sketches for sønderborg 2017_cultura21_koefoed

8/3/2019 Sketches for Snderborg 2017_Cultura21_Koefoed

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A. Cultures of sustainability in Snderborg and Slesvig 2017

A main idea behind these thoughts is the issue of sustainability, or more precisely how the processof Snderborg as CCOC could contribute to developing cultures of sustainability in the city-region. This is taken as a first point in part because of the relatively high ambitions of the city ofSnderborg in wanting to be CO2-neutral in 2029, but not only. This issue oes not only have to do

with technical issues around reducing CO2 and lowering climate change impact, how importantthis might be when it comes to allowing for a future at all. It is more about seeing the period which

we are going through as a transition towards what Peter Head from ARUP calls an ecologicalage, and which I would call here cultures of sustainability.

The idea behind this concept can be studied at length (!) in thesis and articles coming fromCultura21 members these years; I will only explain it very briefly here, as it is important for the

approach that I develop. Cultures of sustainability are used as a way to envisage a much moreexplicite connection along creative, critical, and responsible lines, between the differents agents ofsociety (i.e. both of change and reaction): artists, scientists, business developers, mayors, schoolteachers, museum directors and custodians, farmers, commuters, children and youth, legal andillegal migrants, philosophers, engineers, etc. This explicitation of the connection is something

which is highly interesting in a Danish context, in the country building many deals on the phraseden, der lever skjult, lever godt (praising the peace of hidden connections and covert deals) this was one of the concerns of many leading figures in agriculture and pork slaughtery that Iinterviewed a few years ago, when stories were beginning to surface in the media about unethicalpig transports. The claim behind the concept is that we have to form many new alliances in order

to move from where we are to reaching culture(s) of sustainability. Why? Simply because many ofus face the kind of difficulties presented to a region like this one: economic, cultural, natural,erosion or even extinction. This should be reason enough, but of course that is easy to say. Mostdeals and alliances are built on existing connections, not new ones.

A part of this issue has to do with overcoming the culture-nature schism, so central to the samemodernity on which Snderborg's history rests. A central example of this is the relation between

the culture and the sea, a relation that has gradually and in sudden bursts slipped from deepintimacy to superficial distance. When you look at the history of the region, and it's worth a look,you find a lot of wealth, abundance even, importance, strategic sites, but also the fact that in manyways the fate of the region used to build on a deep, direct connection to the materiality of the area.This geo-identity is still present here, but the occupations and industries that grew from it havebeen disembedded, they could now happen anywhere. With this a culture grows that is always

looking elsewhere to compare itself, in provincial manners, looking to copy and overwin therivals, or just offering yourself an oppportunity to leave before your neighbour. Or even lookingback, looking at nature (and culture to the extent that two are linked, and they are) as a carrier ofmemories and past alone. This is of course quite different from the scientific perspective, whichmust see in nature (and culture to some extent) a source of innovation, new discoveries, andopportunities (although of course also of limitations, of sustension, not only as a source of material

wealth or food). This is why most of the really interesting artists that work with the nature-culturerelation have passed through a scientific training of some kind, offering them a way to leave the

heavy burden of being eco-illiterate (this leads mainly to superficial decorations of nature and/orto romantic images of a past that will never return).

Thus, taking this concept of cultures of sustainability into consideration means understanding thedemands that big-scale change actually calls for. These demands are understood by more than

scientists: also project planners and engineers, and even cultural agents and sometimes politiciansunderstand that big-scale change requires an encounter between the open, experimentative process,

and the discipline of organisation. What is the big-scale change plan for this kind of a project? Oneimportant task is to change the orientation of the relation between the human population of theregion and the non-human (the soil, the sea, the fauna and flora, the hills, the cities and buildings).

The process leading to 2017 could be a turning point for identifying new ways to make theseconnections in which the ever more interesting forms of what used to be called eco-art couldmake an important first contribution. But this could be undertaken from many angles (andshould!). The point of connection, involvement and participation is also important to see in an


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open way: there is not only the people in power and the ones outside of it, the people and themasters, although this has often been the case for this region. Culturally instigated innovationleading to cultures of sustainability needs to encompass a mix between authenticity andcomplexity. The first is the clue to the past, the second to the future. But they also form the keys inthe combination of open honesty and really broad involvement that might be possible, could beimportant, and would probably be crucial in order to change things.

The specific projects that could be undertaken are many, but the key words would have to do withaltering the relations between human and non-human (as described here in A), building memoriesfor the future in iterative, collaborative, transdisciplinary projects (B), opening up economy andpolitics and in the same run opening up art (C), transcending the barriers between populationsthrough new cultural diplomacy (D), and instigating the University of Sustainability (E).

