Working internationally: Pros and cons
We live in a small country. Beyond our borders there’s an enormous potential for audiences, artists, organisations and networks that has been abundantly explored for several decades.
In the arts you can work locally, nationally and internationally on development, production, presentation, participation and reflection.
Working internationally is not only about the international mobility of artists, works of art, art workers and organisations, and the collaboration that this requires, but also about the exchange and collaboration around knowledge about working in the arts and about contacts.
Choosing to work internationally can have various motives. We take a closer look at a number of them.
Artistic motives
- Artistic inspiration from other cultures, a different cultural context encourages self-reflection
- Meeting artists in other countries, measuring themselves against other artists, feedback from peers, teaching abroad
- International recognition and fame
- Showing in Flanders what’s going on abroad, showing Flemish culture in an international context
Economic motives
- Income from international co-production and presentation to cover costs
- Expanding market, recouping investments, making profits
- Employment
Social motives
- Expanding audiences, dialogue with diverse audiences, impact of art on other cultures
- Flanders as a region that is open to diversity and other cultures, offering foreign artists opportunities to work here (creation, residency, teaching, workshops)
Frictions surrounding international working
Questions are asked about the reasons why we work internationally. Motives are inspired by a market logic through which all the issues surrounding market thinking creep into the arts:
- Cultural exchange versus export logic and one-way traffic
- Encounter with other audiences versus consumerism
- Ecological footprint of travel
- Financial and individual precarity
- Inspiration versus extraction and appropriation
