Waves Of Energy culture to overcome violence

waves of energy
culture to overcome violence
San Sebastian 2016
proposed application for the title of european capital of culture

2— waves of enery—Dss2016eu
dss
2016
eu

—3Dss2016eu—waves of energy
institutional declaration
San Sebastian, the city behind this bid, the Pro-
vincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the Basque
Government all face an important collective
challenge in the coming years: to achieve peace
and create a model of coexistence that we can
share with other European cities. This model
will be based on respect for Human Rights, the
culture of peace, education in values and lin-
guistic and cultural diversity; all factors that
enrich the citizen construction of Europe and
provide it with a clear identity.
Despite the fact that, for many years, our eve-
ryday life has been affected by violence, first
in the Civil War, later under Franco, and today
by violence perpetrated by ETA and its terrorist
activities, Basque citizens have managed to over-
come dejection and misfortune. They have strug-
gled with hope and democratic energy to find a
project capable of overcoming confrontation and
discord.
Men and women from all situations and ori-
gins living in this Basque land play their part in
fostering the economic, social and cultural de-
velopment we now enjoy. They participate in the
strength and civic commitment of this European
cross-border territory, a natural place of passage
between France and Spain.
In the Europe that is currently under con-
struction, badly hit by the economic crisis and
its social consequences, we would be unable to
function without the activity, responsibility and
solidarity of our citizens and the energy provide
by their capacity to transform.
These Waves of Energy give our bid its name and
the reason for its existence. They provide the en-
ergy, the conviction and the enthusiasm we need
to generate widespread hope, to pool forces on a
joint cultural project, putting hatred and differ-
ences aside to meet the challenge of a decisive
commitment to the European Capital of Culture.
We know the importance of culture and educa-
tion in anticipating and combating the violence,
intolerance and conflicts suffered by European
citizens, and in converting European cities into
spaces for coexistence.
We firmly believe in the above. That’s why, for
us, the European Capital of Culture represents
not only a major opportunity, but also a major
challenge. We are convinced that it will help us
to reach that level of civic reconciliation, renova-
tion and cultural transformation in San Sebas-
tian, Gipuzkoa and the Basque Country; factors
we would like to share with the rest of Spain and
Europe.
Culture to overcome violence will permit us to
activate the energy and creativity of our citizens.
With the spotlight steadily fixed on our own
particular features, we will collaborate on cul-
tural projects with local and European networks.
We want to strengthen our feeling of belonging
to Europe from a bid set on the Atlantic, in a
cross-border area standing at the centre of the
Bilbao-Bayonne Eurocity. This is an area that
understands and highlights European languages
and heritage. It also fosters mobility and connec-
tions between people, businesses and entities
throughout Europe. We want to play our part in
guaranteeing a present and future closer to Eu-
rope set around the reality and hope of a better
tomorrow for the Basque Country.
Iñigo Ibáñez
transforming culture for
a decade of coexistence
Odón Elorza Markel Olano Patxi López
Mayor of San Sebastian Leader of Gipuzkoa Provincial Council President of the Basque Government

4— waves of enery—Dss2016eu
This document contains the DSS2016EU project. The information layout and
overall format of the document reflect the team’s endeavour to clearly convey and
communicate the project by organising the material into layers for different readers.
This document is divided into two publications. The first, entitled Waves of Energy,
contains information on the project, while the Culture to overcome violence supplement
details the cultural programme.
In both publications, a page-top text gives a brief, direct and rapid answer to the
essential questions. The content appearing in the lower, larger body of text enlarges
upon the answers and provides related information.
Finally, the total text of both publications is the equivalent of 132 pages in Word with
Times New Roman 12 pt font.
how to read this document

—5Dss2016eu—waves of energy
editorial
basic principles
organisation / financing
infrastructures
communication
evaluation
additional information
Every year, on the first two Sundays in September,
shortly after midday, a few visitors from the Can-
tabrian coast, lots of people from the surrounding
area and almost everyone in San Sebastian come
together in a crowd of around 100,000 people to
take a seat in the natural amphitheatre of the
Concha Bay. They settle down to watch the Estro-
padak, traditional rowing boat races, dressed in
the colours of their favourite team.
All wait anxiously for the crucial moment,
when, after going once around the buoy, the fish-
ing boats use the power of the waves to try and
make it back to the beach in first place. This ma-
noeuvre requires skill and expertise, particularly
if the sea is rough.
San Sebastian’s bid for European Capital of Cul-
ture 2016 aims to emulate these boats, to sail the
Waves of Energy in times of deep change and guide
the city towards a scenario of coexistence, har-
mony and dialogue from which to face the future.
This newspaper, published in Basque, Spanish,
English and French, which will be distributed on
the same day that we will defend the project be-
fore the Selection Committee for cities that are
candidates to be ECoC, is an exercise in democ-
racy and transparency that gives back to society
the result of a shared process. It is the voice that
encourages us to all row together and spread our
projects and hopes all over Europe.
rowing
towards 2016
The city of San Sebastian has asked the Basque
Government Culture Ministry Heritage Department to try
and get the Rowing Boat Races placed on the UNESCO
World Heritage List.
DV
dss
2016
eu
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trans
Santiago Bridge
Frontier zone between Irún and Hendaye

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geo
European and Global Network of Geoparks
Flysch in Zumaia, Gipuzkoa

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10—basic principles waves of energy—Dss2016eu
Representation of the cultural programme
Culture to overcome violence
9 real lighthouses operate as markers and indicate
the territorial scope of DSS2016EU. They are located
all along the area from Gernika to Bayonne and
light up the coast and the interior. These forms
cross-beans that recreate 4 thematic lighthouses
that our programme is based on: Lighthouse of Peace,
Lighthouse of Life, Lighthouse of Voices and Lighthouse
of Land&Sea.
The three verbs that covered the programme concept
in the previous phase, —coexisting, conversing and
converging —, come together in a single, major verb:
Coexistence includes all the concepts and values from
previous projects and has become the slogan Culture
to overcome violence.
lighthouse
of life
lighthouse
of land&sea
lighthouse
of voices
lighthouse
of peace
CONVERSING COEXISTING CONVERGING
Culture to overcome violence
CULTURE TO OVERCOME VIOLENCE

