& FURTHER

AIMING LEFT / LINKS RICHTEN
london / rotterdam

|kd| time after time, the dutch have voted for the wrong politics as far as i'm concerned. _the current government tops everything. _recently our secretary of state of the ministry of education, culture & science (ocw ?!) announced that it's time to focus on TOP-class art again. _the cultural elite that determines where funding goes to and indirectly pulls the strings of the art industry, seems to have approved of his vision. _i totally disagree, because i think the time is exactly right for more social forms of art with collaboration between artists, disciplines and communities as keywords. _but the current policy doesn't affect my choices directly. _i'm still free to decide what kind of art i make. _however it does have an indirect negative effect, because there's suddenly less budget for the kinds of art that are important to me and also for the venues that use to present these forms of art. _what worries me is that many venues are put under pressure to conform to this tendency. _many yield. _i have the impression that the shift in the cultural landscape has not that much to do with the absolute volume of the culture budget, but rather results from choices from above. _the cultural elite is originally a left-wing elite. _according to their principles, you expect them to object to the ideas of right-wing 'pvv'- populists and like minded, but they support them. _they should actually show backbone and stand up for a wide variety of art forms. _to me it's problematic that funding budgets are cut, but it's challenging and exciting at the same time. _it forces me to be creative and look for alternatives to achieve my aims. _but what really annoys me is that persons who - in view of their supposed cultural baggage - consider themselves high-minded and judicious, can negligently reject a project and carelessly classify it as irrelevant without giving a proper account. _if i try to explain why the project is important to me, they don't reply. _it's unhealthy to keep banging on a closed door, so i'd rathed look for a new environment to recalibrate my ideas. _london is my next stop. _in that city things have been happening much longer with less money. _i want to experience how that feels. _maybe i have become blind for the potential of rotterdam because i've lived here for such a long time. _a change of scene might open my eyes to the possibilities here