Day 1 – Session ‘Destination Maastricht’

In this session three speakers provided their views on the city as a destination which is supposed to be attractive not only to local inhabitants but as well to tourists. How can a city create a cultural environment that lives up to the expectations of both groups?

Jeroen Boomgaard (Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam) started his presentation with a short German documentation about Maastricht as a tourist destination, afterwards revealing that all the words describing Maastricht used in the film came from flyers from other European cities. According to Boomgaard, one of the dangers of becoming a cultural capital lies exactly in the search for a specific and unique image, which makes the competing cities look increasingly the same. Maastricht should be careful not to become a non-destination (“onbestemming Maastricht”), which it could become when taking the notion of mobility as its (only) hallmark in the competition for ECOC. The fixation on mobility should be abandoned, and the already ‘established’ image torn down, in order to be able to discover Maastricht’s real cultural value.

In the second presentation, Anne Lorentzen (Aalborg University) talked about the problems that small European cities face due to the economic stagnation. One of the solutions to this problem can be the implementation of place bound experience products. This suggestion is in line with the concept of the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore), arguing that it’s all about staging a vivid and compelling experience. Lorentzen described how the small Danish city Frederikshavn put itself on the map by taking quite remarkable actions such as creating a sand beach with palm trees, or inviting Bill Clinton and Al Gore to public talks. Due to these measures the city came into the limelight in Denmark, and hence noticed an increase in tourism as well as quality of life for the local people. The question that remains is however if these actions have a sustainable future.

The last presentation of the session by Zora Jaurová (Košice 2013 European Capital of Culture) gave an interesting insight into the planning of the bid and event itself of the ECOC in Košice, Slovakia. For Košice, the ECOC project was an opportunity to drastically transform the post-industrial city into a place fostering creativity. For the starting point the cultural diversity in the city was of great importance, being more homogeneous than in most Western European cities. However, most of the people living in the suburbs did not have a real sense of belonging to the city, and one goal of the project was to unite these people with the city. A campaign had to change the idea of the city, by inviting people to “Use the C!ty”. Borrowing from computer technology, the term interface was used to describe a city which enables all of its users to communicate with each other and express their creativity by changing their environment. Old empty Soviet buildings in the suburbs were revived as different cultural centers, leading to a decentralization of culture in the city and giving more people the possibility to engage themselves with cultural production.

Text: Nicolas Heinz

Day 2 – Between Centers and Peripheries & Mind the Gap!

The third workshop on the 15th of May combined two workshops of the day before, Between Centres and Peripheries and the student session Mind the Gap! The sessions provided the visitors with some outcomes in both fields, mostly in the first one which dealt with the problematic status of the border and the engagement with the related regions.

During the workshop several important themes were pointed out. At first one of the speakers pushed the importance of migration forward. Maastricht is a city which is crossed by many itineraries, several travel routes which brings a lot of people with them. Looking at the city of Maastricht from their point of view could give us a new and interesting view on the city and her cultural production. By giving attention to these views fundamental differences will become clear compared to the view of the local people. When it comes to a more practical approach, it would be interesting to compose a platform in which people of a broad range of groups are engaged. Most likely this platform should not be connected with political structures, it should consist of free people doing free research.

Related to this was a second speaker who pointed to the importance of excess for everybody and the chance of participation in the process. We should search for a democratic cultural life. Although the cultural field should take the lead, the political actors and institutions should take the responsibility and include the citizens. The past has shown us that too much privatisation leads to oppression of experimental approaches. Let the cultural field develop a project, but without repeating which is already known. Collaboration with partner regions and cities is very important in this process. Position the region in a wider context, which also fits in our historical context. Culture is not only a national issue anymore, but also a European one.

Becoming the European Capital of Culture is a project which means for many people becoming the best. Nevertheless we should not focus on this, but on the process, the way to get there. We should use all potentials and this will create new opportunities to get actually in touch with our neighbours. One of the speakers pleaded for the remapping of the Euregion. At this moment we are too much bounded to the map and the fixed identities. We should search for a more open territory. Next to that we should focus on something sustainable.

When it comes to the gap between students and the local culture of Maastricht, everyone agreed that there is a gap between the two groups. Several ways of dealing with this gap were put forward. At first we could approach the gap as something positive. It provides diversity, which a city needs. Other people would want to bridge the gap by an urban campus. Although students need their own life and living space, there are benefits of bridging the gap. Culture should be a medium in this process of connecting people. An important way to reach this goal would be a more active attitude among students and self organization. There is not only a gap existing during their studentlife. The gap also appears after the period of studying and while searching for a job.

Text: Rianne Stijnen