Dss2016eu—waves of energy —11
basic principles
an ode to understanding
living together on the border
a strategic commitment to culture
love at first sight with Poland
the history of our process
A year ago, San Sebastian presented its bid for European
Capital of Culture 2016 to the Selection Committee, which
recognised our work and gave us its vote of confidence on
sending us through to the final stage. The committee mem-
bers were impressed by our first proposals and gave us their
best advice.
The Waves of Energy lending our project its name are our
capital; they represent the traditional capacity of our inhab-
itants to make the most of opportunities. That’s why we've
maintained this same central idea, a philosophy fully in
keeping with our project and its focus on people.
We have decided to stick with our conceptual map, its
narrative complexity and poetic discourse. The three verbs
of our cultural proposal in the first stage (coexisting, con-
versing and converging) have now come together under the
umbrella of Culture to overcome violence. In addition to mark-
ing the direction followed by our bid, this leitmotiv acknowl-
edges the exceptional circumstances in which today’s soci-
ety has to live.
In the first stage, the Committee appreciated the city’s
courage in tackling the serious local problem of terrorism.
In effect, San Sebastian has been battling against this bru-
tality for years through a culture of peace and education in
values. In a complex society like ours, addressing crises and
challenges has been possible thanks to the courage and ef-
fort of our citizens.
While we were applying their suggestions, checked by
the Chairman of the Selection Committee, Dr. Manfred
Gaulhofer, a number of encouraging changes have taken
place in Basque society. It is obvious that we are now on the
threshold of a new era in history. Designating San Sebas-
tian as ECoC 2016 would boost the hope created by ETA on
announcing the suspension of its violent activities. We are
hopeful and trust that the situation will continue. We as-
sume the responsibility of building a Capital of Culture for
coexistence to Overcome Violence for all Europe. And we
need to do it now.
where we come
from and where
we’re going
Words can change the world. James Baldwin, an
African-American writer and one of the best-
known pioneers of the civil rights movement,
said: «We write in order to alter the world (...) If
you alter, even by a millimetre, the way people
look at reality, then you can change it». The
slogan attached to our bid wants to change the
world, to contribute to change it, based on trust.
The text addresses the essence of what a Euro-
pean Capital of Culture must represent: a civic
glocal hub.
In contact with the waves that bathe the
coasts of the European continent, from the At-
lantic Ocean to the Mediterranean sea, from the
Bay of Biscay to the Baltic, dss2016eu articulates
a territory and offers itself as port of Europe. A
port for opening closed doors. Without that vital
energy, the ability to convert individual limits
and contexts into global horizons of hope, it is
impossible to build and spread democratic values.
Europe is ageing, that’s a fact, but above all
it is exhausted, consumed, waning. We need
public and civic energy to revitalise our minds
and structures, a human, democratic, civic
energy. Life is impossible without it. We need the
European Capitals of Culture to be more a flow
of proposals, than just a stage, a rendezvous and a
programme.
The decision to build our cultural programme
as citizen action is a core commitment of the
dss2016eu project. The things we share (terri-
tory, policies, currency) will not form an inte-
gral part of our identity until they are a way of
understanding our dimension as citizens. That’s
what culture means. It is also why the city of San
Sebastian’s bid to host the European Capital of
Culture in 2016 is so radically democratic, why
it places so much emphasis on the culture of
dialogue, of diversity, of meeting, and of peace. A
culture of cultures.
Waves of Energy is neither a slogan nor a brand,
it is a spirit, a flag. This characteristic makes it a
a winning project. Europe needs a new spirit, a
spirit we can sing as a choir to raise the flag of
culture and democracy as the homeland of hu-
manity. Our bid´s slogan is not simply a potential
proposal; it’s a challenge that can’t be put off.
It’s our hope.
waves of energy
BID
Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí
Communications Advisor
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an ode to understanding
We are committed
to celebrating our
linguistic, cultural
and religious diversity.
We want to turn
this wealth to our
advantage rather than
using it against one
another which would
lead to irreconcilable
confrontation
In our territory, three
mother tongues
are spoken: Basque,
Spanish and French,
and increasingly
English as the lingua
franca, in addition
to other minority
languages brought by
new citizens
Our firm commitment to Culture to
overcome violence will contribute to
celebrating our diversity, our many
voices and languages, the wealth and
variety of our artistic expressions. In
fact, Europe is built on living together.
We must take advantage of our diver-
sity, rather than using it against one
another to the extent of irreconcilable
confrontation. Culture is a mechanism
of translation which, in its complete
political extension, implies placing
ourselves in the place of others in
order to try and understand all their
linguistic, cultural and religious
peculiarities. Words, dialogue and
alternative forms of narration are the
best way to accept diversity within our
society.
In our bid territory, stretching
from Bayonne, in the French Basque
Country, to Bilbao with San Sebastian
as its nerve centre, three mother
tongues are spoken altogether: Basque,
Spanish and French, and increasingly
English as the lingua franca used by the
younger generations. Alongside these
languages live other ‑— in our territory
less spoken — languages, like Ruma-
nian, Arabic or Chinese.
Also there are the many variations
of Spanish itself, a language spoken
by new citizens, millions of men and
women who live in our towns and cit-
ies, a faithful mirror of the European
cultural mosaic.
Often this human wealth is seen as
a threat. To overcome this rejection,
civic education and cultural back-
ing are required from a diversified,
cosmopolitan and transforming point
of view. European identity is a book
permanently being written. Therefore,
the priority mission of art and culture
is to endow our shared European
heritage with creative talents and
sensitivities.
The part played by culture in this
process is even more crucial in times
of crisis, and the situation as things
stand today is precisely that, no doubt
about it. Culture is not a luxury we
can only afford in times of prosperity.
It must be a social right that encom-
passes human rights and open access
to education for all to make diversity
seen not as an obstacle but the base
of the shared moral foundations for
mutual relations.
Today, what honours culture and
art is their endeavour to understand
the complexities of our times, to im-
agine solutions that will help us to get
along with one another.
culture
to heal
wounds
Ambition has been key to the whole
development of our project. That’s
why the aims self-imposed on the
dss2016eu bid spread well beyond the
traditional cultural spheres. Our three
major goals are to establish a last-
ing culture of peace, to celebrate the
characteristic diversity of our territory
and to highlight our geography and
particularly unique landscape. These
objectives run parallel to the project
of European construction.
Although this year we are enjoy-
ing temporary relief from the terror
inflicted by ETA, we truly need the
tremendous boost that the European
Capital of Culture 2016 could give
us. With the ECoC, we could harness
greater citizen energy and create
the conditions for putting an end to
terrorism once and for all, fostering
coexistence and reconciliation from
the culture of peace.
When we talk of confronting vio-
lence, we also refer to the many social
conflicts existing from east to west
and north to south in today’s Europe.
This includes the Gypsy Diaspora or
the integration of the thousands of
immigrants arriving from Africa or
South America in search of a better
life. A life which we European coun-
tries have often gained thanks to our
colonial history.
Thus, as we said in our presenta-
tion last year, San Sebastian wants to
be a laboratory for all European cities
suffering problems of coexistence
and social cohesion. A cross-border
space, the Basque Country, and a time,
the coming decade, to draw from our
shared thoughts on the challenges fac-
ing the future of Europe.
Although this year we are enjoying temporary
relief from the terror inflicted by ETA, we
need the tremendous boost that the European
Capital of Culture 2016 could give us to foster
coexistence and reconciliation
DV
objectives
In these times of hope, when the end of violence
seems near, we want San Sebastian and the territory
represented by this bid to be a vital space to develop
different ways of living in peace, through culture
and education. Being nominated ECoC would give us
the chance to prove that Basque citizens are firmly
committed to a culture of peace and Human Rights,
to the end of the violent expression of conflict, to
defending culture and education as the instruments
of coexistence.
Our objectives are to mobilise that vital energy,
creative capacity, business initiative and critical
spirit to carry out a social and cultural transforma-
tion process to accompany the progress of Europe.
We want to live in a territory where the European
dimension is expressed naturally and enhances the
wealth of our cultural policies.
We want to boost our desire to be European and
raise our awareness of the need to be more open to
Europe. Furthermore, we want to ensure that our
territory´s cultural agenda naturally overlaps onto
our social and institutional fabric. It is also our aim
to establish a unified, regional and cross-border cul-
tural agenda in order to strengthen our territory´s
connections with European and international
networks.1
Why does San Sebastian wish to take part
in the competition to become European
Capital of Culture? What would be the
main challenge if it were nominated?
What are the city’s objectives for the
year in question?
peace

basic principles—13Dss2016eu—waves of energy
the value of our unique
geography
We want to draw attention to the im-
portance of our unique geography and
landscape. Here we live in the centre
of a cross-border territory, bathed by
the waves of the Bay of Biscay from
our position on the Atlantic Ocean.
This is a place mid-way between
Northern Europe and Africa, a natural
place of passage between France,
Spain and Portugal; a place of transit
free from borders standing at the very
centre of a new cultural Eurocity. Ours
is a complex territory which, in the
framework of general reflection on
sustainable Europe, requires specific
attention. This is something we want
to address through the programme of
the ECoC 2016 by increasing education
in values and placing greater stress
on the culture of peace. A curved
coastline embracing all sorts of bays,
cultural parks, coastal walks and a
chain of lighthouses make this an
exceptional area. The epicentre of this
area is the Concha Beach, the first of
four bays lending shape to the cross-
border area ending, in this case, in
Saint-Jean-de-Luz in the French Basque
Country. We want to advance with the
construction of Europe with examples
of models of governance and care of
the natural environment. Caring for
our natural environment, land and sea,
would also permit us to improve our
cities and make them better places to
live in side by side.
Iñigo Ibáñez
Garden of Remembrance´s
opening in march 2011. A 3.5
hectares extension to honour
the memory of the victims of
terrorism. A Japanese style
garden in the new Riberas de
Loiola neighbourhood, in San
Sebastian.
Our proposed cultural programme essentially
focuses on the concept of culture based on the
creative potential of people and on their ability to
activate spaces of coexistence through freedom,
where dialogue can make itself effective. We want
to encourage shared places, where our multiple
identities, values and objectives cohabit and con-
stantly keep redefining one another. Places where
cultural diversity or political and religious differ-
ences find respect and encouragement.
Our goal is to achieve equality and the partici-
pation of all people. Our project and our slogan
are based on recovering the social effect of both
culture and education. The project´s slogan wants
to highlight the enormous power of creativity as a
way of consolidating civic agreement and con-
tributing to coexistence in the whole European
continent.
This is the result of a collaborative, open and de-
monstrable process thanks to involvement of many
people, groups, organisations and institutions in
our society. These combined values and proposals
form the Waves of Energy representing the strength,
perseverance, courage and openness of our Atlantic
Ocean. They also give our project its title, colour
and meaning.
Explain the concept of the programme
which would be launched if the city
was nominated European Capital
of Culture? Could this programme
be summed up by a slogan?
culture to overcome
violence
We live in times of democratic un-
certainty, when we have lost trust
in our politicians and the economy
is in tatters. These are times of
scepticism. Today, we all too easily
forget that democracy is a system
of political organisation, where
the main characteristic is that the
‘ownership' of power resides in all
members of a governed group. In
other words, the efficient applica-
tion and consistent development of
power concerns us all.
Power is used to structure fac-
tors affecting us as individually and
as groups. Although this power is
gained through a system of rep-
resentation regulated by periodic
elections, it is also a comprehensive
way of understanding and activat-
ing human personal and universal
relations. Democracy, in the widest
sense, is a form of social coexist-
ence, of community construction,
between free and equal people. It
is built on memory; things are the
way they are today because of the
action and responsibility of many
people down the years.
Modern democracy is not a way
of living shaped around a finished
product or absolute certainties; it
is founded on its own uncertainty,
on its constant evolution. It is a
process of permanently renovating
social innovation that requires con-
stant redefinition, a continuous re-
invention of forms and concepts. So
much so that it is still unresolved,
still in the making, always open to
the presence and challenges of the
emerging, the insurgent, and the
unexplored. people, the activity of
their everyday lives, speaking out,
their capacity to transform, are
the driving forces behind it. And
culture, as the ability of human be-
ings to inhabit the world and relate
among themselves, is its best tool.
In his book Geo-philosophy of
Europe, the Italian philosopher and
repeatedly elected Mayor of Venice,
Massimo Cacciari proposes a Eu-
rope taking its inspiration from the
ethics of solidarity. In his opinion,
no education, culture or democracy
can exist if its essential constitution
fails to assume antagonism. An idea
of Europe, with no other common
basis than the contrast between
different people, where, more than
tolerance, the prevailing factor
among those who recognise them-
selves as being equal and different
is solidarity.
We must ask ourselves how we
can reinvent an emancipating way
of being European in today’s world.
We must find a way to overcome
what is merely a rhetoric declara-
tion of abstract rights, a way to
define an «us» without comparing it
to a «them».
We must endeavour to recreate
a shared culture and education in
values that recognises the differ-
ences and unique features of people
rather than trying to erase them.
Europe is a place of diversified,
yet often overlapping identities. It
has the mission to construct a place
of shared living, one that will never
be complete but, in the end, one
which can offer us a framework for
sharing at least those things that
can unite us.
«people, and saying what we think in
our everyday lives, are the driving forces
of democracy. And culture, as the ability
of human beings to inhabit the world,
is their best tool»
«Modern democracy is a way of living that
is not shaped around a finished product
or certainties; it is founded on its own
uncertainty, on its constant evolution. It is a
process in constant construction»
UNIQUE LANDSCAPE
Santiago Eraso
Artistic Director of DSS2016EU
2/3