Common to all these are a transversal approach of open processes, bringing in all the relevantactors in a jolt toward the future, rather than a struggle for balance and power in the present.Rather than a moral call, this is a matter ofReflexivity, of being reflective about what has thegreatest value for the project and the region. Reflexivity is a central point in why artists andcultural agents and institutions are importants agents of change for sustainability (Dieleman,

2008). But reflexivity does not only belong with these particular groups. It should/could bedeveloped as an irreplacable element of all culture, and thus an essential point in the processes of

opening up a region not only to its environment, but also to its own processes.

B. Places and sites for memories of past and future

This is the question of the place in a more general sense, and in a very specific sense of sites andspots that have their histories and narratives, an element which is of course important for theregion. Bear in mind in reading this the poits made above about changing the relations betweenhuman and non-human in the region. I suggest that the emotions and cultures around the placesand sites are met with both respect and creativity, as there are important issues at stake connectedto the use of specific sites. We could use the workshop and the coming months to close in througha first move on what the principles could be behind the use of sites. A purpose of this would be to

overcome the obvious traps of places such as Dybbl Mlle, connected almost exclusively to warsbetween nations and the dominance of particular truisms about the others and ourselves. These are

places that most of all talk of the relations between Danes and Germans, and through this also ofother relations. It is certainly worth celebrating that the relations between those nations is (in someways) so far today from the spirit of the 1860's, not to mention the 1940's. However, it is equallyimportant to use this opportunity to explore new ways out of the deadlocks of border-relations hereas well as in the world in general. Slesvig is one of those regions that is not only a border region,but one that reaches into several different nation-states. This allows for a perspective that isalready from the onset wider than the nation-state.

Surely, collective memory is not only a bad thing. Collective memory, seen very visibly thoughcultural heritage, is part of the tissue of a region. It can serve as a foundation for resistance n many

cases; however, it is not indifferent what memories are being linked to the past and which ones tothe future of the region. How does the trail of a cannon boat in the coastline of Als help us tounderstand the future of the region? Maybe by telling us of the weight and impact of human

intervention upon the earth? Maybe by opening up to issues of the justification of war, of themeaning of war, and more specifically of the wars and conflicts in the history of the region, aselements that have long held great importance. Maybe it is time to benefit from the angles of thenew generations, or from foreigners, or even from the local citizen, to open up these very deepissues.

As part of the understanding of how sites may contribute to the renewal announced by the use ofsites, lies the relationship to things, to the object-ive. Making the substantial of things and places ahook on which to move the relation between culture and nature, or between cultures and their

futures, calls also for a cultural politics of bringing together, rather than building bridges. All in all,the importance here may not be where the borders are today, but how they have moved and wherethey are in the future. It is worth remembering that there are many kinds of borders: the inner ones,the geographic ones, the borders of what we can do today, and the absolute borders of death (and


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of extinction). But connecting builds upon a different value, the one of love, which may be infiniteand borderless but mostly isn't. I don't understand love here as romantic love, but as a force ofculture which has to do with coming closer, with intimacy, and with forgiving, which again has todo with forgetting. Intimacy and forgetting to forgive can be very powerful approaches forbuilding new relations. But of course they also meet lots of resistance. So if one were to start upprocesses in this direction, it would be necessary to raise pretty high stakes. In other words, thepoliticians would have to believe that this ECOC process could in fact change the lives of people

in the region towards new memories of a more sustainable future. This process can be carried outthough force and propaganda (and very big monuments that tend to become monuments of foolisharrogance and violence long after their maecenes have gone), or through participatory processes,which calls for real artistic creativity and real democratic influence. This could be one of the cluesto linking the geographic with the digital, a field which is exploding even in our days through theuse of locative media (and which will be way ahead in 6 years).

C. Economies of the 2020's

The American economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has been writing and talking about sustainability ineconomy for decades, writes in one of his latest books: culture of collaborationsmmnneineiie.

Sachs explains that this ability to collaborate is a cue to solving the main problems of the citizensand governments of the earth. Not only in its own right, but also because it presents the greatestobstacles to solving the other critical issues: making deals around reducing environmentaldevastation; world poverty, and over-population. The importance can not be exaggerated ofplacing these problems under one view, rather than separating them due to disciplinary boundaries.

One way in which this can be done is by bringing in the idea of open culture, combining culturewith the open of open processes, open innovation, and open source. The concept of open is onewhich has already has a huge impact on our economies, and which may in the next decades be oneof the only solutions to how to survive the impact of the new south-eastern production machine.

