project Archives - Chrysoula Kechagioglou

ULYSSES: European Odyssey

19/09/2022 asd by kechagioglou

A new civic and cultural project—”ULYSSES: European Odyssey”—that unites in a single vision 18 cities across Europe.

“ULYSSES: European Odyssey” is inspired by the novel’s status as one of the seminal landmarks in European culture. The project’s transnational scope will be multi-disciplinary and consist of 14 city events animating the democratic public spaces of a modern city in ‘all walks of life’, plus 18 civic cross-sectoral Arts & Society symposia to be held in each city, 30 artist exchange residencies and 18 literary commissions for a new EUROPE-ULYSSES book to be published in 2024.

The project will unfold in each of the 18 cities in the chronological order of the novel’s 18 episodes, opening in ATHENS late September 2022, immediately followed by Budapest, Marseille, Trieste, and Vilnius in autumn 2022. In 2023 initiatives will take place in Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, San Sebastian, Cluj, Istanbul, Zurich, Groningen, Eleusis, and Oulu. The project will complete its journey in June 2024 in Lisbon, Dublin, and Derry-Londonderry.

In its application to Creative Europe, the organizers of “ULYSSES: European Odyssey” underlined 18 ‘urgent priorities’ in contemporary European society, one for each city and directly inspired by the themes present in Joyce’s 18 book episodes. These include for example: ‘youth, citizenship & democracy’, ‘the role of neighborhood communities in post Covid Europe’, ‘enrichment through immigration’, ‘our creative dialogue with the dead’, ‘our modern-day relationship with food’, ‘the ecological challenges facing our sacred seas and shores’, ‘Shelters and Europe’s ageing population’, ‘The future—a female vision’, etc. These themes will be addressed through the 18 Arts & Society Symposia held by the UEO consortium partners in each city, from which questions and proposed solutions will be sent through to the Grand Symposium of 309 questions (as inspired by Episode 17 of “Ulysses”) in Dublin June 12-14, 2024.

The 18-city consortium of partners comprise a range of established and emerging organizations including three museums, three theater organizations, a civic environmental project, an illumination light festival, two cultural and tourism government authorities, a photography festival, and independent artists and curators in the visual and performing arts and film. The lead partner for the project is “Stichting Brave New World Producties” in the Netherlands alongside the lead artistic partner “Arts Over Borders” in Ireland.

source: onassis.org

ULYSSES European Odyssey (UEO)

19/09/2022 asd by kechagioglou

Uncategorized

project

ULYSSES European Odyssey (UEO) is an epic project from 2022-2024 across 18 cities in 16 countries, producing artistic responses in public spaces to social and cultural themes identified in the 18 episodes of James Joyce’s Ulysses. At the same time, a cycle of 18 public symposia will be held in each city to produce 309 questions (Ulysses, Ep. 17) towards creating a new arts and society manifesto for Europe. The project also has 30 artist residencies which will contribute to a new book, Europe-Ulysses, alongside 18 new writing commissions, one writer from each city.

SCHEMA

ULYSSES European Odyssey was inspired not only by Joyce’s European masterpiece, but also by his own ‘user’s guide’ to his book. Joyce wrote two schemas. His Gilbert schema in November 1921 to help his friend, Valery Larbaud, prepare a public lecture on the novel. And his Linati schema in 1920 to assist Carlo Linati understand the fundamental structure of the book.

In both schemas Joyce identifies places, times, colours, bodily organs, scientific and artistic disciplines and symbols for each episode. He also identified the chapter his episodes linked to in Homer’s The Odyssey. In the Gilbert schema he also gave each episode a ‘technique’, ranging from narrative to monologues, narcissism to hallucination.

Arts Over Borders and Brave New World Producties took his schemas and added a further column: Contemporary European issues. Diving deep into each episode we found a modern day European (global) issue or urgency in each chapter. This 100 year old novel started to reveal itself in a new, compelling way. It took on, deep from within the very twists and turns of the main protagonist, Leopold Bloom’s journey around Dublin, a rich and provocative modern day relevance. ULYSSES European Odyssey was born.

Our next step was to match the contemporary European issue to a city. Sometimes a challenge but more often perfectly matched, we identified cities for each issue and thus for each episode. We tested the rationale for the matching before we identified our partners to ensure it all hung together.

The next step was to find a broad range of organisations whose artistic discipline or creative form would reflect the huge diversity of Joyce’s writing style in each episode. It was a search through our creative and professional contacts plus new discoveries, new artistic meetings. Conversations with people requesting recommendations and tips, online research (we developed the project during Covid) and conversations. Talking, sharing our ideas. Until finally we had our partners.

ULYSSES European Odyssey is a journey around Europe. Odysseus’s journey home. Bloom’s journey around Dublin. Joyce’s journey around literary form. And now, too, our journey through the novel, seen through the eyes of 18 cities, 18 contemporary European issues, 18 different creative disciplines and 18 contrasting organisations.

ulysseseurope.eu