'!' MULTICHANNEL @ 'TODAYSART' - FESTIVAL (THE HAGUE, NL)

Welcome to TodaysArt 2010, the 6th edition of the festival that has, since its inception, been focused on amplifying new and mapping out barely existent forms of – and transdisciplinary relations between – art, music and technology.
Following the successes and dramas (expected and otherwise) of 2009’s festival, CONFLICT, TodaysArt has spent the year reflecting and agitating for new questions. Our engagement with ideas of conflict in The Hague had unexpected repercussions, including clashes with the council, which served to highlight to us the necessity of ongoing considerations about the role of the arts in society today.

We are proud to present this year’s programme as a stimulus for discussion, a catalyst for more engaged, committed experiences of The Hague as a ‘real city’. We are honoured to welcome visitors, artists, contributors, partners and guests into the TodaysArt 2010 sphere.

LOVE THE REAL CITY
‘Love the Real City’ implies that there is a city that is not real. The ‘unreal’ city could be the abstract, administrative view of the city or The Hague’s bid to become Cultural Capital 2018. City developments that have more aspiration than facilitative function. A process that doesn’t take existing social-cultural structures into account. So what is the real city? Experiences, participation, engagement, daily
routines, a festival like Todays-Art?
At the logistic heart of Todays-Art 2010 is the Spuiplein. Here, at the centre of The Hague, the programme is focused on art in public space and the city experience with the Amplified Architecture programme, surrounded by the
ambitions and established 
façades of existing structures in the square.
This year, together with many other cultural organizations, TodaysArt highlighted the waste and misuse of cultural spaces through one of the last legal squat actions in the Netherlands at the Asta theatre. By infiltrating a city space in this way, and through this year’s festival, we hope to have an impact on the cultural understanding of the city at all levels.

For this edition we bring together widely varied perspectives from over 150 artists and artist groups; a clamour of different voices that address issues connected with what we want our city to be.

TodaysArt, September 2010