From the local to the global and back; it starts at home and comes back home!
Truth-Dare-Art; Focus Group 2 Q. What is on the journey from local to global? Who is the captain? How can we navigate on the ‘ship of fools’? Q. What/who guides the journey? Q. What obstacles/barriers/tsunami do you see/foresee?
12 July 2019, Discussion at Truth-Dare-Art Social Forum
Felicie Kertudo's notes:
The discussion evolved around travels, some of which lasted for over three months. The focus group looked at the sense of value found within those travels and their meaning, for themselves and for other cultures. They found that the 'value' of the family, of the community, was more powerful abroad than 'at home'. Thinking about the arts in this discussion came when they talked about 'opportunities', when being able to go somewhere and collaborate with people from other countries to set up cultural events. One of the participant got to organise a music festival during his time in the Gambia.
"We are the blind captain of the ship of fools." But that is important in the end, navigating without really knowing where it is going. And that is precisely why you leave, in order to finally know where you are going. "When I lived in Andover, I went to India with the assumption that I was going to 'find myself'. It is precisely the extreme difference that pushes you to find and react to contrasts, to value those." "Difference is a catalyst that breeds awareness." "Your city owns you." "We adjust, we recalibrate. The difference becomes normal." "The cultural, the sensory shock works on return as well as outward." "Inequality crosses global politics. funding is hard. People tend to work in economically strong countries."