Culturescapes (or: CULTURESCAPES) is a multidisciplinary Swiss arts festival devoted to inter-cultural exchange. The festival, which takes place in autumn, showcases the cultural landscape of a different region, nation or city. Although based in Basel the festival extends to many other places in Switzerland, such as Aarau, Bern, Chur, Zurich, Geneva or Bellinzona. Founded in the year 2002, the festival mainly focussed on Eastern European countries at the beginning. However, with festival editions devoted to countries like Turkey, Azerbaijan, China or Israel the festival gradually expanded its scope. To mark its tenth anniversary in 2012 Culturescapes focussed on Moscow, for the first time placing the topography of a city at the centre of the festival. [1] The 2013 Balkans festival edition highlighted not only a country but an entire cultural region. [2] 2015 Iceland was presented. [3] At the same time was also announced that in the future the festival will take place in the biennial rhythm. The next two editions took place in 2017 with a focus on Greece and in 2019 with a focus on Poland.
From 2021, CULTURESCAPES is opening a new festival series dedicated to critical zones that extend beyond the boundaries of nation states. In 2021, the focus was on the Amazon region and Sahara was the region of choice for the 2023 edition. In 2025, the African desert and its surroundings will be the focus of the festival for the second time. [4]
CULTURESCAPES is a network festival, cooperating with existing arts venues in Switzerland, such as the Kaserne Basel or the Museum Tinguely. The festival is usually supported by Swiss federal agencies, e.g. DEZA, county authorities as well as state departments of the guest country. The festival is interdisciplinary. Next to performing arts like theatre and dance the festival also presents fine arts, graphic arts, craft, literature, film and new Media. In the programming section entitled „Focus" the history, current affairs and popular culture of the focus region are discussed and analysed. This largely happens in cooperation with Swiss education institutions such as the University of Basel or the University of Zurich. Some of the countries and topics chosen have led to protests and debate. Such topics include the Armenian genocide or the Conflicts in the Middle East. In a public letter, Culturescapes was requested by BDS Switzerland, a group advocating the boycott of Israel, not to host the Culturescapes Israel 2011 festival. [5] The BDS Switzerland also protested at some of the events of the festival. [6]
The original idea behind CULTURESCAPES was to draw attention to the transformative processes taking place in the less well-known countries of the former Eastern Bloc, as manifested in the art produced there. Gradually, however, the focus shifted to cultural landscapes with a long tradition of artistic diversity, whose current form bears the stamp of a unique combination of historical, political, social and economic factors. [7] Founder and curator of all the festival editions to date is Dutch and Swiss arts manager Jurriaan Cooiman. Since 2009 CULTURESCAPES functions as a charitable foundation. Before this date, the festival had been run by the group Performing Arts Services Basel (PASS). [8]
Festival edition | Guest region | Features |
---|---|---|
2003 [9] | ![]() | i. a. Gija Kantscheli as Composer in Residence |
2004 [10] | ![]() | i. a. Topics: Chernobyl; Literature from Chernivtsi, Music from Valentin Silvestrov |
2005 [11] | ![]() | i. a. First Public conference about the Armenian genocide, [12] Tigran Mansurian as composer in Residence [13] |
2006 [14] | ![]() | i. a. Estland in Wandel, von Kraahl Theater, Arvo Pärt, Erkki-Sven Tüür, first composition contest [15] |
2007 [16] | ![]() | i. a. Monday theatre with Peca Stefan, [17] Gianna Carbunariu; Stefan Niculescu, Aurel Stroe, Horațiu Rădulescu, Ana Blandiana |
2008 [18] | ![]() | i. a. Fazıl Say; Mercan Dede, |
2009 [19] | ![]() | i. a. Frangiz Ali-Sade, Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, Pantomime Theatre Baku, first artists in residence program for young artists |
2010 [20] | ![]() | i. a. Co-production with Wang Jianwei; Jin Xing, Composition request to Wang Xilin, opera from Hangzhou [21] |
2011 [22] | ![]() | i. a. Batsheva Dance Company; Composition by Chaya Czernowin; Co-Productions Ofira Henig, Yasmeen Godder, Daniel Landau |
2012 [23] | Moscow | i. a. Dimtri Krymov, Yuri Bashmet, Co-operation with Musma (music masters on air), [24] Composition by Alexander Raskatov, Alexey Sysoev und Pavel Karmanov, Vladimir Sorokin |
2013 [25] | Balkans | i. a. Miljenko Jergović, Dubioza Kolektiv, Oliver Frljic, [26] EnKnapGroup, Rambo Amadeus, Vlatko Stefanovski, Damir Imamović |
2014 [27] | Tokyo | Part of 150 years anniversary of diplomatic relationships between Switzerland and Japan [28] |
2015 [29] | ![]() | i.a. Jón Gnarr, Ragnar Kjartansson, Ragna Róbertsdóttir, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Andri Snær Magnason, Einar Falur Ingólfsson, Erna Ómarsdóttir, Sóley, ADHD, Skúli Sverrisson, Ólöf Arnalds |
2017 [30] | Greece | i.a. Dimitris Papaioannou, Rosarte Children's Choir, Rimini Protokoll, Vassilis Varvaresos, Mönchen vom Berg Athos (Monks of Mount Athos), Milo Rau |
2019 [31] | Poland | i.a. Krzysztof Warlikowski, Marta Górnicka, Paweł Pawlikowski, Olga Tokarczuk, Vladyslav Sendecki, Kinga Głyk |
2021 [32] | Amazonia | i.a. Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, Claudia Andujar, Ernesto Neto, Victor Moriyama, Alessandra Korap Munduruku. [33] |
2023 [34] | Sahara | i.a. Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, Keziah Jones, Qudus Onikeku, Felwine Sarr & Étienne Minoungou, Kader Tarhanine, Lionel Loueke, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Nadia Beugré, Radouan Mriziga, Bouchra Ouizguen, Ami Yarewolo [35] |
Basel, also known as Basle, is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine. Basel is Switzerland's third-most-populous city, with 177,595 inhabitants within the city municipality limits. The official language of Basel is Swiss Standard German and the main spoken language is the local Basel German dialect.
