In a world of radicalizing polarities, the “urgent change our system needs” has become the new routine from any perspective, a random everyday “urgency”.
Reality has never been an objective term. However, our generation has never before experienced such an illusionary and insecure reality. We are living a reality of misinformation tsunamis, populist armies and mass confusion, with very weak and slow resistance to it, if at all.
Are we able to counteract this new reality in a business-as-usual mode? Is accepting it an option? The clear answer is NO. This reality is a clear mess and we need new attitudes and new strategies in order to change it.
How do we navigate in such a world of chaos to move towards a world of polyphonic voices, where we are aware that there are different needs, challenges and destinies other than ours – a world of empathy? What is truth? Is everything truly relative or there are values and anchors we could relate to and find as a center in times of turbulence? How could we create a diverse reality of many instead of one prevailing narrative? We do not hold the answer, but we believe there are people who hold parts of it.
This we believe, because we all urgently need navigators – people and ideas that serve as compasses, as pilots in a world of fake news, of fears and chaos, to lead us towards peace. We are in need of the work they do, and of the philosophy they share.
In EMPATHEAST 2019 we create space for the untold to be told, experienced, shared. And, for everyone to become a peace navigator in time of chaos and disillusion.
We invite exceptional individuals that are “compasses” towards a more polyphonic world – a world of co-living realities, co-creating and co-shaping a future where humanity lives in peace within and alongside the outer world. The experience should change the idea of radicalization – we need a radical good. Radical transparency. A radical stance behind the values that are threatened. Radical art. Radical love.
EMPATHEAST 2019 will take place in the period 1st-3rd November 2019 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It is part of the artistic programme of Plovdiv European Capital of Culture 2019.