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SUD 2007 programme

iStrike is an environmental organisation which aims at highlighting and surveying new dynamics of intercultural exchange and international cultural co-operation. To stress and overcome definitions of culture, identity, diversity and development, iStrike Foundation produces visual representations of territories, focuses on the environment and strengthens the idea of resources, avoiding activities based on problem solving. iStrike is based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and operates as a collective subject at an international level.
iStrike members are: Lucia Babina, Iolanda Pensa and Kamiel Verschuren.
doual'art is a an experimental laboratory for new urban practices of African cities. Since 1991, doual'art has invited in Douala contemporary artists in order to create a bridge between the city and contemporary art productions. In producing site-specific urban interventions, doual'art works as an intermediary between social and economic actors, population and local collectives. It perceives cultural and artistic initiatives as a tool for consolidating freedom of expression and social cohesion, which allow in their turn transcending and overcoming closures and cleavages. doual'art implements a participatory approach to cultural practice, negotiating with local communities, NGOs and authorities their specific needs and aspirations and involving artists as facilitators of the development processes. doual'art is based in Douala, Cameroon.
doual'art members: Marilyn Douala Bell and Didier Schaub


Since 2005 iStrike and doual'art work together on SUD 2007, a long-term programme of cultural activities aimed at transforming the city of Douala (Cameroon) into a case study, to facilitate and multiply new site specific productions and to document, reinforce, consolidate and give international visibility to the cultural and innovative projects produced and based in Douala and in Cameroon.

Douala is a growing multicultural hub gathering people from many different ethnic groups, while also preserving the memory of a German, British and French colonial past. It is the economical capital of Cameroon with almost 3 million inhabitants. It is an African “city yet to come” (Simone AM., For the City Yet to Come, Duke University Press, Durham and London, 2004).

Given its richness of pluralities and resources, social cohesion and effective development would be difficult to reach if the contemporary cultural dimension was not considered alongside political and economic factors. Whilst Cameroonian government fails to value the national cultural heritage and identity through its policies, in the last decade the population has been extremely active in terms of artistic and cultural production: development is considered by the most an aesthetic project.

The first phase of SUD 2007 is about to be accomplished and includes three projects: the Ars&Urbis International Workshop, the project Documentation and Archive and the event SUD - Salon Urbain de Douala.

The Ars&Urbis International Workshop took place in Douala in March 2007. iStrike and doual’art have invited 15 international cultural practitioners to work in Douala for 15 days in collaboration with artists and cultural practitioners based in the city. The participants, specialised in different fields, have been involved in an open debate about the artistic creation as a paradigm of development in the African urban context. The aim is to put together international and multidisciplinary practices in order to observe Douala and to produce unexpected translations of the urbanity. The focus of the workshop is to look into the belly of the city, its lively and vibrant spineless side, which is usually forgotten by media and official cartographers. The final result is the implementation of a heterogeneous and multimedia documentation on real and imaginary perspectives of Douala.

The project Documentation and Archive consists of a website (www.istrike.net) and a printed book. The publication is a kaleidoscopic representation of Douala from a wide range of international professionals who in the last 15 years, have set up stable relationships with the city and its inhabitants. Rather than addressing Douala as a problematic setting that needs solutions, the book intends to promote experimental and cross-disciplinary translations of the urbanity.
The book is a miscellaneous of real and imaginary perspectives of Douala which addresses two different issues. On the one hand, it aims to give a broader visibility to the city and its cultural environment. On the other hand, the contribution of international cultural practitioners to the book, fosters to look at the complexity and the elusiveness of the city, to go beyond the predictable and the prejudicial about African towns, and to develop a different understanding of the city in terms of its creative transformative potential. The publication is issued in December 2007 and is presented for the first time during the event SUD – Salon Urbain de Douala.

The event SUD - Salon Urbain de Douala takes place in Douala from the 9th till the 16th December. It is an international event to present to a local and international audience the city of Douala and its most pioneering cultural and artistic projects. More than 15 international artists, architects and researchers will produce site-specific installations ad-hoc for SUD tackling issues like urban mobility, heritage, informal sector, recycling and modernity. SUD will function as a showcase for artists and institutions operating in Douala and as a working platform for experts practicing in the sector.

http://www.istrike.net

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