Imagining the Fabric of Citizenship
Paul Dujardin
Democracy is a fragile practice of governance that requires an ongoing and active participation from its citizens. Imagination must be a core component of this process. For democracy demands constant care, thoughtful reflection and action from each of us. Its very existence is dependent on the ability to nourish individuals’ imagination that will eventually inspire them to engage with the democratic process.
The relationship between the EU and its citizens is marked by oppositional forces: trust and mistrust, liberty and limitations. A recent Eurobarometer survey has shown that the general confidence in the European Union is growing, with 68% of Europeans expressing the sentiment that they ‘feel’ like citizens of the EU. But the next migration crisis, economic meltdown or pan-European food safety scandal could easily tip the scale in the opposite direction.
Forging a sustainable relationship by nurturing a feeling of connection and engagement with any democracy — be it national or supranational — certainly requires more than a PR campaign or the end of roaming charges across the EU for instance.
The question is how best to “empower” people to act as responsible and engaged citizens?
Shared narratives certainly help create a sense of belonging to a democratic society rooted in a set of abstract values. Collective stories can reinforce social bounds and the “vivre ensemble” by contributing to a sense of a shared past and a common destiny.[i] This can be an essential first step for activating citizens in general — and young people in particular — and reigniting a collective enthusiasm, perhaps not directly towards the European ideal as a holy grail, but rather towards the values it is expected to protect, uphold and promote.
Yet, Dutch educator Gert Biesta observes that democracy cannot be taught.[ii] Biesta asserts that the desire for democracy “can only be fueled” through “processes and practices that make up the everyday lives of children, young people and adults.” Involving citizens in a sustainable way would not only mean to have them ‘feel’ European once in a while, but rather to have them be pro-actively involved in this community-building praxis.
Recreate and Experience Democracy through Imagination
Art practices can be a vector to fuel the desire for democracy, as explained by Belgian art sociologist Pascal Gielen who states that the “civil praxis” of our democracies is now endorsed by the art world, with museums, theatres and biennales “increasingly taking the role of civil education upon itself:”[iii] He observes that “only within the walls of the cinema, the theatre, the museum, or in the pages of a novel is there still room to dream of a possibly different world. There, one can still freely speculate about a possible future society.”
Let us insist here on the importance of art not only as a vehicle to deliver a message, a symbol or a story, but rather as a space, a method enabling people to learn and practice democracy through different experiences, from performances in public spaces to drawing or reading workshops.
At the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels (BOZAR), we see how artists can help citizens share their stories and think ‘outside the box’ when it comes to specific themes or social challenges. There is an ongoing performative and speculative strength in the arts, through which literary metaphors, philosophical inquiry , theatrical stagings and musical performances nourish perceptions, stimulate engagement and nurture a sense of belonging to a community.
This is a new role (un)officially claimed by many artists and cultural organisations rooted in a desire to catalyze “civil praxis”, bring people together within neutral spaces, interact with them, speak out, and propose alternative perspectives by stimulating the imagination. One simply needs to look at the content and prevailing discourses dominating art biennales today: they all want to address environmental, social, or migration challenges. The underlying challenge is to avoid falling into the opportunistic trap where ‘democracy’ and ‘citizens’ are diminished to aestheticised buzzwords through misuse.
This evolution of the art world towards a more proactive stance within society also illustrates a central question recently raised by Pascal Gielen: “How can we understand the relationship between art, education and democracy?”. He mainly argues that “art has a special quality to walk on an alternative path of democracy, namely that of the civil domain.”[iv]
Imagination is a core concept whose power to facilitate not only “learning” but also “practice” vis-à-vis democracy and its underlying principles cannot be underestimated.
For Gielen, “our ability to oscillate between non-fiction and fiction is crucial in imagining other worlds, in being creative, in presenting different models of society. (…). It allows both daydreaming and the forging of the most utopian plans”.[v]
Imagination can create meaning, enable forward-thinking projections and thus introduce us to ethics. As Belgian philosopher Alain Loute observes, “narrative imagination” enables the subject to put itself within a story, understand itself and consider new “possibles”, new ways of actions within the world.[vi] The famous quote of French philosopher Paul Ricoeur, “No action without imagination”, summarizes this equation. Yet, the opposite, “no imagination without action”, would bring the citizen and its relation to art and democracy to another level.
