News
artasfoundation just won an award!
We were just awarded the Canton of Zurich's Price for our contribution to the widening of the cultural participation in conflict regions. The price honours cultural workers and institutions that are committed to the broadening of access to cultural life. We are humbled that our work was recognised in such a way. The price will help us navigate the difficulties imposed by the pandemic. There are two other prizewinners in 2021, which are the LAB Young Theater Zurich and Froh Ussicht. Click here to know more!
Click here to see a video about our work
Current Projects
Swiss Initiative
How can diplomatic conflict mediation be supported by art? Following initial steps in to address this question (Art in Dialogue), artasfoundation was able to persuade Swiss diplomats to join together in the venture. To this end, the Swiss Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Alexandre Fasel, invited 14 people from the field of art and conflict mediation to a colloquium, Art in Mediation, in his residence in June 2015. Due to the lively exchange of ideas, both sides recommended a more in-depth exploration of the opportunities for cooperation. After his appointment as Ambassador in London, Alexandre Fasel continued it in several rounds of talks with artists andpeacebuilding experts, and then announced a one-year research grant in 2019 for concentrated work on this question. artasfoundation was able to support this process and is now active in cooperating in the ongoing research process.
Jour Fixe on 15 December 2021, 17h15 CET
The artasfoundation team artasfoundation invites you to the Jour Fixe on the third Wednesday of every month to discuss ongoing projects as well as issues related to the work of the foundation or political developments in the partner countries.
It's a hybrid event, taking place both on site at Lindenbachstrasse 21 in Zurich and in virtual space.
The discussion is held in German or English, depending on the participants.
If you wish to be informed about the agenda each month, please sign up on our Jour Fixe invitation list here.
Circular
From the current circular
Everything is prepared, the cold season is over and it is time to commence our projects. In the village of Tavush in Armenia, Hermine has prepared her garden. We visited her three weeks ago because we too were preparing. We were meeting partners of both a dance project that should have started long ago and an exchange project among art teachers. We asked Hermine how she sees the future, now that the war with Azerbaijan is over. ‘I can't think yet,’ she said. ‘My head is in turmoil. And the future? There is still a big emptiness for me.’
In the small town of Berd near the border of Azerbaijan, Armen Melikyan, the director of the local cultural centre, describes how the interest in art has increased ‘now in the post-war depression’. ‘Because parents want something uplifting for their children, we have more requests than usual,’ he says. The invitation to our dance project comes just at the right time. This is also the impression of Shoghakat Mlke Galstyan with whom we have already worked on several projects. We supported her art initiative for Karabakh refugees while the borders were closed due to the pandemic. Shoghakat shares our desire to deconstruct images of the enemy through art activities. But she reports how difficult things are at the moment: ‘You should see the horror images that are being spread on social media right now. All our young people see them and, then, we try to tell them that on the other side of the border, there are people like us.’
How easy it is to destroy and how much time and patience it takes to rebuild!
Here we recount the steps that we currently take to support such rebuilding.
¹artasfoundation would like to underline that its use of names and titles particularly in regards to conflict regions should not be understood as implying any form of recognition or non-recognition by the foundation or as having any other political connotation whatsoever.