ARTIVES | City tales: an art-based participatory framework for studying migration-related diversity

Summary
This project will study imaginaries of diversity portrayed by Afro-European artists in Lisbon and Rotterdam in their films, performances and (oral) stories. These stories are not sufficiently related to in the mainstream discourses and the hypothesis is that the arts offer a particularly vibrant textual weft for exploring competing imaginaries of postcolonial urbanity. The two European ports are chosen since they position themselves as ‘open-to-the-world’ in light of their maritime history and ensuing migration dynamic. Yet they significantly differ in the ways that their municipalities frame their multiculturalism.
I will build the framework of ‘urban artives’ – archives of situated stories – to explore non-essentializing conceptualizations of migration-related diversity. By close reading creative forms of storytelling; interviewing and following artists in their city wanderings; digitally mapping spaces of inspiration, production, and performance; and producing two creative outputs, ARTIVES will 1) trace transnational networks of belonging embodied in the local cultural scene and 2) test the possibilities and limitations in relating to these stories in ways that break away with ‘migrantising’ (Wiest 2020) conceptions of society.
This research will transpose recent developments in the field of Critical Archival Studies, namely attempts to account for the transitory nature of identity formation in records’ preservation, to the fields of qualitative culture-oriented Urban Studies and Migration and Transnationalism Studies. In this way, ARTIVES will bridge the symbolic, material and affective aspects of how urban communities realize their sense of belonging and claim agency within highly diverse cities. Furthermore, the project will offer a best practice for working with community-driven knowledge contributing to the ongoing debate in Cultural Anthropology and Cultural Studies on how power relations are implicated in participatory research.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101117068
Start date: 01-01-2024
End date: 31-12-2028
Total budget - Public funding: 1 499 353,00 Euro - 1 499 353,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

This project will study imaginaries of diversity portrayed by Afro-European artists in Lisbon and Rotterdam in their films, performances and (oral) stories. These stories are not sufficiently related to in the mainstream discourses and the hypothesis is that the arts offer a particularly vibrant textual weft for exploring competing imaginaries of postcolonial urbanity. The two European ports are chosen since they position themselves as ‘open-to-the-world’ in light of their maritime history and ensuing migration dynamic. Yet they significantly differ in the ways that their municipalities frame their multiculturalism.
I will build the framework of ‘urban artives’ – archives of situated stories – to explore non-essentializing conceptualizations of migration-related diversity. By close reading creative forms of storytelling; interviewing and following artists in their city wanderings; digitally mapping spaces of inspiration, production, and performance; and producing two creative outputs, ARTIVES will 1) trace transnational networks of belonging embodied in the local cultural scene and 2) test the possibilities and limitations in relating to these stories in ways that break away with ‘migrantising’ (Wiest 2020) conceptions of society.
This research will transpose recent developments in the field of Critical Archival Studies, namely attempts to account for the transitory nature of identity formation in records’ preservation, to the fields of qualitative culture-oriented Urban Studies and Migration and Transnationalism Studies. In this way, ARTIVES will bridge the symbolic, material and affective aspects of how urban communities realize their sense of belonging and claim agency within highly diverse cities. Furthermore, the project will offer a best practice for working with community-driven knowledge contributing to the ongoing debate in Cultural Anthropology and Cultural Studies on how power relations are implicated in participatory research.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

ERC-2023-STG

Update Date

12-03-2024
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Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.1 European Research Council (ERC)
HORIZON.1.1.0 Cross-cutting call topics
ERC-2023-STG ERC STARTING GRANTS
HORIZON.1.1.1 Frontier science
ERC-2023-STG ERC STARTING GRANTS