Since its creation, CeRCCa has aimed at linking the local and the global, while at the same time developing a constructive dialogue between what is understood as theory and what we denominate as practice. It is with this objective that CeRCCa complements it’s A.I.R program with other international research and curatorial projects.
CeRCCa was born from a mentoring initiative developed with the support of the London South Bank University (LSBU) through its Creative Media Arts and Critical Arts Management Program. This two-year period of research culminated in the first initiative developed by CeRCCa in 2009, the FURNISH ME! Workshops, the experimental documentary A Winter Ritual that aimed at investigating the possibilities of integration between CeRCCa and its immediate community, and a research paper entitled Theory As Practice, a Practitioner based Research on CeRCCa Local Context.
After these two years of research, and thanks to the different connections established through the LSBU mentoring initiative, CeRCCa actively engaged in several national and international projects. The international approach started by joining the main A.I.R international networks such as Trans Artists and Res Artis, as well as other regional initiatives such as the Anna Lindh Foundation, a network that works for the promotion of intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean, and Xarxaprod, the network of artistic production centers of Catalonia as well as the project Obert per Reflexio organized by Centre d’Art de Tarragona.
Between 2009 and 2013, CeRCCa has participated in projects related to both the theory and practice of artistic and cultural mobility. The theoretical projects have been materialized through the research papers Theory as Practice, a Practitioner Based Research on CeRCCa’s Local Context, The HyperMobile Icarus or the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Artists-In-Residency Today and Nomadism and Commodification.
The practice of theory has been implemented with the participation in several international projects such as T.R.I.B.E – The Transitory Research Initiative for the Balkans and Eastern Europe, a project being developed by MoTa (Ljubljana, Slovenia) and N.A.C.M.M – The North Africa Cultural Mobility Map, a project that is being developed in conjunction with the Egyptian based organization El Madina for Performing and Digital Arts (Alexandria, Egypt) and initially funded by the Anna Lindh Foundation.
These projects would not have been possible without the support of different funding institutions such as the Catalan Arts Council and the Oficina de Suport a les Iniciatives Cultural of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the European Cultural Foundation, the Erasmus Young Entrepreneur Program, Cimetta Fund and Anna Lindh Foundation, as well as the promotional support of Trans Artists, Res Artis, and the H-Net Humanities and Social Sciences Network.
‘The impossibility of perception is a perception in itself’ Ibn Arabi, The Secrets of Voyaging / Kitab Al-Isfar 'an Nata 'Ij Al-Asfar
Beyond Qafila Thania brought together researchers from Sudan, Morocco, Spain, Catalonia, Italy and the Netherlands researching in architecture, sociology and the visual arts actively approaching the cultural, social and geopolitical space of the Sahara desert to trace back the stories of the old caravans and learn about its influence in current day cultures and societies.
Beyond Qafila Thania facilitated an inspiring frame to exchange and research further on the participants on going projects focusing on topics such as contemporary nomad cultures and architectures, current immigration routes, history of slave trade, the concept of blackness and trans-Saharan book trade and the mobility of knowledge(s) within the Mediterranean, the Maghreb and West Africa.
Beyond Qafila Thania has been a collaboration between CeRCCa and the Moroccan organizations Marsad Drâa/Project QAFILA and Le18 and was funded by SouthMed CV, a programme cofunded by the European Union within the framework of the regional programme MedCulture, the SGSAH and the Departament de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya.