The whole city is and will be actively involved,
from the centre to the outskirts, and particularly
the individual districts. The project will encom-
pass the entire province of Gipuzkoa and the
Basque Country. It will also unfold in the part of
our coast marked by nine lighthouses running
from Matxitxako in the neighbouring territory of
Bizkaia, to Bayonne in the French Basque Country,
a strategic geographic location at the centre of the
cross-border corridor. We want the San Sebastian
conurbation, in its widest sense, to be the core of a
project embracing the transnational area between
Bordeaux and Bilbao.
Our bid proposes a Basque Eurocity project,
because we share a past and a geographic area, a
language, a history, liberal tradition and culture.
Because the challenges of today in the areas of
culture, economy, mobility, sport, leisure, services,
activities and feelings are factors common to us all.
And because our future is also a common future
involving projects aimed at developing a true Euro-
pean life that will permit us to activate structures
in the city, in governance, in commercial and
social services. We must make a reality of the fact
that our everyday lives experience no change on
crossing the border.
Which geographical area does the city
intend to involve in the «European Capital
of Culture» event? Why? What area are we
going to involve?
living together
on the border
For centuries, the border area between San Sebas-
tian and Biarritz was a setting for wars and battles.
Today, the people who live in this area cross the
border by day to have a few «pintxos» (miniature
gastronomic bar snacks), take in a cultural event
or enjoy the great surfing offered by San Sebastian.
The scar on the waters of the Bidasoa has healed
over to leave soft, smooth skin.
Border awareness has played an enormously
important part in the construction of local identity.
That altered with the constitution of the Treaty on
European Union in 1992 and the subsequent disap-
pearance of administrative borders. It brought
deep social and psychological changes, not to men-
tion the economic crisis caused by the restructur-
ing of sectors linked to the former customs posts.
In this context, municipal, provincial and
regional institutions in France and Spain set about
creating a cultural Eurocity comprising San Sebas-
tian, Biarritz and Bayonne. A Eurocity occupying
a strategic location in the centre of the European
Atlantic corridor running from Bilbao to Bordeaux.
The simple existence and normality with which
this Eurocity is treated by its citizens contributes
to thinking of a new Europe; a place where borders
represent an opportunity rather than a barrier
for achieving greater cultural wealth and social
diversity.
Our project for ECoC 2016 overcomes part of
the border effects of the old Europe and moves to-
wards a shared geography where people no longer
suffer from the distrust once felt for one another.
Jean Baptiste Salaberry, Mayor of Hendaye, the
first French town over the border, recently said in
a newspaper interview: «It is difficult to calculate
the number of Spanish people who live in Hendaye.
I think that between 35% and 40% of Hendaye's
population comes from the other side. people tend
to get on well, and there are usually no problems,
but the situation will be fully accepted as normal
when the children who attend school here grow
into adults. Fifteen years from now the generations
will be a lot more integrated».
Creation of the Eurocity has already been
started by its citizens. We must take advantage of
the initiative, rationalise and share resources on
both sides of the border, and create common ideas
and projects contributing to general prosperity.
In the border area between San Sebastian and
Biarritz, a place where wars were fought for
many years, the institutions of today are working
to construct a Eurocity occupying a strategic
geographic location in the centre of the European
Atlantic corridor. The very existence of this
endeavour contributes to thinking of a new Europe
Barely a month after the Tamborrada drums parade
in San Sebastian, a January festival celebrating the
evacuation of Napoleon’s troops from Gipuzkoa,
Basque clubs defend their future in the Top 14,
the French rugby league, at the Anoeta Stadium.
First, Aviron Bayonnais play to win the French
championship, followed by Biarritz Olympique
Pays Basque for the European Cup! Later, buses full
of French-Basque people unload their passengers
into the Gipuzkoan cider houses. From spring to
autumn, popular races like the Sara Korrika or
Behobia-San Sebastian gather regiments of sports
enthusiasts who cross the administrative, not
natural borders.
Borders that no longer exist for the curious,
tourists, visitors, lovers of classical music, be-
cause today, almost two centuries after Napoleon
Bonaparte passed away, French people come to San
Sebastian to enjoy its famous «pintxos», or to take
a walk round its bay and delight in one of the most
beautiful cities in Europe.
This flow of citizens over both sides of the bor-
der has grown naturally since the European border
posts were done away with almost fifteen years
ago. But the cross–border institutions still exist,
even if we don’t really know what each one offers
to citizens these days.
Institutions and agreements like The Pyrenean
Work Community (1983), the Aquitania-Euskadi lo-
gistics platform (1989), the Bayonne-San Sebastian
Eurocity (1993), the Bidasoa Txingudi Consortium
(1998), the Atlantic Trans-Pyrenean Conference
(2007) have been created.
All these institutions and agreements coexist in
an amalgam of cross-border institutions. Unfortu-
nately for the citizens living in this cross-border
territory, these bodies are nothing but an adminis-
I hope that San
Sebastian will create
a big new cross-border
wave in 2016!
«Two centuries since the
death of Napoleon Bonaparte,
the French come to
San Sebastian for a stroll
along the Concha Bay»
Dr Jean-Marie Izquierdo
University of Pau and Pays de l’Adourr
cross-border
4
2
1
2

defends the values of openness and tolerance that
are so essential to European identity. A Europe like
the one imagined by its fathers, Alcide De Gasperi,
Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, founded on cultural
exchange and reciprocity for the benefit of all Euro-
peans.
I hope that in 2016 San Sebastian will cause an
enormous cross-border wave bringing improve-
ments for its citizens, and for a new Europe! Na-
poleonic occupation belongs to the past. Later, the
fathers of Europe saw their dream come true in this
corner of the continent. Now it’s the turn of the po-
litical institutions to do something for the citizens,
who urgently need Europe.
Our project and its desire to do away with borders stretch well beyond the border marked by
the River Bidasoa. Our project will remove the lines that separate the centre from the out-
skirts. We will draw the districts into the city which stands at the heart of the ECoC 2016. Our
activities are not limited to the city centre.
The city is progressing towards sustainable mobility thanks to improved public transport,
increasingly better facilities and more environmentally friendly ways of travelling. We are
constantly creating more paths for walking and cycling in the urban and rural areas. We want
the city neighbourhoods and the outer districts to be completely involved in the project.
fusion between the centre
and the outskirts
trative mille feuille adding their names to the list
of local public institutions.
Institutional response is slow and marginal,
despite the fact that territorial challenges in terms
of sustainability and reciprocity are very real in
the territory. Waste management; air, rail and road
infrastructures; higher education; competitiveness,
all of these areas require tangible, efficient collabo-
ration if they are to serve a territory of increased
size.
In 2010, the environment NGO, SurfRider Foun-
dation Europe, born in Biarritz, opened branch in
San Sebastian, in order to have a general overview
of the problem affecting the Basque coastline.
Cross-border cooperation must take steps to ad-
dress the true dimension of sustainable develop-
ment. From now on, politicians must abandon
their fancy speeches to prepare a sustainable fu-
ture for this natural cross-border Basque coastline.
Europe is an enormous project, locally and
globally. It must demonstrate that citizens can
influence the direction followed by the democratic
institutions. The dynamics of our Waves of Energy
«Politicians must abandon
their fancy speeches to
prepare a sustainable future
for this naturally cross-border
Basque coastline»
museums for
generating questions
Culture as the answer to a physical environ-
ment, to a social context. That’s what we studied
way back, but I’m increasingly more interested
in culture as a question and its endless whys.
Perhaps that’s because we live in a country full
of questions arising from its cross-border nature.
Here we are considered as the north by those in
the south and as the south by those in the north.
This is a country that has full right to its place in
a Europe without barriers. The troubled history
of Europe is constantly evolving. Construction
of the Basque Eurocity is like a Russian doll in
the Basque Euro-region running from Bordeaux
to Bilbao, which is in itself part of the Europe
of Regions. This area has a great deal to say in
establishing models of development and fairer
international relations.
In the field of culture, I love museums, their
ability to generate and share questions, mainly
on social and collective subjects, but also on
personal, unique matters. This subject interested
me as far back as 25 years ago when, following
my university studies, I joined the team at the
Fine Arts Museum in Bilbao. And it continues to
interest me today, in 2011, at another museum,
the Museum of Basque History in Bayonne, which
is, depending on how you look at it, in another
country or just over the Bidasoa. Between these,
another two museums have influenced my
life, my city, San Sebastian: the Naval Museum,
opened in 1991, and San Telmo Municipal Muse-
um, which celebrated its centenary in 2002 and is
now undergoing major renovation. In all of them,
without exception, I have seen how museums can
serve as agents of social transformation. Based
on their vocation of offering a service to the com-
munity, museums are «by people for the people».
One of the greatest concerns in our societies
is undoubtedly difference, whether of identity or
cultures. Curiosity has taken the human being
on long roads, over mountains, across oceans, to
meet other people, other cultures. However, fear is
another of their traits, and the fear of others is rife.
This is something we know can grow into hatred.
We continually hear how in these times of
uncertainty culture continues to make sense, per-
haps more than ever. The ECoC 2016 can channel
a great deal of citizen energy into improving liv-
ing together, getting to know one other again and
in peace. Let’s open museums to the thoughts
and concerns of people. Let’s integrate their
desires and their interests. Let’s take creativity
and curiosity as our basis. And each time we find
an answer, let’s ask another question and find
another explanation.
Rafa Zulaika
Director of the Museum of Basque History in Bayonne
«We live in a cross-border
country, considered as the
north by those in the south
and as the south by those
in the north; a country that
has full right to its place in a
Europe without barriers»
Iñigo Ibáñez
Iñigo Ibáñez
Cross-border
Choreography
Centre
San Sebastian City Council and the French Basque
town of Biarritz signed an agreement to create a
Cross-border Choreography Centre, the first of its
kind in Europe. This initiative is promoted with
funding from the European programme Interreg
IV and is the result of the agreement between
San Sebastian’s Victoria Eugenia Theatre and the
Malandain Ballet Biarritz. It will house workshops,
master classes, exhibitions, conferences and public
rehearsals.
1 Bike-path, between Irun and
Hendaye.
2 Cross-border bridge,
between Irun and Hendaye.
Natali Canas

