Cultural mediation

For this second edition, the concepts of belonging and migration have been chosen as central themes of the mediation project. By actively involving people from migration backgrounds in its implementation and by building partnerships with local actors in the field of integration, the Spiegelberg festival aims to fully integrate the artistic and cultural mediation project into an approach to preventing and combating racism. Combining writing workshops and stage performances, this project aims to promote intercultural dialogue and question otherness.

More specifically, the Spiegelberg festival has decided to invest in the field of writing and the performing arts, by calling on authors residing in the Jura but of diverse languages and origins. This is to continue the approach started in 2023 by the Boxes project, imagined by the Franco-Swiss artist Adrien Jutard. By giving voice – and the paintbrush – to people from a migration background, the artist and the festival have sought to initiate a reflection on belonging, identity and memories, on the place where we come from and the place where we live.

For this year’s edition, Spiegelberg will once again give a voice to migrants, in collaboration with theJura Integraction association and with the support of the Office for the Integration of Foreigners and the Fight against Racism (BI) of the Canton of Jura and the Swiss Federal Service for Combating Racism (SLR), with the aim of continuing to reflect and create on the links between identity, place and culture. Writing workshops will be organized in collaboration with authors and actors Laurence Maître and Fanny Wobmann, and a performance reading of the texts will take place on the festival’s La Place du Village stage. A polyphony of narratives will thus be included at the heart of the festival, offering a mediation of experiences of migration and belonging. A participatory writing workshop on these themes will also be offered to young audiences during the festival. It will be led by Anisa Roomieh, a poet of Syrian origin based in Delémont. Based on a bold artistic approach rooted in social inclusion, this project aims to raise public awareness of the issues of racial discrimination and exclusion, while strengthening social cohesion and giving a voice to those directly concerned.

“Although we always have the disadvantage of being a refugee in general, this time it did not happen. Not paying taxes, being unemployed, our refugee status makes it difficult for us to communicate with indigenous peoples. It was like an invisible wall. Being in a position to constantly consume but not produce. A factor that complicates this situation is not being able to express ourselves. but we had the opportunity to express ourselves with the images in the boxes, we produced something, it created a bridge of communication between us and many people.” – A participant in the Boxes project in 2023.