Stronger Peripheries: an editorial and artistic challenge to explore the South of performing arts
Stronger Peripheries: Building a Southern Coalition in Performing Arts is a publication that compiles four years of an EU project. A 600-page journey weaving narratives and images to redefine the notions of “south” and “periphery.”
The publication Stronger Peripheries: Building a Southern Coalition in Performing Arts is an interdisciplinary mosaic curated by Pedro Costa and Ricardo Venâncio Lopes (DINÂMIA’CET-Iscte, Portugal) and Anja Pletikosa (POGON, Croatia). In one volume, it gathers a variety of content that reflects the complexity of the Stronger Peripheries European project, which, from 2020 to 2024, united 11 artistic organizations and 3 research institutions from 10 countries in Southern Europe and the Balkans.
A Journey Through Seven Sections
The narrative opens with an introduction to the Stronger Peripheries: A Southern Coalition project.
The second section, Participation in Southern Peripheries, analyzes themes that emerged during meetings and conferences, addressing concepts such as art, participation, south, periphery, community, power relations, and post-colonial perspectives. Here, readers can contextualize the project and deepen their understanding of its conceptual framework.
The third section is dedicated to 14 artistic creations born from the collaboration between artists, local communities, and project partners. These works, presented through images and visual narratives, embody the core of the project’s artistic production.
The fourth section, Southern Art Worlds, tackles contemporary societal and performing arts challenges, exploring themes like feminism, care politics, and global power relations, while emphasizing the diversity of possible “souts.”
In Alternative Gazes from the South (Section 5), the focus shifts to imagining alternative futures, while the sixth section offers collective action recommendations based on lessons learned throughout the project.
Finally, the seventh section provides two operational toolkits, co-created training tools designed to improve participatory processes in communities and better understand southern audiences.
A Catalogue for the Future of Performing Arts
The editors hope that this publication will become a dynamic and stimulating resource for anyone interested in performing arts and their potential for social transformation. The book tells a story of empowerment and listening, giving voice to the often marginalized artistic peripheries of Southern Europe. It is an invitation to immerse oneself in the imaginaries of the south, to understand the challenges and opportunities of the arts in contemporary contexts.