In our work, we spend a lot of time imagining change. In curatorial practice, in our relationship with artists, when discussing transformation and the future, or how to diversify our audience and programs, systemic and institutional change remains a slow and complex process.
This explains why the lack of truly accessible and plural cultural spaces is primarily a failure of imagination on the part of the very sector tasked with envisioning how the world could be.
Choosing to address change and accessibility in an intersectional manner carries a high degree of risk. As Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha says, “nothing will go right, there is no single solution that will work for everyone.”
It is a constant process, with failure around the corner, feelings of inadequacy, and frustration. It is challenging even with support, and sometimes it may seem impossible to resolve alone. Because access is too often just about compliance, a checkbox attitude that does not address what is meaningful to people but rather what is accepted within a system of norms established by legislators of other eras.
This will not change until we understand that it’s not enough to include by simply resolving “how to enter through a door.” We need to adopt a critical approach to a society that allows people to be excluded and not even approach that door.
This is why we have chosen to embark on a collective experience of accessibility at BASE that could be conceived as a procedural cultural practice for dismantling and rebuilding the world. Rethinking our approach from an invitation, inviting the “unexpected” subject to the table—namely, the many new subjectivities that were not anticipated in the ideation phase of traditionally cultural spaces, as representatives of communities on the margins of the public arena.
To what extent can we rethink the world in broad and nuanced terms, orienting ourselves towards a cultural space and a society open to “disruption”? Can we set up an institution in a fragile, unpredictable, and open manner, ready to respond at any moment to social and political urgencies? There is no single answer to these questions, but we have identified a series of principles and actions to start from.
→ Design starting from the “unexpected” person, that is, create projects that begin with people and identities not previously anticipated, rather than retroactively adapting services, spaces, and content for specific groups that were not considered in the planning phase.
→ Commit to transforming oneself before transforming the world, advocating for a radical rethinking and decanonization of our own organization through an internal training cycle involving all BASE staff and partner organizations. Care for people to enable their empowerment through our institution.
→ Respect “Nothing about us without us” to avoid defining political actions without the direct involvement of the people affected in decision-making processes. Practice stepping aside.
→ Practice a politics of listening and dialogue with an approach of care, confrontation, and agonism, which means not just scheduling time for listening when the organization deems it appropriate. It involves constant training in permeability and learning.
So, let us ask ourselves, as Silvia Bottiroli and Low Kee Hong challenge us: “If we take co-creation and co-authorship seriously as constitutive components of our way of living and working, what becomes the horizon of our work? And if, in other words, it were not about us, not about our project, but rather about the conditions it provides for something and other things to happen?”
“An I.D.E.A. of a Cultural Center” aims to be this: not a monolithic answer, but a call to action, not so much to imagine how the world could be, but to demand the space necessary to create a new world together.
On Wednesday, November 29, 2023, we presented a Manifesto for the Plural Cultural Institution: an open document, ready to be enriched with the contributions and experiences of cultural realities that will embrace it as a working tool and guide for defining their strategic lines, and the result of a shared effort with strategic partners who, since January 2023, have supported us in this reflective journey, accomplices of this I.D.E.A.”
Read the manifesto