Imagination can help enable the move towards a “practical possible”, a driver for action that can nurture “democratic citizenship”, as US philosopher, Martha C. Nussbaum, observes.[vii] The latter sees a “vital role of the arts in cultivating the powers of the imagination which, in turn, contribute to the kind of judgment and sensitivity needed by responsible citizens”.
This role is also in line with various recent BOZAR initiatives such as Next Generation Please! (NGP), an ambitious civic education project that aims to empower young people as European citizens through the arts. With the help of artists working directly with schools, this pilot initiative helps students address questions related to Europe, identities and citizenship, and translate their views and perspectives into concrete artistic actions. Imagining Europe is here translated into concrete proposals directly made by future citizens. During its 2015–2016 edition, 200 students loosely explored the idea of what it means to be European in a political sense and what the future of Europe looks like. 70% of them reported they learned very much from working with the artists. Likewise, 78 % learned to better express their opinions, and 63 % said their involvement in the project influenced their desire to speak out on Europe and politics.
As shown with NGP and many other initiatives, artists and arts institutions can stimulate imagination, inspire action and transform individuals by nurturing their “desire” to “speak out”, and in doing so contribute to weaving of the fabric of citizenship. Which is essential in order to reconnect individuals to democracies, from community to the supranational level.
By Paul Dujardin, CEO and Artistic Director — BOZAR
with the collaboration of Frédéric Meseeuw, Advisor BOZAR
and special thanks to Melat Gebeyaw Nigussie, Anna Goldina, Raphael Miles, Kurt De Boodt.
References:
[i] Loute, A., “L’imagination au cœur de l’économie de l’attention : L’optimisme sémantique de Paul Ricœur”, Bulletin d’Analyse Phénoménologique [En ligne], Volume 13 (2017), Numéro 2: L’acte d’imagination: Approches phénoménologiques (Actes n°10), URL : http://popups.ulg.ac.be/1782-2041/index.php?id=937.
[ii] Biesta, G., Learning Democracy in School and Society: Education, Lifelong Learning, and the Politics of Citizenship. Rotterdam: Sense, 2011.
[iii] Gielen, P., The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude — Global Art, Politics and Post-Fordism, Valiz Antennae, Amsterdam, 2015.
[iv] Gielen, P., Artistic Constitutions of the Civil Domain : On Art, Education and Democracy, in “The International Journal of Art & Design Education”, 2017
[v] Gielen, P., The Murmuring of the Artistic Multitude — Global Art, Politics and Post-Fordism, Valiz Antennae, Amsterdam, 2015.
[vi] Loute, A., L’imagination au coeur de l’économie de l’attention:L’optimisme sémantique de Paul Ricoeur, in ‘Bulletin d’analyse phénoménologique XIII, Université Catholique de Lille, 2017.
[vii] Nussbaum, Martha C., Democratic Citizenship and the Narrative Imagination, in Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Columbia University, 2008.
Paul Dujardin is a leading figure in Europe’s cultural landscape and the CEO and Artistic Director of the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels (BOZAR). In the last 10 years, Paul has also been an influential interlocutor between the arts field and policy-makers, trying to promote culture in European policies through numerous international projects and debates focusing on certain regions of Europe or the world. Between 2013 and 2015, Paul Dujardin was chair of the Culture Committee of the ‘New Narrative for Europe’ Pilot Project. Since 2002, Paul has also represented the Centre for Fine Arts Brussels in numerous networks, projects and platforms, such as the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO), the Cultural Diplomacy Platform of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the European Festivals Association (EFA), EUNIC, Culture Action Europe, the International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA), the “Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne” (R.E.M.A.) and ASEMUS — Asia-Europe Museum Network (since September 2010). After graduating in Arts History and Management Sciences, Paul Dujardin became successively founder and CEO of Ars Musica, General Manager of the Brussels Philharmonic Society, Co-Administrator at the National Orchestra of Belgium, CEO and Artistic Director of the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels (BOZAR — since 2002) and, finally, President of the International Music Council (since 2013).
