Harutyun Alpetyan (independent art curator, Armenia):

Harutyun Alpetyan

“Today, with “networking” and “co-operation” being a craze, it is quite difficult to seem original and offer your potential partners or peers something special. This is unless you can convince them that not the “networking or co-operation” itself is in your interests but altogether something else. This is critical especially in case of EEPAP, as it tends to bring together independent subjects from widely different contexts. Though one could argue that participant countries are mostly from the "former socialist block" and that, in general, these countries are travelling almost the same path, have been living almost the same past, and are socially and cultural similar in many ways, in fact they are very different from each other.

The first meeting in Krakow showcased the variety of representatives from these differing and almost incompatible contexts, even if they were from the same country. But this does not deny the fact that there are common interests. On the contrary, it points to the necessity of verifying both the real and artificial commonalities. I believe there are such commonalities and that we can find them. This will also help to understand what each participant expects when joining EEPAP.

At the same time it's good to keep in mind, that all these looking-for-common-points processes should continue in parallel with a process of joint creation and elaboration of new common points, such as, for example, initiating a discourse on the issue of evaluating the actual theatre today and its social role, as proposed by my colleague Ara Nedolyan.

Coming back to “networking”, let's make it clear that we are experiencing an overdose of such cooperativeness. This is in part a result of global political changes, changes that are connected with opening and closing of borders of all kinds, including past, recent and ongoing ones. But looking deeply one can notice that we are already facing in some sense an aftermath effect. In certain cases it looks like soft shifts in cultural policy of some states, shifts from more-outward to more-inward mode. In case of independent cultural subjects it looks like avoiding to be part of just another so called trans-national and/or trans-cultural collaborative project that are often done only for the sake of being done.

Being aware of the intentions of the EEPAP initiators, I believe that the real efforts being made by members can result in having such a platform - based on three main elements - where various independent artists and arts institutions and other initiatives could share their support and be supported at the same time. This reciprocal support can be information sharing, financial, conceptual, operational, or educational.

The first initial steps to this have already been taken. The website and gathered reports concluded in first year report - the earliest visible fruits of EEPAP - should be used as a ground for further activities and elaborations. One special thing about EEPAP is its presupposed intention to be built or developed (in most of its parts) by its members, proceeding from their views, needs, and sources. You're not offered to join a given project but rather to take part in a process of forming such interrelations within one framework which will bring to a human trust based on well-knowing each other and a professional trust based on knowing each other's work well. I think this is also a guarantee of successful launch of co-produced projects".

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