Four to Watch

Four to Watch

   You will have to excuse my silence.  No, I did not stop noting and appreciating good art – in fact, some of the most interesting pieces have come out of the last twenty-four months.  Rather, I have been more pre-occupied with that other aspect of art and culture – the establishment and maintenance of narrative theory (in other words, grad-school).  While this has taken up most of my time, it is with relief and joy that I return to our conversation about the everyday, pedestrian enjoyment of the art that surrounds us.

   In this regard, I feel it somewhat necessary to re-establish some of my aesthetic tastes and leanings with you.  While I cannot provide you with an exhaustive, culturally critical analysis of the various regional and world markets, I have identified four areas that I feel are on the up-swing – pending their ability to maintain the necessarily social and political stability to foster the creative process and their ability to gain an audience.

    As the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games has demonstrated, the great games can serve as a ready catalyst for great artistic endeavors – and for generating the appreciative audience to support the works being presented.

 

1. South Atlantic

   While I believe that the London Games’ greatest legacy will be architectural rather than artistic, I believe the opposite will be the case with the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Coupled with renewed interest in the Falklands / Malvinas Islands, the Chaco plains and oil – and again, oil… the centuries-old arts and cultural traditions of this region are set to take off with plenty of time, money and interest to shape the South Atlantic region comprising Rio, Sao Paulo, Montevideo, Asuncion and Buenos Aires into a tight cultural group of color, sound, performance and design.  With Brazil and Argentina both involved, music will probably be the highlight as Bossa Nova and the Tango return to cinema and stage and as the vibrant colours of the skies, jungles, prairies and seas informs both the visual arts and cinema.  Rio and Buenos Aires will benefit most from the South Atlantic Renaissance or Renascenca, one can easily imagine quieter towns with equally rich and long cultural histories such as Montevideo and Asuncion benefiting as the quieter, more artistic centers – the Prague, Hamburg and Bordeaux of South America.

   I promise to keep you informed as more detailed information regarding the regions artists, performances and cultural events comes to light.

 2.  Southern Africa

   When I say Southern Africa, I mean the region that encompasses but also extends beyond South Africa (Zud Afrika) to include Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique.

   Like the cultures of the South Atlantic, people often tend to overlook the almost six hundred year history of South Africa and the surrounding nations.  In fact, six hundred years is way too short to contemplate in that theories have posited the region as the birthplace of humanity.

   Under the radar, the economies of Southern Africa have undergone extensive reorganization since the fall of Apartheid in 1991.  If, and it remains a big if, the local governments can resist the impact of neighboring regimes in Zimbabwe and the violence just north in Zaire, Uganda and Rwanda, Southern Africa has been sitting on a simmering kettle of cultural expression that has remained suppressed by politics for far too long. 

   What is not apparent to the average North American consumer is that not only do 20,000 Britons move to South Africa each year to retire, but the area is being heavily invested in by the United States and China while becoming the playground of Russia’s idle and nouveau-riche.  Just ask the North American game resorts in the Rocky Mountain West and Alaska – the gaming outfits are either expanding into South Africa from North American and Australia, or leaving for South Africa all together. 

   What is not apparent to the average North American consumer is that not only do 20,000 Britons move to South Africa each year to retire, but the area is being heavily invested in by the United States and China while becoming the playground of Russia’s idle and nouveau-riche.  Just ask the North American game resorts in the Rocky Mountain West and Alaska – the gaming outfits are either expanding into South Africa from North American and Australia, or leaving for South Africa all together. 

   South Africa presents the world with a diversity of cultures, combining not only ethnic experiences, but literally, near stone-age artifacts with one of the world’s most up-to-date digital infrastructures.  Similar in spirit and attitude to New Mexico, Seattle and the Great Plains, South Africans dine on the world’s freshest tropical fruits, sail along two ocean coasts and sip Napoleon’s favorite red wines under an ever changing palette of clouds and sunsets amongst many of the world’s most diverse mico-ecosystems. 