"Lesōthō Fatše La Bo-Ntat'a Rōna" is the national anthem of Lesotho. The lyrics were written by French missionary François Coillard and Swiss missionary Adolphe Mabille, and the music is taken from an 1820 hymnal composed by Swiss composer Ferdinand-Samuel Laur. It was officially adopted as the national anthem in 1967. The original composition that the national anthem was based on had five verses, though only the first and last ended up being adopted.
The Zionist Congress was established in 1897 by Theodor Herzl as the supreme organ of the Zionist Organization (ZO) and its legislative authority. In 1960 the names were changed to World Zionist Congress and World Zionist Organization (WZO), respectively. The World Zionist Organization elects the officers and decides on the policies of the WZO and the Jewish Agency, including "determining the allocation of funds." The first Zionist Congress was held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. Any Jew over age 18 who belongs to a Zionist association is eligible to vote, and the number of elected delegates to the Congress is 500. 38% of the delegates are allocated to Israel, 29% to the United States of America, and 33% to the remainder of the countries of the Diaspora. In addition there are about 100 delegates which are appointed by International Organizations affiliated with WZO.
The Basel city walls are a complex of walls surrounding the central part of the Swiss city of Basel, only partially preserved today. The first city wall was completed around 1080 under bishop Burkhard von Fenis. A newer wall was constructed around 1230, which is known as the Inner Wall. Its course was mostly identical to the Burkhard wall. In 1362 the construction of a larger wall complex began due to the city's expansion; it was completed in 1398, and is known as the Outer Wall. In 1859 the city's executives decided to raze the inner wall and gates to the ground. Three outer city gates and a short piece of the wall were saved from demolition and are being preserved as part of the city's heritage.
Basler Zeitung, or BaZ, is a Swiss German-language regional daily newspaper, published in Basel.
Between the 12th century and modern times, the Swiss city of Basel has been home to three Jewish communities. The medieval community thrived at first but ended violently with the Basel massacre of 1349. As with many of the violent anti-Judaic events of the time, it was linked to the outbreak of the Black Death. At the end of the 14th century, a second community formed. But it was short-lived and disbanded before the turn of the century. For the following 400 years, there was no Jewish community in Basel. Today, there are several communities, ranging from liberal to religious to orthodox, and there are still more Jews who don’t belong to any community.
Herma Auguste Wittstock is a German performance artist. She lives in Berlin. Wittstock has been compared to Marina Abramović in including pain and body exploitation in her work.
The history of the Jews in Switzerland extends back at least a thousand years. Jews and Judaism have been present in the territory of what is now Switzerland since before the emergence of the medieval Old Swiss Confederacy in the 13th century.
N3krozoft Ltd, previously N3krozoft Mord or N3kr0z0ft, is a transnational electronic art group founded in the early 1990s. The group has experimented with the intersection of technology, information and arts, exploiting the creative potential of, what was then, the new media technologies of CD-ROM, multimedia, live audiovisual jamming, and computer-generated video installations.
Cartoonmuseum Basel is the only museum and centre of excellence in Switzerland devoted exclusively to the art of narrative drawing, be it in comics, graphic novels, comics reportage, cartoons, satirical drawings or animated films. It collects individual works, curates exhibitions and shares knowledge about the genre. The museum contributes to the debate about the art of narrative drawing, and about the social and political issues it addresses.
Emil Beurmann was a Swiss painter, writer and poet.
The Basel Connecting Line is a railway line in the Swiss city of Basel and connects Basel Baden station on the right bank of the Rhine and Basel SBB station on the left bank. It is located on Swiss territory.
Corin Curschellas is a Swiss singer-songwriter, vocalist, free improvisation, actress, voice actress in as well as voice instructress.
Christoph Doswald is a Swiss publicist, curator und university lecturer.
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Oswald "Osi" Inglin is a Swiss politician and historian.
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The Wocher Panorama, also known as the Thun Panorama, is a panoramic painting depicting the city of Thun. Created by the artist Marquard Wocher in 1814, it was the first panorama in Switzerland. It is on display at Schadau Castle and is owned by the Gottfried Keller Foundation. The painting is about 7.5m tall and 38m wide and is the oldest cyclorama in the world.