Connecting Localities: Ornamenta Research Trip, NL & BE

Artistic initiatives in peripheral zones are emancipating. Ornamenta curators and a heterogeneous group of experts and active audience embarked on a trip around various locations in the Benelux. Here, failures and successes were identified when visiting a renowned design festival, an art biennale on trauma, and a centre for architecture discussing the impact of the production of Zinc on a Region. Two of the key questions that emerged were what is needed to attract a cultural crowd to rural areas and small towns and how to connect the locale with large-scale cultural events. The result was a lively discussion and coming together of ideas in order to address a world in flux where the spreading metropolis consumes the bordering regions.