Province Lab Hildesheim
10th – 15th March 2020
Project by
Netzwerk Kultur & Heimat Hildesheimer Land e.V.
in co-operation with the
Bidding office European Capital of Culture Hi2025
Province Lab
About the project
Hildesheim is one of the German candidate cities for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2025. In December 2019 Hildesheim was shortlisted. This project is part of the bidding process.
The association Netzwerk Kultur & Heimat Hildesheimer Land e. V. developed, organized and conducted this project in co-operation with the bidding office Hi2025. Netzwerk Kultur & Heimat is an umbrella organisation for the independent cultural scene in the Hildesheim region.
If the provincial is the boring, then we want to be the capital of it. We will explore and exchange the existing potentials in order to develop ideas for the future that can only be found outside the metropolises. The Hildesheim region is similar to many other provincial cities and regions in Europe. Therefore, our questions and experiments here will have an impact on the entire European continent and we will develop role-model (cultural) processes for the region that at the same time have a European dimension. We are working on impulses that can be transferred to many other similar regions. We have the chance to provide answers to future challenges such as climate, technology, social integration, etc., which are not easily dealt with in larger (metropolitan) contexts. We have short distances, sustainable and direct connections, a manageable size, mobilization capacity, space for experimentation. We can offer cultural ideas and an artistic laboratory for many fundamental questions about the future. Not despite being provincial, but for that very reason.
We invited 10 European experts from different sectors (e.g. arts and culture, tourism, philosophy, agriculture…).
They worked together in a team with selected partners from the region of Hildesheim to solve a specific local problem. It was an exchange of ideas and experiences. New inputs, new paths and creations, and even solutions were found. But whatever the outcome was, the project offered a close view on today’s Europe, on similarities and differences. Thus, we built a network, with the possible prospect of a return visit, and created European exchange and curiosity for each other.
Our guests opened the event with their Pecha Kucha presentations about their feelings, belongings, thoughts and experiences coming from the European hinterland. A firework of eight* interesting, diverse presentations that went far beyond boring.
Of course, we also gave our guests an impression of our own province. We went on a bus tour through the region and showed some of our villages, towns, landscapes, initiatives, people and hidden treasures.
Two evenings gave the opportunity to get in touch with stakeholders and interested parties to talk about personal experiences and to network.
Our Experts
• Jaana Viilo, Culture and Arts – Ikaalinen, (Region of Tampere), Finland
• Christine Sell, Member of Deveron Projects – Huntly, Scotland, Great Britain
• Igor F. Petković, artist, researcher, philosopher – APORON 21, Graz, Austria
• Špela Težak, Youth Worker – Ptuj, Slovenia
• Omar Rajeh, artist – Beirut, Lebanon, now Lyon, France
• Anastasia Pashikhina, Agritourism – Barcelona, Spain
• Froukje de Jong-Krap, Project Leader of Potatoes go wild – Leeuwarden, Netherlands
• Viktoras Bachmetjevas, Philosopher, cultural advisor – Kaunas, Lithuania