In recent years, participatory art practices and immersive projects have boomed while inclusion became a central topic to our sector and societies. In parallel, artistic practices have gained more and more attention through their political aspects, being part of demonstrations and movements without leaders and activating citizenship. Where do the two dynamics meet? What does it mean to include the public in a participatory way, giving them an active role, and when does that become a political act? What difficulties do we encounter in our experiences of creating or taking part in a participatory performance? What mistakes have we made and what can we learn from them?

In this fishbowl conversation, the IETM immersive creation group invited our members to listen to and share arguments and examples, in particular difficulties and failures, of participatory, inclusive and politically engaged processes of creation.

Moderator: Matteo Lanfranchi, Effetto Larsen, Italy.

Image in banner: ©️ James Kemp