The European Union is living through an economic, social and political crisis that demands that we question ourselves and refocus our discussions on the future and on a shared project for society. The situation invites us to reaffirm the need for Europe. It asks us to commit to civil and democratic processes, which support how we invent, define and animate a new shared vision. This calls for the design and building of new common, contributory spaces to enrich the debate, and perhaps shift it, opening up the range of protagonists. It demands that a diversity of voices, experiences and research (collective or individual) listen to each other, meet and share.
In suggesting the ‘Shared Factory’ encounter, the intention is not that we should find the answers to such an ambitious project. We rather wish to open up a space of experimentation in how we might create a way to share, discuss and concretise the European project, a space which would be varied in its forms and methods by bringing together practioners and researchers from the most varied of disciplines (artistic creation, science, social science, philosophy, economy, geography, urbanism, law, social practices etc.) There are already numerous experiments fully engaged with Europe as a ‘Third Space’, inventing new ways to create, suggesting new forms of solidarity and joint living. The aim is to trace a map of these opinions and commitments, to underline the tensions, qualify the terms of the debate and test out the depths of the work still to come.
The 26,27, 28th of May are thus but the first step in a process. We have chosen to open up this of exchange and investigation in a space dedicated to just that, an artistic space in transition – le CENTQUATRE Paris.