Share a meal, co-construct a community and create. The menu proposed by IMMART

[Version fran­çaise]

Nicol Foulkes Savinetti, social scientist, founder of IMMART – International Migration Meets the Arts

For an artist, moving country is not only about finding housing and work in a foreign community. It is also about entering an art world governed by its own codes and networks. In Denmark, the non-profit organisation IMMART works for the social integration of foreign-born artists.

Commen­sa­lity, the word we use for prepa­ring and enjoying food toge­ther at the same table, is at the heart of the IMMART Dinner – a social event that combines art, networ­king and food that has created an alter­na­tive social space for foreign-born artists in Copen­hagen and abroad. IMMART is a migrant-led arts orga­ni­sa­tion and network based in Denmark. Origi­nally thought of as the “action” part of an action research post-doc proposal for the Refugee Migra­tion and Gover­nance program at the Depart­ment of Global Poli­tical Studies, Univer­sity of Malmö, The orga­ni­za­tion was born out of conver­sa­tions about the artistic and crea­tive skills that new arri­vals were brin­ging to a then very “Danish” arts scene.

When I wrote the proposal in 2016, there were no orga­ni­za­tions that had the inter­ests of artists of foreign origin at their core. Very few foun­da­tions, artist interest groups and asso­cia­tions had infor­ma­tion in languages other than Danish, nor any schemes dedi­cated to artists of foreign origin. I wondered how newcomer artists (who are not big names in Denmark prior to their arrival) get a foot in the door if there is no insti­tu­tion, orga­ni­sa­tion or network faci­li­ta­ting their access. I did not get the post doc, but the foun­da­tions were laid for what would become IMMART.

Accurate designation for better inclusion

In February 2016, under the highly contested name Immi­grant Art, we started to build a Face­book commu­nity. There was a big discus­sion about the name with our core team, with artists we met, and with different kinds of experts in the Nordic coun­tries and beyond : histo­rians, human rights specia­lists, acti­vists and acade­mics who focus on discri­mi­na­tion and racia­li­za­tion, artists from different disci­plines and actors from other arts and culture insti­tu­tions. To them, the name Immi­grant Art was incon­gruent with the goals of the orga­ni­za­tion, and suggested the pejo­ra­tive clas­si­fi­ca­tion and exoti­ci­za­tion of art made by visibly ethnic others in white-majo­rity coun­tries. Another critique was the implied exclu­sion of Danes, inclu­ding visibly ethnic-other Danish citi­zens, who were confronted regu­larly with similar forms of discri­mi­na­tion as artists with non-Danish citi­zen­ship. Moreover, the name Immi­grant Art was also nega­ti­vely perceived by many of the organization’s target group. Nume­rous artists of foreign origin living in Denmark didn’t want to be perso­nally or profes­sio­nally defined by terms like “immi­grant” and “refugee”. Insis­ting on the origin and status of artists was coun­ter­pro­duc­tive : it denied the empo­werment that we wanted to give them. For these reasons^[1]For more details on this debate, see Nicol Savi­netti, Sacra­mento Roselló Martinéz, Sez Kris­tiansen, “Stit­ching IMMART. Over­co­ming the chal­lenge of inclu­sion without exclu­sion through the arts”, in : K. Riegel & F. Baban (eds.), Foste­ring Plura­lism through Soli­da­rity Acti­vism in Europe : Everyday Encoun­ters with Newco­mers. … Lire la suite, the orga­ni­sa­tion was finally named IMMART – Inter­na­tional Migra­tion Meets the Arts.

« The production, practice and consumption of art is at the core of IMMART activities, rather than a person’s heritage or migrant status. »

Nicol Savi­netti

Today, the IMMART Network^[2]IMMART Network On Face­book : https://​www​.face​book​.com/​g​r​o​u​p​s​/​1​0​4​2​8​6​2​3​3​3​04333/ has over 700 members. We do not have enough know­ledge to be able to profile “the migrant artist”, but we do know that the artists in our network have not moved here because of the Danish arts scene ; they are here for other reasons such as fleeing war, accom­pa­nying a spouse, married to a Dane, self-initiated migra­tion and such. To date, we have had projects and part­ner­ships with artists and stake­hol­ders who have migrated from over thirty different coun­tries : from El Salvador to Brazil, Finland to Italy, South Africa to Syria, and Indo­nesia to Australia. You can only imagine the culi­nary delight that this diver­sity brings to our pot-luck dinners !

Building bridges through community dinners 

Our first major event in 2016 was an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary arts festival show­ca­sing the work of foreign-origin artists living in Denmark, Artival, where we orga­nized a dinner for the parti­ci­pants. We imme­dia­tely saw the poten­tial as we witnessed commen­sa­lity stimu­la­ting and faci­li­ta­ting social inter­ac­tion. We started to arrange artist dinners in the privacy of our homes first, and then, given the success, in galle­ries and public spaces to have more impact.

IMMART bene­fited to some extent from favou­rable culi­nary condi­tions. There is indeed plenty of lite­ra­ture suppor­ting the idea that brea­king bread and sharing food has social value^[3]See David Sutton, “Beco­ming an ‘Other Human’: On the Role of Eating Toge­ther in Crisis Greece”, Euro­peNow Journal [online], n°20, Sept. 2018. URL : https://​www​.euro​pe​now​journal​.org/​2​0​1​8​/​0​9​/​0​4​/​b​e​c​o​m​i​n​g​-​a​n​-​o​t​h​e​r​-​h​u​m​a​n​-​o​n​-​t​h​e​-​r​o​l​e​-​o​f​-​e​a​t​i​n​g​-​t​o​g​e​t​h​e​r​-​i​n​-​c​r​i​s​i​s​-​g​reece/. Denmark is also well-known for its culi­nary prac­tices, world class restau­rants, and commu­nity kitchen and social food are also very popular in cities^[4]In Copen­hagen alone, the muni­ci­pa­lity lists seven­teen different options, and this does not include other priva­tely run restau­rants and cafés that offer communal dining on a regular basis. See https://​inter​na​tional​.kk​.dk/​a​r​t​i​k​e​l​/​c​o​m​m​u​n​i​t​y​-​k​i​t​c​h​e​n​s​-​f​o​l​k​e​k​o​kkener.. However, the success of IMMART Dinners is the result of purpo­seful intent : to show­case and promote artists and upco­ming festi­vals, to work­shop ideas and projects, or simply as an oppor­tu­nity to mingle and meet new people or cele­brate the comple­tion of a project… Depen­ding on the theme, the dinners are attended by artist peers, cultural workers, galle­rists, jour­na­lists, art consu­mers and other stakeholders.