a strategic commitment
to culture
As we indicated at the pre-selection stage San Se-
bastian’s bid is unanimously supported by the City
Council, the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the
Basque Government, the three most important insti-
tutions in the area affected by the European Capital
of Culture in 2016.
However, our bid is also backed by other insti-
tutions: the General Assemblies of Gipuzkoa, the
Basque Parliament, Eudel (the Association of Basque
Municipalities) and the Cross-Border Development
Agency for the Basque Eurocity, the Agglomération
Côte Basque-Adour, and The Communauté de Com-
munes Sud Pays Basque.
The City Councils of Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz,
the capitals of Bizkaia and Alava provinces respec-
tively, would also enjoy the benefits of the European
Capital of Culture 2016. If San Sebastian is selected
they guarantee their support for our dss2016eu
project.
Finally, we have the backing of the Bayonne and
Biarritz City Councils, two of the most important
in the French Basque Country. This area is essential
to the European dimension of our project. It would
form an integral part of the project and would lend
people, agents and infrastructures to our cultural
programme.
Please confirm that you have the support
of the local and/or regional political
authorities?
San Sebastian recently published a vision of what
it wants to be in the coming decade. The Strategic
Plan 2020, defends a united city, devoid of social
exclusion and violence, with active citizens who
participate in discussing public matters that affect
the whole community. Citizens who want to con-
tribute their grain of sand to a global and changing
world.
However, parallel to this is a city proud of its
past as an innovative metropolis in the early 20th
century, and of its liberal-progressive tradition.
It is also proud of its Basque identity, which has
the duty to adapt with the new times, to share its
cultural identity with modernity, globalisation and
the demands for integration of citizens who have
come from other countries.
However, this adaptation process must occur
without it losing its unique personality and singu-
larity. The Plan for the next decade of San Sebas-
tian covers not only the social needs of the city, but
also the need to design an economic policy. The
Plan is intended to guarantee the future prosperity
enjoyed nowadays by the city, put to the test by the
economic crisis that has affected the whole world
the last few years.
Thus, taking advantage of the boost from
preparing the bid to host the European Capital
of Culture in 2016, we are taking the opportunity
to rejuvenate and update our cultural policies, to
place the city at the vanguard of Europe as a refer-
ence in activities related to the economy of the
cultural sector.
San Sebastian will be a place that makes people
sit up and take notice in areas of culture, educa-
tion, knowledge and innovation thanks to its
research centres, universities, technology and cul-
tural parks. A city with infrastructures dedicated to
research, development and innovation on sustaina-
ble energy, tourism, gastronomy and sport. A place
where new business initiatives are introduced for
collaboration and coordination leading to greater
synergy between companies of all the mentioned
economic sectors.
The guiding vision in the development of the
Strategic Plan 2020 has been an open, dynamic,
welcoming city full of diversity, a perfect place for
its citizens to live in and enjoy, but also a model of
environmental, social and economic sustainability,
a city with a future, capable of seducing and at-
tracting young people.
All aspects of culture are central to this vision
of the city for the next decade; from the cultural
industry to different artistic expressions, from lan-
guages to gastronomy. The world economic crisis
underlines the need for a commitment to values
and a strong community capable of meeting chal-
lenges by creating projects based on the strength
of its social capital.
The institutions trust in their citizens, their
talent, and their ability to be enterprising, to
generate new ideas. That's why dss2016eu is firmly
committed to creative economy.
designed in
San Sebastian
Despite its medium size, San Sebastian is already
a national and international reference in cultural
spheres. Bearing this strength and the potential
of its citizens in this field, the city aims to mobi-
lise its assets. The aim of the city is to create an
economic fabric based on creating, producing and
exhibiting a cutting-edge and constantly evolving
cultural offer.
One of our major objectives is to create an
audiovisual industry at the Audiovisual Innovation
Center and the Tabakalera Contemporary Audio-
visual Culture Centre, due to open its doors in
2015. The Basque Culinary Center, the only one of
its kind, will attract international talent from the
world of gastronomy. The Plan also focuses on the
culture of knowledge, in particular on the most
innovative economic sectors already present in the
city, including nanoscience, bioscience, informa-
tion and communication technologies and neuro-
science.
connected
city
San Sebastian needs to open up, connect itself
and gain international recognition for its R&D&I
activities. That’s why an international approach is
crucial for the city. The coming years will see great
improvements in transport round the city and
its surroundings with the development of major
projects.
This progress is possible thanks to the deci-
sions of the relevant institutions, to the green
light on construction of the San Sebastian Region
Underground and to the creation of the Gipuzkoa
Transport Authority. Introduction of the high-
speed train and of the topo / underground system
will completely change travelling over both long
and short distances.
Further, for years San Sebastian has been work-
ing to foster a marketing and city branding strat-
egy whereby an image related to science, culture
and innovation will join the traditional image of
commercial and tourist services.
The objective is to create
an economic fabric based
on creating, producing and
exhibiting a cutting-edge
cultural offer
Introduction to the city of
the high-speed train and
underground system will
completely change travelling
over long and short distances
economy transport
PLAN
5

Iñigo Ibáñez
The municipal Plan for 2020 addresses a time when the city will
have become a place that makes people sit up and take notice in
areas related to culture, education, knowledge and innovation
thanks to its research centres, its universities, its technology and
cultural parks; an open, dynamic and sustainable city
San Sebastian’s Strategic Plan, designed with a
vision of the city for 2020, follows a parallel road
in perfect harmony with the European Capital of
Culture 2016 project. The four major lines of the
strategic plan (Designed in San Sebastian, people
and Values, Connected City, Live and Enjoy) are
woven with the same threads as our dss2016eu
project and demonstrate the city's commitment to
our bid.
The lines of the Strategic Plan completely
coincide with both the Gipuzkoa+20 provincial
plan and the EcoEuskadi 2020 plan for the Basque
Country, the core concept of which is to boost the
city’s already important cultural-creative economy.
This is a strategic decision perfectly coherent in
keeping with the spirit, history and concerns of
San Sebastian.
We are committed to making San Sebastian
an international benchmark in the defence of hu-
man rights and culture, to achieve understanding
between all kinds of people. Projects soon to open,
like the Basque Culinary Center, and others still at
the preparation stage, like Tabakalera, the Audio-
visual Contemporary Culture Centre scheduled to
open with the European Capital of Culture 2016,
are all perfectly in tune with the project.
How does the event fit into the long-
term cultural development of the city
and, where appropriate, of the region?
strategies
at provincial
and autonomous
community level
The plans currently on the drawing board to
ensure that our territory will remain competitive in
the coming decade share the desire to include the
proposals made by all agents in our society. The
Gipuzkoa Strategy Office, with its G+20 plan, and
the Basque Government, with its EcoEuskadi 2020
plan, apply a process of citizen participation which
involves companies, universities, specialised pro-
fessionals and other social players. The aim is to
follow a clear, well planned course of action, that
doesn’t deviate despite changes in the political
leadership of the institutions.
The plan for the autonomous community is split
into three parts: eco for economy, eco for ecol-
ogy and eco for the voice of society. The process,
already involving the participation and collabo-
ration of over 400 agents, addresses a balance
between the three dimensions to ensure that the
growth of one dimension has no negative effect
on the other two. Events have already taken place
in Bilbao, Vitoria and Mondragon, including three
participatory meetings, one for each province.
Autonomous community agencies such as Ihobe,
the Public Corporation for Environmental Manage-
ment; Eustat, the Basque Statistics Institute; and
Innobasque hold a central role in this process.
The Provincial Council ran a diagnosis of the
economic-social situation in Gipuzkoa and, in
2008 and 2009, started a participatory process to
create a strategy of action for the coming decade,
the G+20 territorial plan. The plan, which has now
completed its third stage, addresses TRANSforma-
tions in the areas of economy, social demography,
environmental/territorial sustainability, learning/
knowledge, and the public-political space. It also
envisages the end of political violence and a last-
ing peace.
The plans designed by the
Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa
and the Basque Government
share the desire to include the
proposals made by all agents in
our society
people
and values
Peace is a shared goal, a need, but it must be built
on an appreciation of values, the suffering of the
victims and the importance of respect for all the
community.
The citizens of San Sebastian, who have been
afflicted by the effects of violence, have the oppor-
tunity, the duty, to become a reference regarding
education in values. A duty to become an interna-
tional reference in this field represents not only
an opportunity as a city, but a duty to ensure that
no community suffers the ravages of violence and
intolerance.
On the other hand, San Sebastian has also set
itself the task of becoming a reference in caring for
people with disabilities, within Spain, and in some
cases internationally, and in so doing promoting
tailor made strategic actions. The city will similarly
reflect on the impact of immigration as a phenom-
enon that plays an essential part in the dynamics of
the city and its future.
The citizens afflicted by
violence have the opportunity,
the duty, to become a
reference in the field of
education in values
live
and enjoy
San Sebastian fully assumes the environmental chal-
lenge, and is progressively introducing the concept
of sustainability and energy saving to the develop-
ment of its actions. Evidence of this process is the
creation of the Fundación Cristina Enea, approval of
the Plan against Climate Change, and the introduc-
tion of alternative energy systems in public build-
ings.
The city has also designed a road map to ensure
a network of care services for meeting the new chal-
lenges facing the whole community. We are faced
with an increasingly large population of elderly
people who generally live alone and for longer. And
there are new social circumstances of vulnerability,
people facing difficulties, single-parent families or
immigrants at risk of exclusion.
As a pledge to the future, the city will promote
a rise in the birth-rate with a view to balancing out
numbers and to fight the aging process that faces
our society.
A road map in order to
ensure sustainability
and care services responding
to the new challenges
facing society
PEACE quality of life
6
2020

