2020_GOING EAST / SOUTH EAST IN EUROPE

Floating knowlegde across borders – icebauhaus goes Europe

In the past decade, icebauhaus was repeatedly invited to participate in tenders or application processes to join activists networks and communities of practice within the European Union. While our focus has thus far obviously been more directed towards projects and cooperation in Africa or Asia, icebauhaus was also involved in the concept development of EU related content, like the H2020 funded SAMS project (Smart Apiculture Management System), in the needs assessment for digital services in the field of migration (DIMAK) in the Western Balkan region and in the context of research to support the movement Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Europe.

Confident Europeans as we are and aiming to foster the collaboration between civil society, academia and private sector also in Europe, we decided in early 2020 to take further steps to broaden our horizon and expand our scope of interest to this particular region by starting work on a first project: MOCI.

Rural-urban collaboration in regional settings

The idea for the Mobile Open Culture and Innovation Hub (MOCI) was born during the Creative Forum Ljubljana in December 2019 where partners of the Western Balkan network met for the first time. Main motivation was the shared impact-oriented passion for innovative cultural and creative work and to empower rural communities, especially youth and women in Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo and Greece.

MOCI Western Balkan is a co-created project of Tek Bunkeri (ALB), Munja (MNE), 7-Arte (RKS) , Youthnest (GRC), all cultural and/ or youth organisations in the region, in close collaboration with icebauhaus (DEU) and r0g_agency for open culture and critical transformation. (DEU). Due to funding restriction and the COVID-19 situation a first prototype of the MOCI concept will be realised end of 2020, beginning 2021 in Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo by the support of the European Cultural Foundation through the program “Culture of Solidarity”.

MOCI Caucasus: a second chance of building new regional alliances of MOCI was realised by the participation of icebauhaus in the Civil Match Forum by the Goethe-Institute in July and Sepetmber 2020, where a new cooperation with three partners in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan could be initiated and promoted to a large community of European activists and civil organisations. The MOCI concept for the Caucasus region was awarded by the jury for the best project idea. Looking forward to work with the Art & Innovation Lab – CCA in Tbilisi. Georgia, Creopia in Vanadzor, Armenia and the Education Hub in Baku, Azerbaijan.

A mobile hub and a community platform for open culture and creative production.

The concept of MOCI provides a comprehensive Community and Capacity Building Program on the ground and Open Educational Resources online by building a network for exchange, peer-learning and co-creation. The concept of a mobile hub brings to life creative pop-up spaces for participatory education, experimentation and production wherever it stops. It carries and disseminates tools and equipment for multiple disciplines of the cultural and creative sector. A digital repository provides tutorials and documents that are of practical relevance for targets in their local contexts. It also presents cases created and collected throughout the MOCI-Tours. It has the potential to grow into several regional and a European grass-roots network platforms. Project development always in progress.

MOCI Western Balkan – partner glimpses

Tek Bunkeri (ALB), Munja (MNE), 7-Arte (RKS) , Youthnest (GR