Evaluation report by Professor Odd Are Berkaak
Horisont Foundation is one of the very few institutions
in the sphere of arts and culture which has been subjected to professional
evaluation. Already in 2002, Professor Odd Are Berkaak from the
University of Oslo was commissioned to evaluate the work. The evaluation
included the process behind the establishing of Horisont as a new
institution and the tasks which the Foundation took on in 2002,
including the Mela Festival in 2002. Since then, Mela and Horisont´s
work in other fields has expanded enormously.
The following extract from Professor Berkaaks evaluation gives an
impression of Horisont´s early years:
During a weekend in early September 2002 a large Pakistani art and
culture festival took place in The City Hall Square in Oslo. In
the course of the three days from Friday the 6th through Sunday
the 8th more than forty arrangements were launched: theatre, handicrafts,
kite show, puppet theatre, poetry reading, fashion show, film and
video performances, henna painting, truck decoration, music, dance
and a lot more. Most arrangements were free of charge. All in all
one could experience thirty hours of Pakistani art and culture.
In addition exhibitions and various forms of stage performances
were arranged several places in the city. At the International Cultural
Centre and Museum (IKM) in Tøyenbekken one could experience
an exhibition of Pakistani miniature art. In the premises of Norsk
Form in Kongens Street an exquisite exhibition of both popular and
royal textile art was on display. At The Open Theatre in Grønland
a play was performed, where women with immigrant background enacted
themselves and their lives. On the Theatre Boat Innvik at Langkaia
in Bjørvika one could listen to Pakistani fairy tales in
Urdu or Norwegian or watch figure theatre. At the Music Theatre
in the premises of the Norwegian Opera in the old Western Railway
Terminal there was both kathak dance, puppet theatre, classical
concerts and Wordfall - a performance consisting of poetry and dance.
At Black Box Theatre, Bala King, an adapted version of Bertolt Brecht’s
Arturo Ui, was performed.
Perhaps as many as fifty thousand visitors found their way to
the various arrangements during the three days. Most were of Pakistani
origin, but nevertheless it has been possible to establish that
as many as one fourth were obvious Norwegians.
In the City Hall Square itself stalls were set up, where it was
possible to buy Pakistani articles of furnishing, get information
on the work of Oslo Public Transport and the Federation of Trade
Unions in relation to immigrants, buy airplane tickets to Pakistan,
study a video with various forms of Pakistani dance and architecture,
make oneself acquainted with the Pakistani kitchen, buy music,
get ones hair braided, let oneself be impressed by traditional
arts of artisans, listen to classical poetry or get hold of a
kite and let it glide over the colourful multitudes. Admittedly,
among those who succeeded in doing so, most were Pakistani experts
who had been brought in to demonstrate this art so rich in tradition
in their homeland.
Still, most conspicuous were all the Pakistani families strolling
around in the great square in the evenings. There were parents
with children and grandparents, married couples and singles. All
generations were represented. The youth sat for themselves on
the steps outside the City Hall romancing, and also there were
blonde Norwegian girls who romanced back. Groups of young men
and young girls lumped together in front of the big stage, where
the pop music roared out.
On the edge of the fountain pool, rows of elderly and married
women were sitting talking and discussing the behaviour of the
crazy youth. The elderly gentlemen were standing in the square
proper talking together with great dignity about important things.
All were looking at the life that unfolded itself and they were
laughing and enjoying themselves. Without knowing the language
or knowing much about what went on, the nice and relaxed atmosphere
bore witness to a gathering of people who felt at home in their
city.
What most importantly contributed to making this festival so
special as such was not that it presented culture from Pakistan
or that Pakistanis were made visible in Oslo, but that it was
allowed to unfold in central spaces of the city. Social and cultural
groups are intimately tied together with localities in our consciousness,
in the same way that we use geographical coordinates in order
to orient ourselves within the social structure and the cultural
landscape. We often think in ways like: the rich live there, the
middle-class lives there, whereass the lower classes live there.
Likewise we imagine cultural differences as if the French live
in their place, and the Ecuadorians live on their territory. In
the big modern metropolises cultural groups often live in ghettoes.
In New York the Dominicans live in Washington heights, the Puerto
Ricans in East Harlem, the Russians in Coney Island, in Chicago
blacks live on the South Side etc. All in all it is hard for us
to imagine a social group, whether it is a class or a cultural
category without imagining them in a particular place. Likewise
in the Norwegian consciousness people of Pakistani origin are
well established in Grønland. In a surprisingly short time
this has become developed into their territory. Despite the fact
that the large majority of Pakistanis in Norway live in other
places, this has become the Pakistani place. Mela consciously
broke with this pattern and thus created a slight creative confusion
as to where what goes as Pakistani culture actually belongs in
a Norwegian context.
Socially too, the organisers made some moves which contributed
to a re-location of the Pakistani culture in comparison to the
way we are used to imagining it in Norway. At the solemn opening
ceremony His Majesty the King was present as head of the entire
Norwegian political and cultural elite. Present were Per Ditlev-Simonsen,
the Lord Mayor of Oslo, and the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jan
Petersen. Also present were the Minister of Justice, Odd Einar
Dørum, and the former prime minister and leader of the
Labour Party, Jens Stoltenberg. On the Pakistani side the Minister
of Culture, S.K. Tressler participated along with the Ambassador,
Mr. Shahbaz. Some of these dignitaries made speeches at the opening.
In order to be admitted to the Opening Arrangement it was necessary
to be in the possesion of a solemn written invitation which had
to be shown at the entrance. Hence, already from the very start
a completely different frame around the encounter between the
Norwegian and the Pakistani culture, than the one we are used
to, had been created. Quite concretely the Pakistani culture had
been put into a new frame. This physical and social re-location
created reflections as to what the Pakistani culture represents
in Norway, and not least where it belongs.
Finally the program was consciously focused on the fine arts
and directed towards a well-bred and educated audience. Also this
was a conscious profiling and one of the basic ideas from the
very start of the planning process. The popular and traditional
features were there, but always alongside items of a more elitist
and intellectually challenging kind. During most of the performances,
including the open arrangements in the City Hall Square, a clear
middle-class atmosphere was in evidence. Hence the event was never
marked by an unequivocal popular character of carnival, the way
we have become used to that multicultural and ethnic arrangements
often are.
In this way a function of the festival became to “refurnish”
and challenge established conceptions about the Pakistani presence
in Norway. It was an attempt to build completely different frames
for the encounter between host culture and immigrant culture,
majority and minority, so that new interpretations and experiences
of each other became possible. This provoked a positive amazement
that might encourage innovative thinking about what the Pakistani
presence in Norway may contribute with.
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