The dss2016eu team has drawn up general terms
and specific activities with each of the Polish
candidate cities. In general terms, we will share the
responsibility of communication. Each ECoC will
concentrate the efforts of both bids on the reality of
their local areas, and of the States in their surround-
ing areas. This results in improved returns from
resources.
We will also make a joint assessment based on
the methodology of Am Framework International and
we will apply custom built tools. We will organise
exchange programmes between university students,
professional centres and primary and secondary
schools. We will create a position in an external
committee for the nominated Polish city and will ex-
change staff for the purposes of shared experiences.
Finally, we will cooperate on cultural and business
aspects.
As far as specific aspects are concerned, we have
set aside €1 million from the budget for joint activi-
ties with the nominated Polish city. Part of this
initiative is mentioned at the foot of this page. We
have already made strong contacts with the candi-
date cities for 2015, and we expect to enjoy strong
links with the two cities, one in Malta and one in
Denmark, designated for 2017.
To what extent do you plan to forge
links with the other city to be nominated
European Capital of Culture?
love at first sight
with Poland
EUROPEAN DIMENSION
If the city of Wroclaw is designated European
Capital of Culture in 2016, at dss2016eu we have lo-
cated areas of potential cooperation in a number of
fields that go beyond culture including gastronomy,
the audiovisual industry, music, peace and sustain-
ability. We have established exchanges under the
framework of the Bertsojazzaldia activity of our
cultural programme and the Quincena Musical pro-
gramme, a classical music summer festival which
will dedicate its 2016 programme to Polish classi-
cal music composers. We have also singled out an
important opportunity for exchange through the
soon to be opened Basque Culinary Center and
have planned a joint exhibition on violence and
the history of conflict. Further, our programme
contains a number of activities on the environ-
ment, ecology and sustainability, with the focus on
river networks.
This Polish city has proposed a project entitled
City of Gardens in its cultural programme which
is perfectly aligned with our cultural parks
network, a system or working methodology key
to our European Capital of Culture project that
features our parks and green zones as substantial
areas. We have also detected similarities between
our projects in the areas of art and sports. These
shared features have led to plans for a joint exhibi-
tion on the contemporary sporting world. Addition-
ally, our train will carry cultural containers across
the whole European continent, from Katowice to
San Sebastian. The train, one of our three ambas-
sadors for international culture, will concentrate
on eco-mobility, audiovisuals and pluralism. It will
also house seminars and displays on solving con-
flicts, fields in which there are also potential areas
of cooperation.
Should this city be designated European Capital
of Culture in 2016, our Singing Street programme
would head for Lublin to work with its citizens
on the concept of social movement and its politi-
cal impact seen from the region’s own choral and
musical tradition. We would also cooperate with
this Polish city through our travelling embassy. The
circus of life! would visit Lublin, where the magician
of their bid would act as master of ceremonies of
the circus show. Moreover, our Soinumapa pro-
gramme is also being developed in collaboration
with their bid: a digital European sound map on
which we would join forces in 2016. Further, given
its similarity with Gernika, the town of Frampol,
very near Lublin, would be sown with sempervivum
(live forever) seeds, also known as the flower of
peace, as part of the Rain of poetry activity on our
cultural programme.
branches in Poland and the Polish researchers at our
universities. We discovered that, being on the coast,
San Sebastian is particularly attractive for land-
locked cities in Central Europe. In terms of struc-
ture, the transformation of industrial premises into
culture centres in the Basque Country and in Poland
have many similarities.
For the Polish cities, our city's vast experience
in the fields of participation, human rights, gas-
tronomy and multiple languages is particularly
interesting. For all too long these Europeans were
locked behind the Iron Curtain. Today, the extreme
competition in these times of economic crisis is no
help to finding shared places.
San Sebastian and its partner Polish city will
work together on the ECoC projects to observe and
compare one another, in an exciting environment
of socio-cultural change. These ties will include the
exchange of creations, compared ideas and stud-
ies of coexistence between the Polish, Basque and
Spanish cultures. We will establish cooperation in
the fields of culture, education and employment,
but also in areas related to entrepreneurship, re-
search and innovation. Our budget features a sum of
€1 million for the purposes of association with the
Polish Capital of Culture between 2011 and 2018.
Wroclaw Katowice Lublin
Every year the candidate cities for ECoC are encour-
aged to work together as an opportunity to get to
know each other through culture and create links
bringing richness to all involved. For 2016, the EU
has forwarded the idea that the nominated Polish
and Spanish cities should be even closer to one
another.
At first, the dss2016eu team asked itself what an
average-sized coastal city like San Sebastian, with
the typical challenges of Basque culture and tradi-
tional connections with the Mediterranean, South
America and Africa could have in common with a
big Slavic city in Eastern Europe. But it wasn’t long
before the team fell in love with Poland, discovering
all sorts of shared similarities.
In the last three years we have come to an under-
standing with all of the Polish candidate cities (al-
though recently we have enjoyed closer contact with
Gdansk, Katowice, Lublin, Warsaw and Wroclaw) to
work on an association with the winning Polish city
if San Sebastian is designated ECoC 2016.
Naturally, we have started with the warmer,
more personal relations with the Polish people
who live and work here. For example, the Polish
musicians belonging to the Basque National Orches-
tra, students, workers at Basque companies with
At first, the dss2016eu
team asked itself what a
city like San Sebastian could
have in common with a
Slavic city in Eastern Europe.
However, it wasn’t long
before we fell in love with
Poland, discovering all sorts of
similarities between us
dss2016eu has prepared
collaboration projects with
the five Polish candidate
cities to host the European
Capital of Culture
7

Our project aims to find its place at the heart of
the European debate. Using our three mobile ini-
tiatives, we aim to strengthen cooperation with Eu-
ropean artists and cities. Our boat, train and circus
will travel across Europe, strengthening coopera-
tion between cultural operators, artists, research-
ers, companies and entrepreneurs, NGOs and
universities. Additionally, the 4 major lighthouses,
peace, life, voices and land & sea will permit us to ef-
ficiently identify the most important operators for
each of the activities detailed on the programme.
We will highlight the wealth of European cultural
diversity by creating networks of collaboration and
mutual cooperation between institutions, cultural
operators and companies. We are convinced that
this will help to unite Europe, respecting diversity,
as advocated by the UNESCO Convention on the
Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural
Expressions.
Taking our local dimension as a base and as
a part of international networks, our project is
underpinned by slow innovation. We address
common challenges, finding answers that benefit
the construction of Europe set around the great-
est diversity, with the constant focus on European
connections.
lines of work with
European cities
→ While the Polish cities focus their
communication policy on Central Europe, San
Sebastian looks towards Southern Europe, the
Atlantic, North Africa, the Mediterranean and
South America. Thus, communication aimed
at Russia, the USA or Asia will be addressed
jointly to organise conferences, travelling
exhibitions, press articles and events.
→ Assessment will be carried out jointly based
on the research established in Am Framework
International and the European Capitals of
Culture Policy Group. Yearly workshops will
be organised to guarantee a strong exchange
of experiences. In late 2015 we will organise
a bilateral conference to assess European
Capitals of Culture and establish an initiative
of personal exchange between staff on our
assessment teams.
→ Intense cooperation already exists at
educational level. Basque educational
institutions will work closely with the
university and educational centres of
the designated Polish city. There will be
exchanges between university students, those
at educational and vocational training centres,
and primary and secondary school pupils. It
is enormously helpful that the Autonomous
Community of the Basque Country is one of
the five leading European regions as far as
student and trainee mobility is concerned.
→ Regarding the exchange of staff and cultural
operators between the two cities, a system
will be established to facilitate their travel
and stay. The aim is not only to improve
coordination between ECoC 2016 but also
to increase the number of experiences and
projects exchanged.
→ In the field of learning, we will organise
joint cultural/business events. We will
encourage active roles in areas where Polish
and Spanish companies work together. We
will also organise joint activities on artistic
interventions in companies. We will establish
activities and cooperation frameworks for
promoting artistic interventions in companies
from both countries and in collaboration with
others.
We would like to break away from the clichés sur-
rounding both cities. In our case, we would shift
the focus from the image of our beautiful bay to
show the districts and outskirts. Here we would
export the B Side of both cities using what we call
our Off-Guide Project. We would organise a rendez-
vous in Strasbourg between our train and another
one leaving from Gdansk to celebrate a get-to-
gether of young thinkers. We would also arrange
a pilot experience by introducing our model of
Gastronomic Society to the Polish city. We would
invite society to find spaces for sharing while
recovering the local gastronomic culture, and
even merge it with ours. Groups of young Basque
singers will travel to Gdansk in an exchange pro-
gramme with musicians from the city, who would
then come to the Basque Country and sing here in
Kashubian.
Our collaboration proposal lies in launching a
process running from 2012 until 2016, the year of
the event, where the two ECoC 2016 projects will
feel themselves to be complementary to one an-
other, importing and exporting cultural activities
and proposals in order to improve the richness of
both projects. We plan to draw up a White Paper on
the European Capital of Culture 2016 where, mani-
festo-style, we will list all the proposals, activities
and experiences developed and those that are
seen as missing from the two cities. Accordingly,
we will also join forces to develop and implement
joint cultural activities. The entire process will be
comprehensively documented to permit future
European Capital of Culture bids to develop this
kind of experience and learn from the extensive
collaboration between the cities of San Sebastian
and Warsaw.
Gdansk Warsaw
As regards The European Dimension, how
does the city intend to contribute: to
strengthen cooperation between the cul-
tural operators, artists and cities of your
country and other Member States, in all
cultural sectors; to highlight the richness
of cultural diversity in Europe.
8 A/B
With the constant focus on
European connections, we
address common challenges,
finding answers that benefit
the construction of Europe
rozumiemy
się bez
słów! :)

