Anouk Zuurmond | University of Amsterdam | Transnational Literary Projects | Supervisor: Thomas Vaessens | 2015-2019

As financial and political crises make issues of a shared European identity more pressing, the question of what binds us together is currently discussed with an increased sense of urgency. To facilitate such reflections on a shared identity, different transnational projects have been instigated by cultural organizations, promoted by and mostly with generous financial support from EU-programs and institutes. Five of these cross-border initiatives, deployed since 2000, will serve as case-studies to ask what the strategies and effects have been of these projects. The main question at the heart of the proposed research is: What are the strategies and effects of these transnational literary projects? All of these transnational projects are based on a shared strategy to produce a similar effect, namely to engage intellectuals in the debate on a European identity from a literary perspective. These initiatives thus offer an opportunity to research this strategy by analyzing the intentions held by the organizers of these projects and asking why literature is deemed a valuable contribution to this debate. The effects will be assessed by looking at the outcome of these projects: both the cultural artefacts resulting from these projects and the role of these projects in light of the public debate on a European identity.

Simone Kalkman | University of Amsterdam | Art in the Divided City: The Representation of the Rio de Janeiro. Favela in Participatory Art Projects | Supervisor: Christoph Lindner | 2014-2019

This research investigates the increasingly popular practice of contemporary art projects in Rio de Janeiro favelas (slums). In recent decades, many (professional) artists have worked in marginalised communities, making the interaction with disadvantaged groups an essential part of their work. Through participatory processes, these artists often aim to combine artistic meaning with tangible, socio-political outcomes. In Rio de Janeiro’s favelas such projects have become widespread. This relates to the societal position of these neighbourhoods, characterised by a strong local identity, an important place in national narratives, and a recent international popularity. Based on the idea of Rio de Janeiro as a “divided city”, favelas are often wrongly considered territories of absolute “otherness” and various artists are trying to change this imagery by actively crossing the borders between the favela and the formal city. The research analyses and compares four art projects that have worked with local participants and received considerable international attention: Projeto Morrinho, Paula Trope, Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg, and Favela Painting. The comparison has three focal points. Firstly, it analyses how the projects represent the favela to international audiences. Secondly, it considers how the projects physically cross the borders between favela and “formal city” in their participatory processes. Thirdly, it examines the projects’ international art world’s reception. This will not only provide a critical account of this popular tendency in contemporary art, but also contribute to the debate on how the favela is internationally represented and how the integration of favelas might be improved through artistic practices.