Cultural support platforms in times of crisis

15-17 October
Silandro, Italy

RECOVERY,

Coorganised with:
With the support of:

Photo and Video galleries

DAY.1

DAY.2

DAY.3

Photo and Video galleries

DAY.1

Porto Innovation Hub
& UPTEC Baixa

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Video gallery

DAY.2

Palácio dos
Correios

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Video gallery

DAY.3

UPTEC Baixa &
Dinamo10 Creative Hub

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Video gallery
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ECHN HUBs Meetup

Cultural support platforms in times of crisis

Recovery - Resilience - Resistance

15-17 October 2025
Silandro, Italy

This year ECHN HUBs Meetup is organised by the European Creative Hubs Network with the support of BASIS Vinschgau Venosta, our hosting hub in Silandro.

Today, cultural and creative structures, especially creative hubs, are navigating a rapidly shifting and increasingly fragile landscape. These spaces, long marked by precarity, are now confronting a convergence of internal pressures and external disruptions: rising real estate costs, tenuous relationships with public authorities, policy ambiguity, and the broader consequences of global crises such as the pandemic, war, and sociopolitical instability. These challenges not only threaten the operational continuity of hubs but also undermine their role as essential infrastructures for civic life, artistic experimentation, and local resilience.

In this context, creative hubs must reimagine how they operate. The triple lens of Recovery, Resilience, and Resistance offers a framework for transformative action. Recovery speaks to the urgent need to restore disrupted practices and rebuild cultural ecosystems. Resilience demands the development of long-term strategies and capacities to withstand future shocks. Resistance highlights the importance of advocacy, solidarity, and the assertion of cultural value in the face of marginalisation and displacement.

To move forward, hubs must shift positionalities, form new coalitions, and build capacities for collective action. Through cross-sectoral partnerships, institutional negotiation, and community-rooted advocacy, they can reposition themselves not just as cultural actors, but as vital agents in shaping urban, social, and economic futures.

A central theme of the conference is how cultural and hybrid creative spaces can be developed and secured within speculative or volatile environments. Drawing from the experience of BASIS and other international cases, we will explore how uncertainty and instability, rather than being purely obstructive, can be reimagined as catalysts for innovation, experimentation, and social change.

This gathering also asks: how do we cultivate agility and adaptability as sustainable strategies? What tools and capacities are needed to engage with public authorities and private stakeholders? How can international networks reinforce local voices in policy discussions and ensure access to cultural infrastructure in contested urban environments?

By addressing these questions, Recovery, Resilience, and Resistance aims to generate practical insights, build solidarity, and offer a renewed sense of shared purpose. The event serves as a strong expression of international support for BASIS and similar initiatives, spaces that actively reframe historic spaces, highlighting the importance of securing cultural spaces and recognising their role as engines of creativity, inclusion, and democratic renewal.

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Register

for in-person participation in the BAU TOPIA 4
day 1
day 2
DAY 3

Agenda

The program is in local time zone (CET)

ECHN HUBs Meetup DAY 1
Wednesday, 15 October 2025

MORNING

AFTERNOON

Location: BASIS Vinschgau Venosta 

Kortscher Straße 97 – ex. Drusus-Kaserne, Via Corzes, 97, 39028 Silandro BZ, Italy

17:00
Registration
18:00-18:30
Welcome Words

Hannes Götsch | BASIS Founder & CVO
Christine Kaaserer | Mayor of Silandro/Schlanders
Philipp Achammer | Provincial Councilor for Culture, Innovation, Education, Youth
Vassilis Charalampidis | ECHN President of the Board 

18:30-19:00
Kick-off Speech
Placing Culture at the Heart of Rural Development

How local authorities can act as facilitators of cultural innovation and resilience. By giving space and voice to artists and cultural professionals, the municipality has turned culture into a driver of revitalization and sustainable rural futures.

