The Self in the Otherness. From bureaucracy to performance – an artistic epistemology: two-sided integration and possible worlds
Although political, social, and economic migration transforms society as a whole, only one group is typically expected—and often required—to actively adapt to these changes and undergo a process of integration: migrants, newcomers, or non-locals. Locals, by contrast, are rarely expected to undergo a comparable process. Rather than framing integration as a process carried primarily by non-locals, this research conceptualises integration as a reciprocal process in which locals and non-locals jointly shape the conditions of coexistence. The Flemish performing arts field serves as a delimited yet exemplary site of inquiry. The research asks: What role can the Flemish performing arts field play in a two-sided process of integration between locals and non-locals, which artistic and institutional practices enable or constrain this role, and what social and artistic possibilities may emerge?
The research is embedded, practice-driven, and reflexive. The researcher operates as an embedded practitioner: simultaneously a non-local participant, respondent, initiator, and maker, with shifting positions across artistic and institutional contexts. Artistic practice functions as a knowledge practice and epistemological operation through which social frictions are articulated and the field of inquiry is co-produced and transformed. Through direct interaction, participant observation, interviews, and dialogue, the research engages with different layers and sub-fields of the Flemish performing arts field, including policymakers and boards, artistic directors, curators and programmers, as well as critics, reviewers, and organisations with specific sectoral mandates. Particular attention is given to documenting as both an institutional (archival) and artistic practice (documentary theatre). Documenting is understood as a dispositif that shapes what becomes visible and archive-worthy, what enters institutional memory, and what can become durably integrated.
The research unfolds through The School of Two-Sided Integration, an artistic-methodological and social proposition developed through courses, workshops, and participatory formats such as Schoolboard, Integration Duels, and the R.I.C.H. methodology. In relation to documentary theatre, the research develops the concept of probabilistic theatre through two exemplary performances, I’m.Potent and M.O.L – Maatschappelijke Oriëntatie voor Locals, alongside the establishment of KOROW vzw as an institutional proposition.
A central research finding is a persistent gap between the field’s self-image as inclusive and its structural conditions: visible diversity does not necessarily translate into meaningful participation and power. Non-locals can therefore be visible within the Flemish performing arts field without becoming durably embedded in its institutional structures and memory. The contribution of this research lies in artistic and methodological practices that invite the field to examine, to mind this gap and explore more reciprocal forms of participation, recognition, and integration.
Funded by RITCS
