Advancing Equitable Cultural Cooperation: Highlights from Deconfining’s Year 4 Evaluation Report By Dr Karolina Bieniek

The Deconfining Year 4 Evaluation Report highlights the project’s success in fostering intercontinental cultural cooperation through artistic collaboration, knowledge exchange, and network-building across Europe and Africa. Participants identified lasting partnerships, co-creation processes, and expanded professional networks as some of the project’s most significant achievements. While challenges such as visa restrictions, funding limitations, and geopolitical barriers continue to affect mobility, the report demonstrates that Deconfining has created a strong foundation for future collaboration, contributing to more connected, equitable, and sustainable cultural ecosystems.

Cultural Cooperation between the African Continent and the States of Central and Eastern Europe 

The study explores the relationships between countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the African continent from the perspective of cultural cooperation. The research draws on case studies, interviews with cultural sector stakeholders, policy documents and strategies, as well as an analysis of support structures in individual countries across the region. The result is a mosaic of experiences, strategies, challenges, and opportunities that reveals not only the strengths but also the blind spots of current approaches to cultural exchange beyond the framework of the European Union.

Movements of Translation and Return: Reimagining Artistic Mobility Between Africa and Europe

A powerful new publication emerging from the DECONFINING Project and On the Move is challenging the way we think about cultural mobility, diaspora, identity, and artistic exchange between Africa and Europe. Movements of Translation and Return: Art, Mobility and the Diaspora brings together artists, researchers, cultural workers, and policymakers in an urgent and deeply human conversation about movement, belonging, and power in today’s interconnected world.

Deconfining – talks with project co-creators

As part of the Deconfining Arts, Culture and Policies in Europe and Africa project, Art Transparent conducted a series of interviews with individuals involved in artistic residencies, the development of the exhibition, and the e-publication “Narratives of Closeness and Distance from Central-Eastern Europe and South-Eastern Africa – a Multicontextual Patchwork”.

Bridging the Gaps, connecting the Dots, Deconfining’s Final Conference at Theater der Welt 2026

From Burkina Faso to Lithuania, from Tanzania to Germany, the Deconfining project has spent the past four years building a dynamic and evolving network of artistic collaboration across continents.

On 26–27 June 2026, this journey will reach a significant milestone in Chemnitz, where the Final Conference — Bridging the Gaps. Connecting the Dots. — will take place as part of the renowned Theater der Welt festival.

Deconfining in Dar es Salaam

From 5–19 February 2026, Nafasi Art Space in Dar es Salaam became a vibrant meeting point for artistic exchange as the Art Transparent Foundation from Wrocław presented an exhibition showcasing the outcomes of residencies developed through the DECONFINING project.

Rethinking Cultural Mobility: Lessons from Morocco

A new case study published by Culture Funding Watch, within the framework of the Deconfining project, turns attention to Morocco and its role in shaping new models of artistic mobility across the African continent.

In the Belly of the Whale: On the Fate of Migrants Amid Personal and Collective Tragedies

Written and directed by Marwa Manai, the play unites artists from Tunisia and Croatia in a profound reflection on migration, identity, and belonging.

Shaping Crossroads: building cultural networks across continents

The first phase of Shaping Crossroads began in July with two digital workshops, marking the start of a series of collaborative exchanges between cultural professionals from Africa and Europe.