The artists have found a new form of expression through the ICT medium. Lots of artists and cultural organisations are either creating their own homepages or featuring their creative work on other websites to reach out to people. They are initiating dialogue with other artists, receiving business and gaining popularity and appreciation for their work. This is an exciting trend as it strengthens the understanding for other cultures. The perplexing issue here is – how do artists in developing nations use this medium to showcase their culture with lack of ICT infrastructure and accessibility when compared to the developed nations. Therefore, one might find this kind of drift more prevalent in modern developed nations where ICT has become a part of life. While this kind of issue cannot be addressed overnight, there have been many initiatives in the ‘Northern Hemisphere’ to give voice to these artists from South, promoting their culture and work.

CoordinArte is one such project that highlights the culture of South in developed countries of North and is supported by Swiss Development Agency for Cooperation (SDC). CoordiArte is an information service on the creative work of the artists from Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Arab countries living in Switzerland.

The project was started by “Communication and Development (C&D)” in 1998 to record all the information about the events, list of artists with details and their creative work in one place and publish it in a form of monthly bulletin. In 1999 it took the shape of an Internet platform and all the information was made available through the website www.coordinarte.ch.

Culture and Development (http://www.coordinarte.ch/K+E/frameK+E_e.htm) is a focal organisation in Switzerland that was founded in 1992 with the mission to promote and support art and culture of countries of South, which are fighting catastrophes and poverty. The main task of C&D is to document and promote artists from these areas, who have lived in Switzerland or in nearby countries for a considerable time. This agency primarily facilitates to enable the organisers to fund events, exhibitions, festivals, and workshops in the domain of music, dance, theatre, films, and literature from South. To capture the vast expanse and diversity of Southern culture, C&D launched its documentary project, CoordinateArte.

The website, which is available in three languages, English, French and Dutch, has some interesting sections. The best is the ‘Gallery’ section giving information about a list of artists featuring in the Swiss Culture and Development Documentation office on the visual arts. This list is growing, as they are still in the process of compiling information for more artists those who do not have their own homepage. The website has other very important sections, which gives the latest and an update on work and events of the artists called ‘Agenda’ and ‘Booking’. The Agenda offers the listing of upcoming events on stage, exhibitions and projects or festivals. Similarly, the Booking helps the viewer to find and book artists region wise for their events in different domains of music, dance, theatre and narratives. One can also choose from the catalogue of the names of artists. Another interesting link is ‘Films’ that provide a comprehensive information on films from South.

The website has a repository of very useful links leading the viewer to world cultures, African cultures, Latin American cultures, world music, world theatre, world films, art worlds, promoters and festivals in Switzerland, agencies, artists, partners of Culture and Development and CoordinaArte.

Cultural role of SDC

Swiss Development Agency for Cooperation (SDC) is playing a very important role in promoting intercultural dialogue in Switzerland. It is to promote solidarity with the people of the South and East through contact on an emotional and personal level with their cultures from these parts of the world. By supporting events and organisations, SDC aims to promote the artists from the South providing them a platform for appreciation. It supports programmes under two categories: For film co-production and distribution Every year SDC directly finances the production of 5-6 documentaries aimed at creating awareness of development issues from the South and East. A few examples are, ‘Malaria’, which tells about effects and spread of this disease in developing countries, ‘The Camel, the Marabout and the girl’ documents the daily lives of the Tuaregs of Niger. It promotes distribution of these movies by supporting agencies like Trigon-Film Foundation. It also promotes film festivals like North-South Media festival, Black Movie festival in Geneva, Cinemaafrica in Zurich. Intercultural events and organisations The SDC supports important photo exhibitions and shows facilitating the information and cultural exchange. SDC is partner to festivals like Paleo festival, Afro-Pentecost and also promotes musical events as Estival Lugano. Source: http://www.deza.ch/index.php?navID=740&userhash=17877685&lID=1