    What is becoming more apparent is both the unique South African voice – the scents and smells of Swaziland – the views of the Karoo, the lazy calm of the lion and the determined perseverance of the Proteus.  Also, the arts and literature of South Africa are just beginning to shed their colonial-era subservience to European and American norms to express themselves in their own regional vernacular.  If South Africa can hold itself together and in peace, it promises to become the new California.  

3.  Yukon-Alaska

   Perhaps the greatest untapped artistic region in North America, Yukon-Alaska offers a refreshing voice and perspective to a continent filled with shock-art and commercialism.  Three themes seem to continuously re-present themselves in the arts – the regions unique and diverse Native and First Nations cultural heritage, the vast expanses and extremes of the land and environment and a sense of untapped potential – more familiar to early art from New England and the Maritimes or the newly emergent art of 19^th Century Scandinavia. 

   Three great hurdles also present themselves:  the ability to garner the resources necessarily to maintain and promote the unique regional arts and cultural scene, the ability to maintain their unique voices amidst continuing migration and resultant pressures of cultural assimilation from the Lower-48 to Alaska and Yukon and finally, the rampant commercialism or touristy approaches to public and fine art to satisfy the number one growth industry.  With the normal visit to a port or destination lasting no more than a few hours, there is little demand for the deep cultural experience and introspection that reflects an evolving and maturing art scene.  The demand is on something that can be photographed, easily appreciated and placed on a post-card. 

   Regional cultures are a stubborn lot though and it is from the native cultures and the year-rounders that this region will continue to draw its strength and inspiration.  I will back the University Museum in Fairbanks against any gallery of similar size and always plan an extra night’s stay in Whitehorse.

 4.  Balto-Scandinavia

    Confessing that I am half-Swedish on my mother’s side, with strong ties to Borlänge – Stora Tuna, I nevertheless openly champion the growing strength of the Scandinavia stretching from Greenland and Iceland in the West to the peninsulas of the north and the Baltic enclave nations of the East.  The Baltic and Scandinavian region is very, very old culturally and draws its primal strengths directly from the Tartars to the East, old Byzantium and its own pagan weltenshaung.  There is just no place quite like it for diversity, a feeling of ancient heritage or such a close and appreciative relationship to nature. 

   I feel that we actually continue to find ourselves in a cultural upsurge of Scandinavian (and I use the term here to include the Baltics) cultural evolution and strength.  Economic struggles and scandal in Iceland and Ireland have drawn a bit of outside interest and confidence in the region away, yet Scandinavia has quietly existed for a thousand years on its own strength as a major European region that goes its own way. 

   Part of the driving force behind the Scandinavian – Baltic Renaissance is the continuing assimilation of Iceland, Greenland and the Baltics into the greater regional identity – culturally and economically.  This is a major market with its own deeply established cultural heritage and infrastructure.  Also, Anglo-American cultural norms are beginning to weaken as we enter into the 21^st Century.  From Elisabeth I to Victoria to Churchill, Anglo-America tastes and cultural ideals have been the arbiters of success and approval.  As this changes, room will open up for ancient rivals such as the descendants of the Vikings and Normans to again re-assert their alternative perspectives.  Also, we see their impact in places such as Dublin, the Orkneys, Scotland, York and even Minneapolis and Chicago, being celebrated in a way that stresses intra-regional cultural appreciation rather than competition. 

   Driving impetus behind the Scandinavian and Baltic Renaissance will probably be ever deepening commercial relationships in the region and more intensive cooperation to conserve oil, gas and shared fisheries between the peoples of these lands.  As the regional and commercial identity asserts itself, long shared cultural affinities and tropes are likely to reassert themselves and provide the stage for a new era in North Seas / North Atlantic cultural strengths and expressions.

   These are the four regions I feel we need to watch most closely for growth and innovation in the next two decades.  Meanwhile, we will keep an effective eye on other regions but I will attempt to be especially diligent in helping draw attention to these four.