Public access
Closed
Tickets
Invitation only
Venue
Literaturhaus, Zurich, Switzerland
Date & Time
18 – 20 July, 2023
Language
English
On 19th and 20th July 2023 all the partners met for a consortium city gathering in Zurich, one of the cities where Joyce wrote Ulysses, and where he is buried. Zurich is linked to episode XII, Homer’s book 9, in which Odysseus travels to the land of the Cyclopes, a rough and uncivilised race of one-eyed giants. We therefore took the cyclops, Joyce’s disruptive writing technique, gigantism, the fiery tone of episode XII in its bar setting and the anonymity of The Citizen as a firm inspiration for our approach to our gathering!
Our Zurich Gathering started with a very special reception and talk at the Joyce Foundation. The Foundation was established in 1985 with a view to keeping alive the memory and work of Joyce for the literary world in general, and in particular for Zurich. Fritz Senn, founder and director of the Foundation, and his colleague Ursula Zeller, gave us an inspiring talk about Joyce in Zurich and the Cyclops episode. It was an honour to be there and to meet Fritz and Ursula and we are profoundly grateful for their warm welcome (and the loan of their Biscuit Tin!).
The gathering took place at the Literaturhaus and was an intensive and insightful two days. It was amazing to see how projects had developed since our Paris Gathering and the commitment of our partners to their artistic event and their research into their contemporary European theme. There is no doubt that the activism which sits in each theme has grown in strength in the foci of each public event and symposium, and that the urgency of the themes explored is a real inspiration for the partners.
During the gathering we discussed the episode XII theme, Is being a European citizen more important than being a citizen of an individual nation? Switzerland is not a member of the European Union or European Economic Area, but it is part of the single market and Swiss nationals have the same rights to live and work in EU countries as other EEA nationals. However, with the rise of nationalism, resentment against migrants (explored in projects in Marseille, France, and Cluj, Romania) and Brexit in the UK, the idea of European citizenship and being European may seem increasingly contested. The gathering in Zürich was a timely opportunity for our partners from cultural organisations from 16 different countries, including Turkey and Northern Ireland, to debate this important issue in what proved to be a heated discussion from various quite different perspectives – in keeping with Joyce’s gigantism approach. Issues such as national loyalty, a country’s flag and ‘Europe’s top 3 and bottom 3’ (interpreted as the happiness factor) provoked an emotional and analytical debate which was both informative and evidence of the complexity of the theme’s question.
Travel is kept to a minimum in this 16 country project, and whilst members have to travel to at least two different city events, most of the events are not seen by partners and firmly situate the contemporary theme in the particular city landscape for its local citizens. It was therefore insightful (and inspiring!) to have visual presentations from ACT II cities – Lugo (which took place during lunch, in the spirit of episode VIII Lestrygonians), Istanbul, Cluj, Vilnius and Copenhagen – on their public events. The multi-disciplinary breadth of these events was astonishing, and what partners have achieved, both creatively and substantively in relation to their themes, was impressive.
Further sharing of symposia and event development was given by Budapest, ACT II cities Leeuwarden, Eleusis, Oulu and Berlin and ACT III cities Lisbon, Dublin and Derry/Donegal. The partner gatherings are also intended as a learning opportunity, as partners who have had their events and symposia share their experiences with partners still in the preparation stage. As such the rare coming together of all consortium partners is an essential means to build on learnings and lessons for the future steps in our European odyssey.
One of the key issues discussed was the artists’ residency programme. Feedback on residencies which had already taken place was received from host cities Istanbul (Yannis Papapetrou from Eleusis), Cluj (Jared Van Earle, from Oulu), Budapest (Marc Buyny from Berlin), Athens (Vladas Suncovas from Vilnius), Lugo (Birk Thomassen from Copenhagen) and Copenhagen (Hunor-József Varga from Cluj & Sarah Wenzinger from Berlin).
Marketing and PR were also a focus during the gathering as Ben McKnight, Communications Manager and Ciaran Doran, Marketing Manager, laid out their ideas and proposals to the consortium for their feedback and comments. Their attendance also proved how invaluable it is to actually meet in person. The UEO project was entirely developed during Covid and all discussions took place online. Zurich proved once again the enormous value of in person meetings.
The gathering was also a chance to meet Alistair Daniel, who has been engaged as the editor / writer of chARTer 309 – our Arts & Society Symposia publication. A separate meeting will be held online to discuss the questions from the ACT II symposia which have taken place, so the focus from Alistair was on the form the charter could take, as well as an outline of the timings for submission and publication (Autumn of 2024). This aspect of the project has grown in importance as the project has developed – clear evidence of the success of the thematic approach for each city / episode and the very real urgencies of the themes and their relevance today to both the arts community and broader society.
It was an exhausting and inspiring gathering. The consortium has become a family in a very real sense, and the networking and exchange is rich and fruitful. In a short online link-up with Gillian McLaughlin from Creative Europe – during which she was able to briefly meet all the partners – we were told that the project is the first large-scale project in this new Creative Europe round and it was praised for its vision and delivery. As a consortium we felt it was important not to let 11 months go by until we meet again (Dublin 2024). Plans are afoot for an un-programmed extra gathering at a city yet to be named, as we step forward, together, into the next phase of this amazing journey!
Main photo, taken in the library of the Literaturhaus where Joyce wrote some of Ulysses:
L-R: Sean Doran (Arts Over Borders IE: The Member for Dundalk), Jonathan Burgess (Arts Over Borders NI, The Member for Derry/Donegal), Riccardo Cepach (Museo Joyce Trieste IT, The Member for Trieste), Kees van der Meiden (Noorderlicht NL, The Member for Leeuwarden/Groningen), Ciaran Doran (Marketing, Arts Over Borders, The Member for Guildford), Liam Browne (Arts Over Borders IE, The Member for Worthing), Andreea Iacob (Act.Create.Enjoy RO, The Member for Cluj), Mariana Brandão (Arena Ensemble PT, The Member for Lisbon), Gülen Gürler Hurley (Yalan Dünya Films TK, The Member for Istanbul), Claudia Woolgar (Brave New World Productions NL, The Member for Leeuwarden/Rotterdam), Steven Sander (Rimini Protokoll DE, The Member for Berlin), Shauna Kelpie (Arts Over Borders NI, The Member for Derry/Donegal), Eglé Vitkuté (Vilnius Museum LT, The Member for Vilnius), Jarkko Halunen (Lumo Light Festival FI, The Member for Oulu), Gethan Dick (gethan&myles FR, The Member for Marseille), Vera Petmeza (Onassis Stegi GR, The Member for Athens), Myles Quin (gethan&myles FR, The Member for Marseille), Yannis Pappas (Chorus GR, The Member for Eleusis), Alistair Daniel (chARTer 309, The Member for Liverpool), Mikko Salmi (Lumo Light Festival FI, The Member for Oulu), Firat Jacob Tas (Blaagaard Teater DK, The Member for Copenhagen, Maté Gáspár (Budapest Brand HU), The Member for Budapest, Ben McKnight (Communications Manager, The Member for London), Benedict Schlepper-Connolly (Museum of Literature Ireland IE, The Member for Dublin) and Uxío Novoneyra (Fundación Uxío Novoneyra SP, The Member for Lugo)
