How failure can create fertile ground for new beginnings

Participatory art practices are omnipresent today and internationally there is reference to a ‘participatory turn in the arts’. What are the challenges underneath this apparent success story and where should we go from here?  In 2019, the artists’ collective Rest for the Wicked started a research project looking at failure in participative artistic practices. They collected stories and experiences that could help artists and organisations share and further develop their ambitions and practices.

We’ll focus on the intersections of failure and participatory art practices and hope to give some depth and clarity to a field that seems by times succumbing to its own success. During the reflection day on Wednesday, December 16 2020 Rest for the Wicked will create a platform where we can talk about failure and reimagine the future of participatory art practices. We’ll tackle the most challenging aspects of the field as well as discover the most inspiring ideas for driving people forward.

Viernulvier has been inviting artists to carry out research into participative artistic practices since 2012 as part of the Stadsatelier (‘city atelier’). Participative artistic practices – in which the audience, city residents, visitors, etc. get involved – can take many different forms. In all of these forms, the process is just as important as the result.

PROGRAM

Morning session: ‘Impossible Conversation on Failure’ by Building Conversation

Building Conversation is a platform for Dialogical Art, which concentrates on the meeting of art, conversation and society. For this conversation they go back to the Jesuits who developed a conversation practice to talk about abstract concepts. A method in which you slow down and connect personal images, by writing, reading and speaking together.

Afternoon session: discussion tables

Choose one of the three different discussions on some specific challenges we are facing today:

• Jozef Wouters and Joachim Ben Yakoub will be talking about authorship.
• Frédérique Lecomte and Simon van Schuylenbergh will be talking about failure as a creative tool.
• Purni Morell and Sam Trotham will discuss what kind of help makes sense for young artists with ambitions in the field of participatory art practices.

CREDITS

organisation: Rest for the Wicked vzw
with the support of: the Flemish Government
in collaboration with: Demos vzw, Viernulvier& UGent Culture & Education research group