We understand culture as an excellent tool for
combating conflict and for encouraging peaceful
coexistence between all kinds of people across
Europe. Our reality and that of Europe are obviously
based on our peculiarities and complexities, due to
not only to economic, political and social networks,
and also to cultural networks. Our Culture to over-
come violence project seeks to strengthen ties with
programmes and activities contributing to equality
between all Europeans and to overcoming the nega-
tive effects of the former borders. As we stand at the
centre of a cross-border territory, our experience can
contribute to new forms of management that will
help overcoming contradictions of identity arising
from the national fragmentation of the European
continent.
We can also contribute to shared linguistic poli-
cies in Europe which allow minority languages to
live alongside the dominant one(s). We also rec-
ognise gastronomic wealth as a mosaic of shared
flavours. Similarly, social cohesion, Europe’s herit-
age par excellence, can be enriched thanks to our
Lighthouse of Life actions. We will do everything in
our power to direct the cumulus of energies towards
achieving a stronger European cultural and social
fabric.
As regards "The European Dimension",
how does the city intend to bring the
common aspects of European cultures to
the fore? Can you specify how this event
could help to strengthen the city's links
with Europe?
an example of diversity
European dimension
Languages are key elements of our project, since our
territory is home to three official languages: Spanish,
French and Basque. We will exchange experiences with
other minority languages: Frisian, Welsh, Galician,
Luxembourgish, Gaelic and Breton, among others
At dss2016eu we believe that the territory of our bid
is the perfect example of European diversity. The
culture of our continent lies in recognising and ac-
cepting cultural diversity in a constant collaboration
of conflicting interests and historical perspectives.
We therefore believe that one of the strengths of our
dss2016eu project lies in its ability to recognise that
diversity.
Languages are an indication of the way our
project underlines the wealth of cultural diversity in
the European continent. In our territory we speak
Spanish, French and Basque as mother tongues. In
view of the leading international importance of
Basque among the community of minority languag-
es and the general crisis affecting other minority
languages, our project will make an objective of
highlighting the European wealth of linguistic
diversity.
To enforce this commitment to linguistic di-
versity, our project includes a number of cultural
activities that feature exchanged experiences with
institutions and people dedicated to upholding
other minority languages like Luxembourgish,
Frisian, Welsh, Galician, Gaelic and Breton. We will
also include other linguistic realities. For exam-
ple, the growing use of Arabic, Rumanian or other
languages in our society spoken by immigrants now
living among us.
Another aspect of our project highlighting Euro-
pean diversity is one of our greatest cultural assets:
our gastronomy. This is a combination of know-how
and experiences for which the Basque Country
and particularly San Sebastian are famous the
world over. Our project will use already established
networks to share gastronomic traditions in Europe
and beyond.
The dss2016eu project aims to unite Europe-
ans by accepting our differences. The project will
highlight the challenges and openings of a territory
offering equal opportunities for development to
all citizens. Taking our own complexity as a start-
ing point, the project offers a place in which to test
socio-cultural programmes for improving coexist-
ence in Europe.
We hope to meet this objective by creating
links between the city, the region, local operators
and their European partners. While preparing our
project and during the year of the event, citizens,
groups, schools, organisations and institutions will
join forces to explore all of the possibilities offered
by culture in solving conflict.
The dss2016eu activities include the dissemina-
tion of local cultural policies in Europe, movement
between artists and organisations and the prepara-
tion of seminars and conferences between NGOs
dedicated to peace.
Our bid has actively
participated in a number of
European debates and is directed
by experts with European and
Community experience
cooperation
with the EU
The DSS2016EU project is run by experts with a
great deal of experience in European institutional
programmes related to culture, education,
social affairs, employment, entrepreneurship
and regional development. The city and its
cultural operators have created synergies with
their European counterparts in the last 15 years,
working on themed networks in fields like
human rights, democracy, participation and
multilingualism.
As far as audiovisuals are concerned, the city has
experience in the Media Programme, and Gipuzkoa
is enormously active in European initiatives
related to minority language networks.
In the last year, our bid team has actively
participated in debates on the future of culture in
Europe through the Culture Action Europe cycle in
September of last year and preparing the seminar
on the future of Cultural Capitals in Brussels,
Culture WatchEurope and Youth on the move 2020.
In fields like media, new technologies, theatre,
dance and music, DSS2016EU believes it is
essential to create synergies with the cultural
activities backed by the European institutions. In
February 2011 in San Sebastian an Info Day was
held about the European Culture programme.
Culture is intimately linked to education. Given
the educational nature of our project, we will
use the Erasmus, Leonardo and Gruntvig student
exchange programmes to encourage movement
among higher education and vocational training
students. The European Commission’s Lifelong
Learning Programme will play an essential part in
connecting with partners in Eastern Europe who
share similar pasts when freedom was restricted,
through educational projects on human rights.
Continuing with the Rotterdam initiative and the
Maribor example, San Sebastian intends to link
the ECoC and the European Youth Capital. We are
in conversation with the European Youth Forum
regarding the possibility of our city participating
in the bid for youth capital in 2015. We have
chosen that year to highlight the importance of
this group in our project.
Iñigo Ibáñez
8 c/d

San Sebastian, City of Science
and Innovation Award
In Brussels, San Sebastian will have a dedicated
team at the Delegation of the Basque Country
which will act as a catalyst for participation in
cultural activities promoted by the European
Institutions. Our project and its cultural pro-
gramme will boost connections with the European
networks with which the city already collaborates,
particularly in the areas of human rights, inter-
culturality and citizen participation: the Council
of Europe Intercultural Cities Network, the Mayors for
Peace Network, and the UCLG (United Cities and Lo-
cal Governments) Committee on Human Rights, Social
Inclusion and Democracy. The European Commis-
sion Directorate General of Justice, Freedom and
Security already fund programmes related to the
victims of terrorism, recognition, awareness and
memory which have been developed for some time
by San Sebastian City Council. The invitation for
San Sebastian to join the Club de Strasbourg, when
San Sebastian was asked to chair a Committee on
Citizen Participation and Human Rights, will make
it possible to develop cultural projects with its over
forty member cities. We will also strengthen our
already-existing collaboration with networks like
Culture Action Europe, IETM, Soul for Europe, Banlieues
d'Europe and EUNIC España.
How does the city plan to get
involved in or create synergies with
the cultural activities supported
by the European Institutions?
from the Atlantic
to the heart of Europe
«Culture is essential to sustainable development, as has finally
been realised by economists and the more reserved among us,
who now believe in the concept of cultural, creative industries.
That’s why the European Capitals of Culture can contribute to
achieving profound change in society»
Yvona Kreuzmannova
Art Director of Pilžen 2015
At around this time last year, I was
desperately trying to define the con-
cept of European Dimension. That’s
when I met three marvellous women
from San Sebastian. I also discovered
the problems and challenges shared
by the inhabitants of the city with
those of the people living in Pilsen. Al-
though it isn’t all that obvious at first
sight, the two of us share many simi-
larities: we both are medium-sized,
conservative, cross-border cities whose
youngsters migrate to the bigger me-
tropolises. We both suffered totalitar-
ian rule in our recent pasts. Besides,
San Sebastian is a city associated with
the threat of ETA, so ill-fatedly notori-
ous in Europe.
What can a city with these at-
tributes contribute to Europe, and
vice-versa? I would say a great deal, de-
pending on the bid´s proposal. Particu-
larly if they have no fear of shaking off
deep-rooted stereotypes and venture
into new and innovative endeavours.
There is a chance if they have the
courage to stop wasting energy on
political conflict and concentrate on
other factors. I am convinced that
the best investment is human capital.
people, human energy and their crea-
tivity have enormous potential for an
the friendly, open and lively Basque
society.
After years of concentrating on
fulfilling the contents of the Lisbon
Strategy, Europe seems to find itself at
a dead end. As the Czech proverb says,
«Europe is forgetting where the first
violin plays».
It forgets what it is that visitors
from all continents of the world travel
here to admire. It forgets the marvel-
lous cultural roots and traditions
developed in its lively, vibrant con-
temporary art, in all genres; different
from country to country, from region
to region, from city to city, and even
from district to district. It is Europe’s
great privilege.
Culture is essential to sustainable
development, as has finally been
realised by economists and the more
reserved among us, who now believe
in the concept of cultural, creative
industries.
It is obvious that true development
is only possible if there is investment
in culture and creative education.
Culture is a condition sine qua non for
long-term sustainable development.
That’s where I see the attraction of the
European Capitals of Culture. If we
could succeed in making more candi-
date cities undertake profound social
transformation based on culture, they
would become cases worthy of study,
not only in Europe.
They would become a great inspira-
tion that the leaders of the 2020 Strat-
egy would be unable to ignore. In the
reverse sense: What does Europe offer
to all the cities committed to its crea-
tive potential? An enormous variety
of cultural networks in which to find
different examples of good and bad
practices, gain experience and become
involved in international cooperation
projects.
I admit that I am not disconcerted
by today’s European Dimension, but
by how to maintain so many contacts
between all of the genres and sectors.
How to make the partners more moti-
vated and not lose sight of an omni-
present society educated in culture.
This is a challenge that will take years
to meet, both for the cities designated
ECoC and for those that are not. Cities
that trust in the importance of culture.
Iñigo Ibáñez
10 [QUESTION 09 PAGE 22]
1 Souvenirs in a local Chinese
shop.
2 Saharan kid from the local
host family programme.
3 Romanian migrant selling
flowers in the streets .
The city is one of the 10 Spanish cities with over 100,000 in habitants
to have been awarded the «City of Science and Innovation» Award
by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. This Award represents
strong backing «of its important effort and commitment in the field
of R&D&I» given its contribution from the local sphere to «changing
the model of production».