Open is a philosophy and a political reality, which is frightening at first, but leads to addiction andto completely new paradigms. One of the elements in open is the concept of co-creation. This

could ba a key word in the invitation to how to revive the parts of the region that can not expect toalways be directly under Mads Clausen's wings. At this point, it is important also for the culturalplayers, the artists and others, to consider their role and how far they want to go. If Snderborgwants to develop a new economic foundation, building on collaboration and open processesinvolving also artists and thinkers, the latter should not be satisfied with merely reproducingKafka's The Castle. Of course, this is a fantastic novel and it is very useful in terms of questioning

the relation between the people of Snderborg in the past and now, and where they want to go. Butit mainly serves as a negative compass: no one holds the answers, no one makes a true impact tochange things. The project sketched very briefly below indicates a simple point: artists should beready to get their hands dirty, whcih is not the same as falling into docile prostitution (althoughmany artists are already very good at his discipline). The open process needs the creativityinherent in art, which makes it logical to invite artists. But it also needs the relative autonomy and

reflective courage of the artist, which moves this idea away from simply being about arts-in-business. Last year showed us a lot of cases of artists giving in to stupid prostitution and

companies buying into art without scruples, both being an insult to the issues at stake before andduring COP15 (i would highlight here mainlyHopenhagen, which was the most brutally manifestdestruction of the possibility of art for ecology of them all, with its monstrous ball of hot air in thecentral square, a symbol of the kind of political games going on at the Bella Center, while theinteresting connections were going on elsewhere).

The theme that we have been discussing at several ocasions is the one of the relation between the

culture and the sea, as it is deonstrated and questioned by the now withering ports that are soabundant in Denmark and Northern Germany. It is important to think and think well, openlycreatively and with openness to bringing in economic issues in radically innovative ways, when it

comes to the issue of the ports. On a principal level, Hatto and Joakim made the point thatharbours are connectors, and receptors, between cultures. This point is important especially as theCCOC process could be one which allows to look up alternatives to the poor copy of BO01 inMalm or even some of the maritime habitation zones in the Netherlands or the UK. Some of the


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plans being installed in the region will certainly have a direct economic impact on the region, butin order to avoid the pitfall of becoming a touristic region only, it will be important to try to makedeeper connections between i.e. art, science, business, and citizens in re-inventing the physical andeconomi importance of the ports. A place like Flensburg is obiously relevant for this, but evenSnderborg will meet the same issues. The answer is not obvious but two points are worth notinghere for me: one is that the more different actors are involved in developing new hubs ofeconomically viable creativity, the better, from all perspectives: employment, depopulation,

economy, citizenship, cultural value, etc. The other is that this also offers a different answer to thequestion of the local resistance to new art and high culture: in general, they simply don't see thepurpose, and the local culture is a very pragmatic one, coming from layers of peasant revoltagainst an aristocracy that ended its days in ridicule and pomp. This doe not necessarily mean thateverything new and different is rejected. But art will have to answer to the question: what is it for?,a thousand times and more, during this process. And why not? (of course, I am underestimating,or rather, I am suggesting that conservatism can be turned into a positive value through open, buthumble challenges.. which you know very well.)

D. Cultural diplomacy and open processes

The two last points will be developed a little less, manily out of a lack of time; not because I donot find them important. But they also both represent something which has alo not been very muchat the heart of diuscussions so far, so I will start out by laying them out carefully and briefly,seeing how they are received before developing them further in this context.

The first has to do with the phenomenon of cultural diplomacy, one which has been discussedquite a bit the recent years, as a new (or not so new) tool for spreading an agenda without havingrecurse to war or other violent action. However, in the discussions around practices of culturaldiplomacy, it is not often mentioned that this can be a way to work with the intercultural andtranscultural from below, from the layers of open and creative dialogue, rather than from dictates

and ill-hidden progaganda by leaders searching for new means of persusasion. The interest aspectrelated to this region is that it is a region which has had to develop new forms of cultural

diplomacy simply to be able to exist and co-exist in the last centuries, and in the last 65 yearsespecially. The zone that we are working with here is both a zone of agriculture, of sedentaryculture, but also of more nomadic aristocracy, political, artistic, economic, and scientific figures,and even just of simple travelling, to and through the region. Interaction and co-existence is agiven condition. This allows for mutual interpretation as a ressource for expansion of the culturalmindset, and for new collaborations, friendships, love and marriages, to develop in the wake of

movements to and through. Would it be possible to see the CCOC as an opportunity to celebratethis permeated character of the land and the region, rather than only highlighting the darkness ofthe adentary soil, as one might fear when coming to and through as a stranger? One could alsofocus on the journeys out, on the sons and daughters that have left the place, not only as a factor tobe wept for, but as a heritage to be proud of. If so many have left, why not call them back toperform and to assist the creation of a culturallly enwidened territory that they would have left

only reluctanly and loved to return to eventually? Another movement out could be the models ofcultural co-existence, something which could also be both celebrated but also investigated and

even exported but of course, this should only be done in honest appreciation of history (which initself would already be a bit of an innovation).

