“I see a lot of changes, but I also see a lot of resistance“

Natalia Hecht on D/Arts in conversation with Gwendolin Lehnerer

“Generate change in society”

And what is particularly important to you about D/Arts? How can D/Arts contribute to change?

For me, D/Arts is an essential, crucial project in Vienna, Austria, and beyond, because D/ is brings awareness to the topic of diversity, making it an urgent topic in cultural institutions – something that is not so common, unfortunately. And if cultural institutions are dealing with the topic, they sometimes do not bring the diversity that is needed to the table, so that we can refer to the processes and generate changes, or they are just initiatives that can be very isolated and do not have the sustainability needed for real transformation. I think D/Arts is giving all of that: It’s providing awareness, showing all this amazing palette of knowledge that we have in Vienna, in Austria, and around the world in terms of diversity practitioners – artists that have been working within this topic for years. When we work at cultural institutions, we sometimes face this obstacle: The question that comes up of who could do this work. To be able to show them that there is a network – a network of practitioners who are ready to work on the topics, who have been working on these topics for a long time – is amazing.

An important aspect in D/Arts is the network. It aims to bring together people who are working on the topic of diversity, or who want to start working on it, as well as cultural institutions and different players like policymakers – to connect them so that synergies are created. Especially for activists, having a network is crucial: Activists are more vulnerable to burnouts, because they suffer from situations where their work is not taken seriously. So having a support network in this field is an essential aspect. Also, through the network, collective knowledge becomes stronger and stronger.

Another point is that you cannot work on diversity if you do not have diversity in the core team – this is essential. By generating these interactions, we are really working on the topic. There is a very careful and thoughtful process of curation that is also important. To understand, for example, when there is an event, how to involve different perspectives, and how to make sure that it’s really a sustainable process and not just a way of avoiding things by silencing people.

“It’s ‘Fake it till you make it’”

What difficulties do you encounter inside and outside of these processes?

One of the issues that always becomes a challenge is funding. This is important, because if we don’t have resources, we start compromising everything, so we cannot do the things we need to do. If you receive funding for one year and one year only, it’s like creating something that is against what we’re trying to establish. Working on diversity requires a lot of reflection; it is not enough to do it, but to be self-critical about what we do to ensure space for different perspectives, to become critical about what we do. We really need time; we need structures of work, so that what we have the necessary space. Funding is crucial, so the case of D/Arts is quite interesting, because it is an artistic project – it’s ‘fake it till you make it’: You create a project that does not exist yet, but you ‘fake it till you make it,’ and it becomes more than a vision – you start doing it, and by that, you start creating legitimation. It’s a proof that it’s possible to do it, and what we need is just real support to do it, in terms of the resources and policies and structures that make this job more and more sustainable.

“It’s like being in a boat and rowing it, but you don’t see where you are going.”

Another challenge is related to how we cooperate with institutions. This is important in diversity discourses, because we see these isolated efforts that are not aleatory – they’re about power, they’re about privilege. Sometimes institutions approve certain projects, but they do not tolerate a critical rethinking of the institution as a whole and its systems of power and privilege. I think D/Arts has the potential to bring this systemic change to cultural institutions.

Established cultural institutions in particular have a long history of hierarchical structures and systems of keeping power in place, so it’s not easy to enter these institutions and create change when there is no commitment at the level of decision making. Sometimes, for us, it’s like being in a boat and rowing it, but you don’t see where you are going. It is a lot of strategic work. This was also the basis for starting D/Arts: doing an evaluation of Brunnenpassage’s partnership with big cultural institutions. It was mainly based in understanding asymmetries of power in institutions that have years of social recognition, very big budgets, and a lot of resources, and with institutions that work more in the suburbs of the city with various audiences and less resources. Trying to understand those power relationships was useful for us to create alternatives for those who are in disadvantaged positions, and also to create strategies, tools, and systems.

Natalia Hecht, Gwendolin Lehnerer ( 2022): “I see a lot of changes, but I also see a lot of resistance“. Natalia Hecht on D/Arts in conversation with Gwendolin Lehnerer. In: p/art/icipate – Kultur aktiv gestalten # 13 , https://www.p-art-icipate.net/i-see-a-lot-of-changes-but-i-also-see-a-lot-of-resistance/