Situated Voices 33
Cultural Rights. Everybody’s Culture
Free, until full capacity is reached
In recent years, the debate on culture and its role in society has intensified. The so-called “culture wars” are a reality which, in certain European countries, have brought about a hollowing-out of institutions — in teams and in content — owing to an ideological polarisation. This necessitates a change of paradigm to ensure a healthy democracy and to understand culture as a right, not as a product or service. The Spanish Constitution sets out a clear framework on the need for public policies that effectively guarantee this right, not only so that citizens are recipients or consumers of culture, but also, more importantly, so that they are a key part of its production.
This edition of Situated Voices opens up a conversation to reflect grassroots feelings, desires, analyses and proposals, thereby advocating real and fair access to culture for all. What are the barriers to such access? Which collectives and communities are left out and why? What modes of participation can we put forward in order for culture to become a pivot of social transformation? How are they upheld and what does creating community cultural practices entail? Encouraged through the assembly are mobilising experiences within culture, by those that work for the access to cultural rights at a critical time, where memory, reflection and the inheritance of the past can open new channels to build futures.
Participants
Costa Badia is an artist who works to validate errors and challenge stereotypes of beauty and behaviour, putting forward alternatives by investigating co-existence between normative and non-normative people. She combines her work in the Museo Reina Sofía’s Education Area, where she oversees cultural mediation and programmes for people with disabilities, with a PhD in Fine Arts and art projects.
Colectivo H is a collective which joins citizens and cultural agents in managing Harinera ZGZ. From 2014 to 2024 they coordinated this space collectively with Zaragoza City Council and the resident fabric of the San José neighbourhood.
Dagmary Olívar Graterol is a Venezuelan cultural manager and researcher who has lived in Spain since 2002. She is a founding member and part of the team of the YoSoyElOtro Cultural Association, and researches, designs and creates projects and processes for the recognition of cultural and artistic participation of the migrant population, people of migrant origin and racialised people in Spain. She coordinated the books El Otrx: arte, cultura y migración en la ciudad de Madrid (La Parcería Edita/YoSoyElOtro, 2021) and La comunidad dominicana en España. De una aproximación histórica a perspectivas de futuro (INDEX, 2019), and also promotes the portal migracionycultura.es.
Batouly Rahmatoulaye Ly is a woman, mother and community leader of Senegalese origin. She works as an intercultural mediator in projects such as La Rueca, Unión de Asociaciones Familiares (UNAF) and Accem, as well as actively collaborating with associations in Lavapiés. She is part of the research team on the situation of African women in Madrid, coordinated by Caminando Juntas hacia la Igualdad (Walking Together Towards Equality), and is also a mediator from the Museo Reina Sofía’s School of Situated Mediation.
Red de Espacios de Agentes y Cultura Comunitaria (REACC), represented in this edition of Situated Voices by Marisa Lafuente Rodríguez, is an open assembly of dialogue and support between professionals from the arts and community culture in Spain. This network, which has assembled 360 members from Spain’s different Regional Communities, is made up of people whose work is divided into different work nodes and who meet in open assemblies the third Thursday of each month.