Though not very developed, I am certain that the question of cultural diplomacy and in a broadersense, of cross-cultural reflection through open processes that do not have to lead anywhere in

particular, but offer improvements for both or more sides, is one that would be highy interesting toaudiences both inside and outside the region.

E. Knowledge society and the University of Sustainability

One of the questions of the region is how the Southern Denmark University may come to play aneven greater role in the region's development. We have decided to entitle our thoughts around thisThe University of Sustainability. This title opens up the possibility of the University as a central


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agent in the region, one that operates both internally and externally through connection.

This allows also to bring in one last point so far, one that has to do with two more strictlyphilosophical concepts: contradiction and rationalisation. It is very common to see modernuniversities, particularly in these years of Bologna alignments to see the tools of separation and

rationalization in a central position. This has to do with a search for efficiency and manageriability.However, what we want to bring up here is not so much whether or not this is a good way to run a

university. What we do want to propose is a project called the university of sustainability. Thisproject has one precondition: it must build on connections, on connecting. Out of connections risecontradictions, and these must be dealt with as site- and time-specific realities.

The idea of the University of Sustainability is one which searches to connect some elements thjatare at first a little surprising, but could maybe be connected after all, through a sufficiently creativeand disciplined approach. These elements are for instance the reference to Joseph Beuys in the title(evoking Beuys' university experiments in Kassel some 30 years ago, repeated in part by one of hisformer associates, in Venice in 2007), with all the possible connotations of avant-garde, of strangeevents that alienate the local population and produce no results; and the local cultural layers thatwould have to be convinced that such an experiment could be in fact a source of new

understanding, prosperity and fame. The other difficult combination is the one of the fairlysegregated cultures between institutes of the University of Southern Denmark, and the

transdisciplinary challenge of forming a university of sustainability. A way to overcome some ofthis would be to make it explicitely a social art experiment, but inviting all sorts of local agents into help to contribute to what the meaning could be of such an experiment on their soil. One of thepoints here would be to use the university as a meeting ground for new encounters, for invitingsome of the world's leading figures in the big pictures of cultures of sustainability in to work withlocal experts and creators, or with the audiences in the cities of the region. The project could thusform as a connection between all kinds of actors; also because this may be a signal to the realuniversity that they are very interesting in some ways, but that the structure, disciplines, and major

fields of the univeristy of today, are not necessarily the ones that may solve the problems oftomorrow, let alone invent the questions we will face in 30 years. In this way, the UofS could be anexperiment inviting anhyone who wants to participate, starting a new line of heritage for a new

university. And starting this going all thw way up to question the very major disciplines of social,human, natural and economic sciences, that are useful to the universities of today, but alsoproblematic when it comes to issues that are even remotely transdisciplinary. In this newuniversity, the cultural agent may once again play a central role, not to leave out any others, but toinstall the radicality of what can aptly be seen as a project of art, that is, leaving art, only to maybe

regain it at a later point; or of action-philosophy.

Of course, this project should be carried out in collaboration between the major players relevant toit: the university of today, Danfoss Universe, the City of Snderborg and other relevantcollectivities, and a shifting, nomadic group of visitors bringing in ideas, freshness, challenges to

local inertia, etc. These agents of change would be what Dieleman and Kagan call arti-scientists,poli-artists, eco-eco-agents, etc. working across disciplines and forming new ways to see the worldthat challenges us. It could gather inspiration from initiatives such as the Nomad Academy or theNomadic University, Beuys etc, but maybe to re-call the power of these experiments in making theneed for a novel aganda necessary. The issues taken up by this university could be defined by theECOC group in dialogue with a group of first universitarians, and be developed as a moving,flexible inspiration bank for all parts of the population in the years to come. These issues would ofcourse have to be local, but their solutions may be the fruits of translocal processes.

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A final remark: these pages are by no means fully developed, and much can be said about their

unfinished and somewhat utopian substance. However, they do represent the first product of aprocess of rapid, intuitively based thinking and dialogue. This would have to be furthercrystallized, prototyped an integratied in a fuller project along the way, including maybe most of

all the local agents of the region in this process.Copenhagen-Paris-Copenhagen, November 2010

sketches for sønderborg 2017_cultura21_koefoed

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