Cimetta Forum

Since April 2014, the Roberto Cimetta Fund has been developing a Knowledge sharing forum, entitled « Cimetta Forum » in a spirit of solidarity, generosity and international collaboration.

This Forum operates virtually at present by grouping together some 215 individual artists and cultural operators from 31 countries (Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine) who took part in three meetings, in Beirut (2012), Belgrade (2013) and Zagreb (2014) which were organised by the Roberto Cimetta Fund. See presentations of the meetings below.

The aims of the Cimetta Forum are

• To share first hand, in-depth knowledge of the various conditions in which artists work in the Euro-Arab geographical zone
• To make tangible and communicate similarities and dissimilarities of these conditions
• To identify both 'universal and specific' problems and challenges faced by the group members 
• To collectively search for solutions that can be implemented (reciprocally and effectively) 
• To elaborate workable and realistic strategies of support for members in their own communities/countries through collective actions.

The Forum will focus on six issues and formulate concrete solutions to these issues by building up «cases studies ».

Each case study will look at

1. the legal framework and diagnosis of the context (existing models and main challenges), 

2. what knowledge and skills are needed and who has them, 

3. a plan of action that includes an advocacy strategy.

The issues are

-        How to diversify international funding mechanisms for local producers of art and culture, 

-        How to facilitate travel and promote international cooperation, 

-        What can we suggest as intermediary solutions to facilitate relations between local and/or international institutions and the artistic community,

-        How can we improve the management of local art and culture production and the benefits of international networking and partnership building,

-        How can we overcome experiencing oppression when expressing art,

-        How can we relate to communities and the public space, meant as a "common" space.

In order to extend in time and space the elaboration of these issues, the Roberto Cimetta Fund will:

• Set up an online platform, composed of an internal Virtual Forum and a public Archive in progress, that collects and promotes textual and audio-visual materials of projects produced by the members of Cimetta Forum;
• Run a series of laboratories and interviews, composed of small transdisciplinary working groups, that explore the issues listed above;
• Draft a publication, that promotes the critical - multidisciplinary elaboration of these issues.

This project is being realised in collaboration with Vahid Evazzadeh, Filmmaker, theatre director, writer and manager of the Counter Institute (Iran/Denmark), Giusy Checola, researcher, curator and founding director of Archiviazioni, art and planning in public sphere (Italy) and Claudia Muresu, performing arts manager and arts management researcher in the Balkans (Italy). 

Presentations of the meetings leading up to the setting-up of Cimetta Forum

In November 2012 during the exchange platform « مدارات – MADARAT » in Beirut 55 artists, operators, journalists, institutional representatives, experts and Board members of RCF and regional members of the Istikshaf platform from 21 countries (Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey) took part. The two-day debate allowed for dialogues between engaged actors in the region and consolidated network building as an essential component to provide the quality conditions to develop and sustain transnational arts and cultural projects. The report of this exchange platform is available here.

The “Arab-Balkan - platform for exchange” was organised on 11th September 2013 in Belgrade in the framework of the YUropa  conference coordinated by the Serbian Cultural Contact Point. Over 90 artists, operators, journalists, institutional representatives, experts and Board members of RCF and regional members of the Istikshaf platform from 14 countries (Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey) took part. You can read the report of the meeting here.

A second "Arab-Balkan platform for exchange was organised  in Zagreb on 8th & 9th May 2014 entitled “Enlightening hidden passes: the reality of cultural mobilities between the Balkans, Europe and the Arab world”. The meeting was held at POGON, Zagreb Centre for Independent Culture and Youth with the participation of the Kultura Nova Foundation, the Croatian Ministry of Culture and the City of Zagreb.

Over 70 participants from 8 Arab countries (Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Algeria, Syria, Morocco, Palestine,), 9 CEI countries (Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Austria, Slovenia, Macedonia, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland) and from Irak, Turkey, France, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Greece took part. The major points of the programme were to allow everyone to present their opinions and practice relating to networking, exchange, models of cooperation, EU funding, advocacy and regional cooperation. The main recommendations consisted in: advocating for funding for individuals rather than legal organisations, diversifying types of funding that can be more adapted to current artistic practice, continuing to advocate for more mobility that creates valuable opportunities for development, innovation, creation, advocating for freedom of expression, encouraging more regional interaction between artists and academia, artists and journalists, artists and entrepreneurs, peer-to-peer learning and exchange, improve skills in project management for international collaborations.

All these actions emphasize the Fund's aim to be in close contact with the reality of artistic and cultural work at grassroots level in the region. 

Former actions included the setting up of regional artistic exchange platforms (June 2003), or the organisation of seminars and conferences (Fès Symposium, May 2006, pdf), or the publication of studies (Study on Artistic and Cultural Professional Profiles in non-European Mediterranean Countries 2008, pdf Made in Med, 2007, pdf).