Summary of the project:
The “Centrality of peripheries” will attempt to analyse the artistic forms and cultural manifestations that have emerged in city outskirts in order to understand how they have redefined the relationship between the city centre and its peripheral areas. The final goal of this proposal is to determine how these new forms of art have contributed to create a new cultural panorama in modern European cities, and even new forms of social cohesion.
This phenomenon will be observed from a double perspective:
1.     Theoretical analysis of its social, political and economic aspects.
2.     Experiential approach to peripheral cultural movements and artists in order to gain a direct knowledge of their work and calibrate their influence on mainstream culture and urban policies. The project will mainly focus on MUSIC.

Project aims and activities:
The project of the Círculo de Bellas Artes (CBA) attempts to open a debate about this issue that deals with the different aspects of these peripheral realities.
First, this project will try to analyse this phenomenon from an academic perspective in seminars, symposia and meetings. These activities will aim at revealing the effects that the implementation of certain urban policies has had on the outskirts of a number of cities and on its inhabitants. This will lead to an exchange of experiences at a European level in order to identify successful strategies that can serve a model for the future.
Secondly, we would like to trace and reveal the cultural manifestations that are emerging in the peripheries and the way they are being used by the “centre”: by the music industry, by television and other media, by cultural institutions… This will be done through a combination of activities including academic meetings and cultural activities such as concerts, DJ sessions, film screenings, debates and exhibitions, among others. The final goal of this project is to detect new channels of communication between the centre and the periphery that has been opened by the positive effect of these new subcultures.

Contact details:
Manuel J. Angulo
Círculo de Bellas Artes
C/ Alcalá, 42
28014 MADRID
E: angulomj@gmail.com
W: http://www.circulobellasartes.com/