About reframing the international

Why is internationalisation a focus point in our R&D?

Today there is an increasing urgency to raise questions about working internationally in the arts. Why are we working internationally? What does it really mean to be working abroad?

It is not the first time that intermediary organisations like Flanders Arts Institute organise moments of reflection about the internationalisation of the arts. The last few years, a lot has happened. Working internationally has almost become evident, but at the same time, there is this uncanny feeling that the pressure is increasing. Society today is going through some unseen political, cultural and ecological changes, which may all radically change the way we work. The stakes are higher than ever, it seems.

The success story of internationalisation conceals the increasing pressure on artistic work and the difficulties that this entails. Joris Janssens

It is certainly true that international work has become a lot less exotic than before. The last decades, our sectors have been internationalising thoroughly. We have made use of a number of profound political, technological and economic developments to organise artistic practices differently. Think about business developments such as digitalisation, low-cost airlines, AirBnB, Skype, couchsurfing, roaming and not in the least, the huge impact of European policies – economic, monetary, educational and cultural. All this has had a profound impact on the development and even the proliferation of cultural networks in Europe since the 1980s.

Internationalisation of the arts from Flanders & Brussels: beyond growth

A number of artists from Flanders and Brussels have been doing pretty well in this globalising system of producing and presenting art. Kunstenpunt / Flanders Arts Institute regularly raises awareness with public and political stakeholders about the success of the Flemish arts abroad by presenting research data. And we will continue to do so in the context of Reframing the International.

Our enthusiasm about the international recognition for the arts from Flanders is absolutely legitimate. Some achievements are truly remarkable and even historical. At the same time, there is an increasing feeling of unease with recent developments. There are a number of problems with this success story, giving a very limited picture of what is going on. The success picture conceals the increasing pressure on our work and the difficulties that this entails.

Artists, organisers, companies, curators and producers: they all tell us they must fight harder than ever to achieve the same results, with sometimes painstaking negotiations about fees and budgets. Certainly in music and performing arts, contributions to travel expenses rarely cover the real costs of touring. There is a lot of competition on the international market and there is a constant struggle to catch media and audience attention.

A focus on export might obscure the fact that more and more meaningful developments and artistic practices do not fit in this frame of high visibility. Joris Janssens

The pressure increases. In a lot of countries, the legitimacy of (national) government investments in the arts is subject to debate. National governments are withdrawing, sometimes with severe budget cuts in the arts as a result. The political context is clearly shifting: already in the UK, the US, Croatia, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary and many other countries we see a shift towards more economic protectionism and nationalist populism.

In these times of crisis and government cutbacks, organisations and institutions are struggling to maintain their production capacity by engaging more and more partners, often international co-producers. Paradoxically, when national policies are receding, transnational cooperation is booming.

Cities and municipalities have already become more active in developing local cultural policies, experimenting with more transversal approaches and integrating the arts in urban development and city marketing schemes. Joris Janssens

But how sustainable are these strategies in the long term? A growing number of increasingly vulnerable partners is needed to keep up the same level of output, previous Kunstenpunt / Flanders Arts Institute research has shown. How sustainable is this growth bubble? And, most importantly: where does that leave the artists? Throughout the whole of Europe, the position of individual artists has become more vulnerable and precarious than ever. One out of ten artists can make a living from their artistic work, our 2016 research concludes. Apparently, artists are the first victims of the economic pressure on institutions and companies; often non-artistic staff members are employed on a permanent basis,  whereas artists’ fees are paid from variable budgets. Maybe this increasing precariousness is also an important driver behind the internationalisation of artists’ trajectories?

Meaningful developments and practices

An increase in political and economic pressure on artists and art organisations could partially explain the increase in internationalisation of the arts, that is, the growth in presence of arts from Flanders and Brussels abroad. But there’s another reason why focusing on export success is short-sighted: it might obscure the fact that more and more meaningful developments and artistic practices do not fit in this frame of export and high visibility.

More and more artists and institutions are looking for ways out of this rat race which is sometimes called hypermobility; traveling from black box to black box, from white cube to white cube, from residency to residency, just to make a living.

When working abroad, there is an increasing interest to rethink what it means to work internationally by slowing down, by creating time via, for instance, residencies, workshops or new formats for producing and presenting art like cocreation and site-specific projects. As a result, artists are more and more explicitly dealing with internationalisation, mobility and sustainability in their work.

More and more artists and institutions are looking for ways out of this rat race, sometimes called hypermobility. Joris Janssens

For some artists, this way of working might not exactly be new. But in the current context, it really is important to discuss these practices to make them more visible and reflect on their meaning in the context of Reframing the International. A new argumentation for the value of international practices in the arts might be found here.

Maybe it will be less the national governments that need to be convinced of this new story of connecting the local to the international.Cities and municipalities have already become more active in developing local cultural policies. They are experimenting with more transversal approaches or integrating the arts in urban development and city marketing schemes.

Maybe the future will be all about connecting local scenes and communities with transnational mobility and information flows. Let us find out together.