On a European scale, our main commitment for
approaching citizens and involving creators and pro-
fessionals of the cultural sector is the three potent
mobile platforms: a ship, a train and a circus. Travel-
ling ambassadors for dss2016eu, these platforms will
make it possible to spread our project throughout
the European continent, activating networks and
awakening interest in European citizens, attracting
them to San Sebastian.
In order to involve citizens and local agents, for
the last three years we have maintained a process of
participation which has produced our cultural pro-
gramme. A process taking specific shape from 2012
onwards as a series of distinct laboratories focusing
on the development of many social processes; meet-
ing and prototyping; new technologies and an open
code culture; language as a mechanism of cultural
production; the network of cultural parks as spaces
for knowledge and healthy living; and art as a
mechanism for expressing new dreams and internal
thoughts.
Furthermore, we will also launch a mobile office
taking us all over to meet the citizens living in the
territory of our ECoC bid. The entire dss2016eu
project is a balancing act between national and
international impacts.
Indicate how the city intends to ensure
that the programme for the event
attracts the interest of the population
at European level and encourages the
participation of artists, stakeholders
in the socio-cultural scene and the
inhabitants of the city, its surroundings
and the area involved in the programme
groups by sector
→ Financial agents
Public or private, from the companies or
individuals, for the general programme or specific
activities, based on financial agreements and/
or collaboration in kind, offering a variety of
incentives (tax, social, advertising, innovative).
→ Communication agents
Whether they work with the big media groups or
with others, local and specialised (culture, human
rights, geography). From professional journalists
to citizens, while placing particular importance on
social networks and personal communication.
→ Tourist agents
Local, national, European and international. From
sectorial associations and the big tour operators,
to the numerous areas of the hotel and catering
trade, leisure and local tourism. We will work
with these PEOPLE to design a tourist strategy of
improved, more specialised quality with greater
focus on experience and individuals. We will
focus on social and environmental sustainability,
as a tangible and intangible heritage, following
criteria established by the European Commission
since 2007 with its Agenda for Sustainable and
Competitive Development. We will launch all kinds
of offers highlighting regional strong points, the
opportunity to visit the area as European Capital
of Culture 2016 and the different ways of doing
so depending on the time of the year, the activity
programme and personal interests.
→ Agents related to the cultural sector and the
creative industries
Particularly those related to the programmes in
our project: the audiovisual sector, digital and
multimedia technologies, literature and theatre,
visual arts and music.
From a more operational perspective,
DSS2016EU will focus on another
kind of public and other sectors
particularly important for a project
of these characteristics and size
dss2016eu citizens
audiences
The local public is our foundation. We want the
dss2016eu project to extend throughout the city,
to actively involve inhabitants in all districts, in
the entire territory and in places over the bor-
der. Proactive participation from the community
would ensure the success of dss2016eu project
and its cultural activities, most of which are con-
ceived as transformation initiatives, to directly
involve people rather than simply to offer specta-
tor events. We want people to assume the spirit of
the European Capital of Culture 2016 as their own,
to apply it to their everyday lives and to create
their own proposals in order to enrich the whole
project. dss2016eu is not a project for citizens, but
by the citizens.
But we also want to involve people who travel
in search of new experiences, driven by their
interests and hobbies, by their curiosity, by the
desire to learn. people who, by actively enjoying
themselves and participating, learn more about
the place they are visiting: its history, its culture,
its people. We want to be inclusive with visitors,
to offer tourism for everyone, along the same
lines as the European Commission's Calypso social
tourism initiative.
We will particularly endeavour to draw the
attention of the group of people who regularly
travel for reasons half-way between work and
free time, professionals who take «workations»,
attracted by major cultural events or by specific,
specialised activities. This is a characteristic com-
monly found among people dedicated to the world
of culture and the emerging creative class, a large
part of the visiting public we address.
In fact, San Sebastian enjoys a thriving confer-
ence and congress industry thanks to the high-
quality management of this kind of events at the
Kursaal Congress Centre, located in the Zurriola
beach. This facility is perfectly catered for by our
famous hotel and services sector, an ideal comple-
ment for those visiting San Sebastian for work
purposes.
We want people from any point of the territory of our bid,
from Spain, from the rest of Europe or beyond to feel the
project just as the citizens of San Sebastian will do
We intend to involve people who come here looking for new
experiences, and those who visit the city for the purpose of
work, something which is quite normal in the creative field
Orfeon Donostiarra´s
performance with other
choirs of the territory
during the Rompeolas/Olatu
Talka Festibal, in 2010.
9 [QUESTION 10 PAGE 21]
DV

Our programme has clear-cut multidisciplinary
and intergenerational aims. However, many of
our activities target specific publics. The opening
celebration itself, with the Drums of Peace activity
will focus on the joy of children as thousands of
European boys and girls celebrate together the
event in San Sebastian. Specific activities will
address the youngsters: for example, the Kite Fes-
tival, and the Donosti Cup, an enormously popular
annual football championship for children and
youths.
The Feministaldia festival will offer a celebration
of women throughout the city. Also for youngsters,
a key audience, we have programmed specific
activities like Holidays with René, with the focus on
Human Rights.
Immigrants, youths and other specific publics
can also voice their concerns in activities like
Living city or Screening Reality, spaces for debate on
the public arena. Immigrants will also actively
participate in fun activities like Kebab pil-pil style, or
gastronomic celebrations such as Open Societies. The
disabled will have their say, making their needs
visible in activities including Ibilika, a race for all
publics, and GPZK (in)accessible, a multimedia map
of architectural barriers.
Are some parts of the programme
designed for special target
groups (young people, minorities)?
Specify the relevant parts of the
programme planned for the event
local
professionals
and European
experts
Since the beginning, the cultural
agents who operate in the territory
have been working to shape the
cultural activities and produce the
dss2016eu projects. They have lent
their specialised knowledge and
relations networks to making con-
nections and informing people about
our initiative throughout Europe and
the world.
We seek balance between local,
European and international experts
and specialists, between the most
academic knowledge — universities
play an essential role — and the most
applied practices. To guarantee the
success of our project, we will foster
mobility, exchange and inter-rela-
tions between creators and profes-
sionals from wherever. We will also
work to ensure the true acceptance
of our projects in the social and insti-
tutional infrastructure, both locally
and in public and private European
networks.
cultural industry
all publics
The dss2016eu project has been
designed to suit a wide and varied au-
dience of different people and bodies.
We want to involve a variety of pub-
lics, general and specialist audiences,
cultural tourists and immigrants.
We want to attract professionals,
amateurs, spectators and proUsers
(new technology users who gener-
ate and share their own information
in online networks). Our dss2016eu
project places strong emphasis on its
local surroundings without forgetting
its connection with the global world.
That's why the European dimension is
enormously important for our project
to host the European Capital of Cul-
ture in 2016. It’s also why we want to
involve European people and bodies in
our project.
We strive to include intercultural
and intergenerational aspects. The
diversity of youths and the elderly
are an essential part of our commit-
ment to the transformation of society
through culture. We will place special
attention on groups with accessibility
needs, striving to reach people who
are generally reticent about participat-
ing in cultural activities due to various
reasons.
participation
Propose a collective challenge
generating social cohesion and
helping to overcome the violent
expression of conflict and the stigma
left by terrorism on all strata of
society. On the road towards peace
and moral reconstruction, and based
on the essential disappearance of
ETA, we seek civic agreement while
contributing, with our experience, to
improved COEXISTENCE in the rest of
the European continent.
Promote an open source (public
domain) culture produced thanks to
shared learning and knowledge in
our city, the whole territory of our bid
and, by extension, in the European
continent. We want to generate
synergies of active cooperation taking
advantage of those knowledge flows,
optimising resources, pooling efforts
on common projects, fostering public/
private interaction around open
relations and participatory systems of
governance.
Highlight and mobilise vital energy,
creative capacity, business initiative
and the (self)critical spirit of PEOPLE.
Through our DSS2016EU project we
aim to achieve a process of social
and cultural TRANSformation to
accompany the progress of Europe,
where culture is understood to lead
to democracy. Citizens, their ideas
and actions, will form the core of our
project for the European Capital of
Culture in 2016.
We want to ensure that the cultural
agenda naturally overlaps our social
and institutional structure; we also
intend to create content for our
present cultural infrastructures and
for those to be completed in the
coming years; We aim to establish a
unified, regional and cross-border
cultural agenda. We will highlight local
cultural agents and their networks
with a view to fostering connection
with other European and international
networks.
We intend to increase our pro-
European slant and open up more
towards Europe in a project in order
to share challenges and problems.
Furthermore, we want to help find
solutions to these challenges based on
exchanging experiences and pooling
efforts with other PEOPLE, agents
and institutions. All of this without
forgetting other areas on the shores of
the Atlantic Ocean, particularly South
America and Africa.
We want to back research and
diversified, qualified training, setting
us apart in different areas of culture
and the creative economy, placing
particular importance on artists and
the creation of symbolic capital;
we intend to foster the mobility
of European cultural agents; focus
on emerging sectors and social
innovation, without forgetting the
intrinsic potential of the province in
its most deeply rooted sectors, such as
gastronomy and tourism.
1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
cross-cutting objectives
PEOPLE, their ideas and their actions form the core of our European
Capital of Culture 2016 project. We will generate social cohesion, be
more open to Europe, promote the learning of open culture and
ensure that the programme becomes a natural part of our lives
11
Iñigo Ibáñez

