopias: that of Brazil, China 
and Europe. The Brazilian economic miracle of 
sunny beaches and irresistible sambas quickly 
came into question with the protests of June 
2013, which dared to ask whose utopia the 
politicians and the media were talking about when 
a significant proportion of the country's people 
could not afford a twenty-cents raise of the bus 
fare. The Chinese Dream of a harmonious society, 
based on economic liberalism and political 
authoritarianism, was also taking its toll on the 
lives of those who were cut out from the benefits 
of the country's growth, suffering physically and 
psychologically for the lack of their civil and 
political rights, as the citizens of Hong Kong - 
soon to become the stage of the Umbrella Movement 
- had experienced.

Finally, in the European Union, short-sightedness 
and inadequate bureaucrats and politicians failed 
to address the widespread discontent and social 
suffering that had been accumulating for years, 
leading to what will probably be considered the 
most severe political crisis since the end of the 
Second World War: Britain refreshed its imperial 
nostalgia, Crimea once more became a war stage, 
and far right politicians continue to carve their 
positions of power by promoting religious and 
racial hatred. Returning from our journey, the 
Europe we expected to come back to, was changed 
irretrievably. In fact, we could no longer find 
that Europe. We were left in between spaces, 
reduced to fragments dispersed along the global 
flux of ideas, ideas that we had opened up, but 
were quickly overwhelmed by.

As a last recourse, we shifted our discourse from 
utopic political visions, to the reality of the 
margins, from the solitary investigation of the 
flâneur, to the collective re-organisation of 
labour. While in advanced economies today's 
younger generation risks ending up poorer than 
their parents, in less-developed economies new 
forms of (extreme) poverty and exclusion are on 
the rise. Despite being largely invisible, 
deprived of financial means and, in several 
instances, denied their legal rights, individuals 
and organisations throughout Brazil, China, 
Europe (as indeed all over the world), are 
battling for a fairer redistribution of resources 
and for the creation of a social environment 
based on cooperation and sharing, rather than on 
aggressiveness and extortion.

This Journal mirrors the two principal thematic 
approaches of the project. The first section, 
'Between Crowds and Empires', examines the 
polarities of collaborative and sharing 
economies, taking into account the different 
cultural perspectives from Europe, China and 
Brazil. The second section, 'Marginalia', deals 
with the inequalities and racialisation of 
geopolitics, as well as with the practices of 
those groups and individuals that are seeking 
niches beyond traditional social structures.
>>>

Texts by Robin Resch, Pedro Victor Brandão, 
Felipe Duarte, Sun Siwei, Erik Rodrigues, Chen 
Yiming, Margherita D'Andrea and Corrado Gemini, 
Indy Johar, Julijana Nicha, Iva âukiç, Noel 
Hatch, Man Yu, Ge Fei and Ge Lei, Jota Mombaca 
and Luigi Galimberti.

Visual contributions by Berna Reale, Dai Hua and Tobias Zielony.

Edited by Luigi Galimberti.

The Journal is freely available for consultation 
and download at 
<http://www.transnationaldialogues.eu>www.transnationaldialogues.eu. 
Hard copies of the Journal are available for 
pick-up in Belém (Casulo Cultural), Beijing 
(Goethe-Institut China, I: project space), Berlin 
(European Alternatives), Belgrade (Remont 
Gallery), Chongqing (Organhaus), Manchester 
(CFCCA), Rio de Janeiro (Universidade Nomade), 
Rome (Alternative Europee), São Paulo 
(Goethe-Institut, Casa Tomada, Casa do Povo) and 
Venice (SaLE Docks).

***

TRANSNATIONAL DIALOGUES is a project run by the 
non-profit NGO European Alternatives and a 
consortium of grassroots NGOs, mid-level 
institutions, informal groups, and public 
authorities active in the youth, cultural and 
creative fields, which researched and developed 
innovative models to challenge the precariousness 
and marginalisation of younger generations. It 
developed around the model of a temporary 
transnational community called a 'Nomadic 
Residency', which took place in several locations 
across Europe (September-October 2015), Brazil 
(March 2016) and China (June 2016).

With the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the 
European Union and the Goethe-Institut.