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] |
