About The Arts of Hospitality

In 2008 Stavanger, Norway, is to be a European Cultural Capital, using theme Open Port.
Sølvberget, the cultural centre and main library of Stavanger, is participating with an extensive project titled The Art of Hospitality; which will focus on and discuss the concept of hospitality, the possibility of intercultural dialogue, and the productivity of cultural encounters that use and promote the arts and literature as an essential means to close the gaps between peoples and cultures.
The Arts of Hospitality aims to challenge our understanding of hospitality and our application and use of this understanding as individuals, as communities, and as people divided by political borders, but bound by the realities we share as inhabitants of an increasingly globalized world.
Writer in Residence
During 2008 The Art of Hospitality, in close collaboration with the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) will focus on, and invite writers living in refuge in a project called Writer in Residence.

The aim of the project is to enhance the awareness around the relationship between host and guest, and the exile experience.

This initiative will include ten guest writers. Over the course of the year 2008 each will be invited to Stavanger for a week. Each writer will visit schools in the community, educating and providing inspiration for interdisciplinary school-projects. Learning about each writers homeland, production, situation and experiences, we aim to create a dialogue that we hope will prove rewarding for both the pupils and writer.

At the end the week the writer will meet a greater public when taking part in readings, discussions and other literary events.
Open Week (16-21 May, 2008)
Open Week includes a festival and a seminar focusing on freedom of speech. Taking place around the Norwegian national holiday, the 17th May, it will include participants from the International Cities of Refuge Network’s 2008 General Assembly. Open Week will combine a celebration of, and a debate around, the concept of Freedom of Speech.

The festival will provide an arena for artistic display and give voice to local, national and international artists who normally wouldn’t have the privilege of media interest nor the attention of the general public.

Our Freedom of Speech seminar will include not only City of Refuge administrators, but also their guest writers, PEN members, politicians, and international organisations working for freedom of speech. Stavanger is known for its dedication to these issues, and Open Week will further this work—focusing on, and giving a status report from the front lines in the fight for freedom of speech.
The Condition of Hospitality: The Philosophy and Politics of Hospitality, a Symposium (9-10 September 2008).
At the first City of Refuge Congress in Strasbourg 1996, Jacques Derrida asked how the ethical demand for a borderless, unconditional hospitality could be translated into a specific political or juridical practice. This is where we have taken our cue. We invite to The Condition of Hospitality, a broad political-philosophical seminar we hope will further explore Derrida’s reflections on the ethical, legal, and political implications of hospitality.

How is hospitality defined and practiced? Where does hospitality meet, merge or clash with modern immigration issues? Is hospitality a form of “othering”, or a method of welcoming immigrants while preserving a unique culture? What are the ethical issues regarding hospitality?

Preparing for the symposium in 2008, we are cooperating with Norway’s leading scholarly and literary journal Samtiden, which will be publishing contributors’ papers and other articles related to this project.