STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
ways to foster greater harmony between differing peoples, to aspire to creating a Europe that is
inclusive and expansive; that reflects and promotes the very different arts and creative talents of
people with enormously different experiences.
The street arts have yet to achieve any of this diversity. There are very few projects or shows
seen at street arts festivals made by people from minority cultures within the EC; Black, Asian
and Chinese people appear only very occasionally in shows, always created by ‘white-led
organisations’.This is partly a result of the time it takes for new residents to feel safe and
comfortable within their adopted country; it is partly economic, social or religious differences; it
is also (and most importantly for the purposes of this report) resulting from isolation, from a
lack of knowledge of understanding of how to be involved, of a lack of confidence or the
necessary tools to aid involvement.
There are small moves afoot to change this situation. In the UK, cultural diversity is now a key
plank of all arts policy and there is priority money for shows made by Black-led organisations.
Additionally there is specific support for these by cultural organisations working in the street
arts, to give specialist help, mentoring and advocacy.
‘In creating the outdoor show we relied on x.trax heavily for support. Making the jump from
performing venues to working outside was quite a big challenge and x.trax helped us a lot, gave
us a lot of time and encouragement.” 366
Greenwich and Docklands Festival in London, England, has a contract with the Mayor of
London’s office to produce events for Trafalgar Square every summer. These are all designed to
celebrate different aspects of diversity – racial difference and physical/learning disability. Over
the last three years, they have specifically encouraged arts groups who work indoors to develop
street arts projects for the square. There are new projects emerging every year from several
cultural minority groups – of South Asian, Caribbean, African, Chinese, Arabic and Turkish
origin; additionally they have commissioned projects with two groups of disabled performers.
This is very exciting and pioneering work. This summer they are working with French company
Oposito to connect their show ‘Les Trottoirs de Joburg’ directly with young Black Londoners in
an exciting collaborative performance.
In 2006, the Ana Desetnica Festival (Ljubljana, Slovenia) hosted ‘ The fair of Cultures’, a day
of street performance and exhibitions with involvement from all the countries that were
formerly part of Yugoslavia – Croatians, Slovenes, Bosnians, Montenegrans, Herzogovins and
Serbians.This was an extraordinary event, the first time any such gathering has taken place since
the civil wars and massacres of the 1990’s Its success has given much confidence to organisers
and participants, along with a greater understanding of what kind of work is most effective.
There is great scope for much more work to be pioneered and encouraged in the area of
diversity – and there is nowhere better for linking peoples than on the streets.
366 Maggie Clarke: Economic Impact and Value of the x.trax Services, Arts Council of England 2006.
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PE 375.307