Cultural and social agents in the territory have
given shape to our cultural programme and activi-
ties in our project. Two examples of this participa-
tion are the auzolab (laboratories), as a display of
collaboration and involvement with the creation of
our project and Rompeolas, as a showcase of practi-
cal initiatives demonstrating our citizens’ creative
energy. At the foot of this page we list the most
important local agents and networks. Later, with the
description of our cultural programme, we identify
the international agents and networks collaborating
on and forming part of each of the proposals accord-
ing to their field.
dss2016eu is an innovative project: it will make
use of a set of transformative working methodolo-
gies in order to achieve a model change in our social
and cultural system. We propose a project based
on flat organisation and decentralization that aims
to involve both the public and the private sectors
in management systems that favour coexistence
among citizens.
During the development of our project we have
designed new evaluation and communication sys-
tems that favour social impact and relations among
people, institutions, businesses and civil society
organisations.
What contacts has the city established
with: cultural operators in the city?
cultural operators based outside the
city? cultural operators based outside
the country? Name some operators with
whom cooperation is envisaged and
specify the type of exchanges in question.
In what way is the proposed project
innovative?
the history
of our process
INNOVATION
The dss2016eu project is committed to the creativity
of people. That's why our process has involved open
innovation with all sectors of society: judges, chefs, writers,
musicians, artists, historians, scientists, technologists,
anthropologists, hackers, Web 2.0 experts, philosophers…
The dss2016eu bid is committed to a model of
culture that promotes the value of creativity
and believes in the capacity of people, based on
participatory dynamics, to achieve the shared
construction of new models of cultural policies.
We want to act as a social catalyst for a territory
with active people who participate in debates and
build transforming models of culture set around
coexistence between different disciplines, sexes,
origins, religions and political opinions. All in all,
start a social transformation process based on
culture and via participation of all social sectors in
our territory.
Our project started taking shape in autumn
2008 when the first meetings of our participa-
tion process with local citizens took place in the
historical Victoria Eugenia Theatre. Those meet-
ings were also attended by various representa-
tives of several key economic, cultural and social
sectors of local society. In that first stage, we also
consulted several political heads and technicians
from the public institutions participating in the
dss2016eu project to compare their objectives
with our proposals.
The laboratory shaping our dss2016eu project
received ideas from architects, biologists, publi-
cists, communication experts, judges, chefs, writ-
ers, musicians, multidisciplinary artists, historians,
scientists and technologists, anthropologists,
hackers, Web 2.0 experts and philosophers, among
other citizens.
Those encounters formed a process that led in
December 2009 to ten meetings with representa-
tives from all sectors of society. These people subse-
quently sent us reports with their contributions to
the various themes that had been discussed, from
feminism to inter-generational relations, including
the promotion of Basque or of cultural events.
Our bid continued to function around a partici-
patory movement, with the difference that, this
time, the debates, proposals and conclusions were
more detailed. Our aim was to precisely detail the
project content in areas like Basque, innovation,
art, culture, architecture and participation. This
multidisciplinary dialogue also involved a wide
selection of artists and publicists, local cultural
operators, universities, research centres, state-of-
the-art companies, cooperative companies, per-
sonalities, social agents, independent initiatives,
financial entities and representatives of the major
cultural institutions in the territory of our ECoC
2016 bid.
For the second stage of the process of the
project´s development, participation took the
shape of a 2-month laboratory involving joint
work by the local agents responsible for the light-
houses and systems (contributing their knowledge,
programmes and international networks), giving
shape to a completely inter-related cultural pro-
gramme.
In addition to this there were another four par-
ticipation laboratories focussing on more technical
questions regarding the project: the communica-
tion plan, a tourist strategy, an evaluation system
and an organisational and financial model. Lastly,
we held several study sessions on the project
involving various European experts with whom
we have worked throughout the whole process in
order to contrast our proposals.
Until now, over 900 people have worked on
the dss2016lab, either personally or represent-
ing bodies from most sectors of society: schools,
universities, tourism, theatre, music, dance, artists,
representatives of social movements, district asso-
ciations, businesses, youngsters, Erasmus students,
Polish people living in San Sebastian, European ex-
perts, people with disabilities, immigrants, elderly
people, technology centres, cultural management
companies.
In conclusion, a wide selection of people who
have gradually enriched our dss2016eu project and
who will be responsible for its implementation if
San Sebastian is designated to host the European
Capital of Culture in 2016.
For the second stage of
the process, participation
took the shape of a 2-month
laboratory involving joint
work by the local agents
responsible for the lighthouses
and systems giving shape to
a completely inter-related
cultural programme
12/13
Asociación Internacional de Ciudades Educadoras
(AICE) / Red de Ciudades Interculturales /
Alcaldes por la Paz / Club de Estrasburgo / CGLU
/ FAL / OIDP / CIDEU / Urbal / Red mundial de
Ciudades Amigables con la Edad / Red Europea
para la Promoción de la Diversidad Lingüística
/ Conferencia de Ciudades del Arco Atlántico /
ERNACT / Eurocities / Vitalis / Aeneas (programa
IEE) / Iniciativa Civitas / FEMP / Kaleidos Red /
Red de Ciudades por la Bicicleta / Red española
de Ciudades por el Clima / AFCI (Association of
Film Commissioners Internacional) / European
Music School Union (EMU) / EuFCn (European
Film Commision Network) / ORACLE-Network
of European Cultural Managers / Carta Europea
de los Derechos Humanos en la ciudad /
Internacional Congress & Convention Association
/ Asociación Española de Festivales de Música
Clásica / Asociación Europea de Festivales
/ European Cities Marketing / ICCA / Spain
Convention Bureau
the city forms part of
the following networks

In these times of crisis, the event will have a
positive effect in different areas. Regarding the
socioeconomic field, it will effect the drive of crea-
tive people. It will boost the European orientation
and reach of the city’s new socio-cultural facilities,
such as the recently opened San Telmo Museum,
the Basque Culinary Center and the Tabakalera
Centre for Contemporary Culture, to open in 2015.
Moreover, it will involve an urban regenera-
tion process in the surroundings of these facilities
and a boost in the impact from tourism. European
references will help us to reform our great festivals
and cultural events. It will also help us reinvigorate
our local sociocultural system. Local institutions
have foreseen a legacy/declaration, with its own
budget in order to extend the effects of the Euro-
pean Capital of Culture and lengthen the transfor-
mation process during the next decade.
The dss2016eu project is the final result of a long
participation process started in 2009. It has gone all
the way until the right up to of the contents of this
document. The whole process will become structur-
al in our participation laboratories called auzolab.
At the same time the citizen participation has
kept active with events such as the Rompeolas
Festibal.
what would be the medium- and long-
term effects of the event from a social,
cultural and urban point of view?
Do the municipal authorities intend to
make a public declaration of intent
concerning the period following
the year of the event? How was this
application designed and prepared?
open innovation
processes
Open innovation originally emerged from the need
to reduce costs and accelerate innovation process-
es. But it has finally shown that the main advan-
tage of these open models is increased creativity
set around the creation of platforms where ideas
are generated by wider, far more varied collectives
than the few represented by a major university
or the R&D Department at a big company. We are
witnessing how the relation between the world
of culture and its publics has changed, shifting
from exhibition and consumption to participatory
production of contents. The public has become an
active user who participates in producing culture.
Citizen participation is currently at the revitalisa-
tion stage. The public is no longer a passive subject,
but has become an autonomously participating
proactive agent. Sometimes their participation
moves in the same direction as the authorities,
while at other times it clashes with their political
representatives.
creativity
the role of
digital culture
These changes and convergences permit us to iden-
tify the importance of new information and com-
munication technologies, particularly the aspect we
now know as digital culture. More than technology,
the change comes from new practices set around
collaboration processes on distributed networks
and on the values emerging from these practices
and technology. This means we must understand
the digital aspect as something that facilitates and
provokes these processes of transformation. It
reduces the barriers to and the costs of information
exchange and flow, permitting efficient coordina-
tion between groups often not organised into insti-
tutions, or at least into traditional structures. Free
software and the Wikipedia free encyclopaedia are
obvious examples of the ability of digital culture to
produce technologies, information and knowledge.
They also demonstrate the effect that these models
of organisation are causing in tangible worlds and
physical spaces.
collaboration
citizens’ laboratories
Cultural institutions have started to change,
causing production processes to turn completely
inside-out. The process becomes visible; artists
work in collaboration with their peers and with
their former public. The public acts recursively,
given that in their consumption they also create
and return their production to the group.
To address this change, laboratories are cre-
ated which receive very different names, but
which are constituted as spaces for collaborat-
ing on production processes. These laboratories
represent the evolution of production centres
where artists find resources to create, but where
no change is made to the conventional paradigm
of individual and unidirectional creation.
The emergence of these alternative models
and practices arrives at a time when we are
obsessed, largely by public institutions, with the
need for innovation as a motor of driving force
for economic growth, and less often as an essen-
tial factor in development, a more inclusive and
complex concept than that of growth.
In fact, what happens with companies, culture
or even citizens themselves shows us that innova-
tion (which, when it doesn't have an adjective
normally refers solely to business, commercial in-
novation) and social innovation are not independ-
ent or even different concepts. Only an innovative
society will be able to participate actively and
critically in its own political construction and
serve as the platform for an authentically innova-
tive economy.
It is therefore necessary to foster the idea
of citizen laboratories as platforms for facilitat-
ing social innovation. These laboratories would
be, and already are in many cases, small spaces
distributed throughout the whole territory;
hyper-local centres in the sense that they permit
small-scale work within global networks thanks
to digital technology.
These laboratories develop an open pro-
gramme adapted to local interests and needs for
those who contribute with material, intellectual
and organisational resources to the process. We
must therefore define these laboratories as spaces
for collaboration between citizens, cultural
agents, scientists and technologists, and between
both professionals and amateurs. And they will,
in time, become living media libraries where all
of their activity and creations will be constantly
documented, networking to create open knowl-
edge bases.
Juan Freire
Doctor in Marine Biology
University of A Coruña and the EOI, School
of Industrial Organisation, Madrid
«Cultural institutions
have started to change,
and today artists work
with their peers and publics»
«To address this change,
laboratories are constituted
as spaces of collaborative
production»
14/15
Iñigo Ibáñez

coop
Lockers
Tabakalera International Contemporary Cultural Centre, San Sebastian

—27Dss2016eu—waves of energy —27

28—organisation/financing waves of energy—Dss2016eu
Iñigo Ibáñez

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