Miguel Ángel Herrera Gutiérrez | Mayor of Genalguacil and Head of the project Genalguacil Pueblo Museo

19:00-19:30
Inspirational Speech 

A sustainable future for the community – A community for a sustainable future

The motivation behind da – cooperative lies in the common endeavour to shape a sustainable future for the Upper Vinschgau region. Peripheral rural areas are at a disadvantage compared to the centres in today’s social development. For this reason, this is why da is taking a different direction. Not to continue developing efficiency, competition and consumption strategies, but to build on resilience, cooperation and diversity.

Michael Hofer | CEO  da – Citizens’ cooperative of the Upper Vinschgau

19:30-21:00
Welcome Aperitivo & Speed Networking

*Cin-Cin* & Catch Up

Ignácio Marquez | Rural Hackers

ECHN HUBs Meetup DAY 2

Thursday, 16 October 2025

MORNING

Location: BASIS Vinschgau Venosta 

 

Kortscher Straße 97 – ex. Drusus-Kaserne, Via Corzes, 97, 39028 Silandro BZ, Italy

 

09:00-9:30
Welcome coffee & Registration
9:30-10:30
Walking Tour
Permanent Temporary – Touring BASIS

10 years ago, the vision of BASIS was born – a former fascist barracks transformed into a hub for creativity, urban development, circularity, and social growth.
In the heart of a community, for a community, a “non-place” became a playground for experimentation and self-realization. Together we explore the grounds of BASIS and shed light on why, in a society and situation that are constantly changing, temporary solutions can become a permanent strategy.

 
10:30-10:45
Inspirational Keynote 
Dealing with controversies. A simple model to navigate polarisation.

As civic space shrinks and polarisation deepens, creative directors, programme managers, and curators find themselves navigating controversies and public outcry in an increasingly turbulent world. The challenge becomes even sharper when balancing the expectations of private sponsors and public funders.

In The Hague, Gerrit Jan, director of a public-private cultural partnership offers a fresh model that strengthens the resilience of cultural institutions. Instead of shying away from controversy, his approach embraces it as an opportunity to build trust, foster dialogue, and sustain partnerships in uncertain times.

Gerrit Jan van ‘t Veen | Managing Director Popdistrict Den Haag

10:45-11:15
Moved by Culture – Presentation of Mobility Schemes
Launch of the Culture Moves Europe Program

Ekaterina Pelevina | Project Assistant at Culture Moves Europe, Goethe-Institut Brussels

Ambassadors of Good Practice in Non-Urban Areas 

A peer-learning programme that brings together host organisations and visiting stakeholders to share exemplary practices in revitalising non-urban and peripheral regions. Together, they explore, co-create, and exchange ideas to harness culture for regeneration, inclusion and sustainable development.

Charlotte Jerie | Project Manager of Creative FLIP 

11:30-12:15
Reactivating Spaces
FutureDiverCities: 4 years of creative experimentation in urban regeneration

Future DiverCities explores how culture can drive the ecological regeneration of unused urban spaces. Over four years and eight city pilots, the project has tested new forms of cultural and civic engagement. This session shares key methods, challenges, and learnings from this collective experiment in sustainable urban transformation.

Elisabeth Bechara | Friche la Belle de Mai

The Vienna Club Commission

The Vienna Club Commission (VCC) and the City of Vienna are launching an innovative project with Free Spaces 2025 on the Danube Island, promoting consumption-free club culture in public space. These spaces are also explicitly of a club-cultural nature, creating room for cultural expression beyond commercial constraints.

David Prieth | Project Manager for Free Spaces Vienna Project

Stilfs – A Narrative about Resilience

The project “Stelvio – A Narrative about Resilience” is a development initiative by the Municipality of Stelvio within Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan.It aims to strengthen the mountain village- affected by structural change and depopulation – on social, cultural, ecological, and economic levels. It includes around 25 measures across the fields of culture and community, agriculture and landscape, housing, crafts, tourism, mobility, and infrastructure. These combine material investments like building renovations and new mobility with immaterial initiatives such as a dispersed museum, artist residencies, festivals, and craft promotion. Guided by a participatory approach, the project envisions Stelvio as a resilient, creative community rooted in its history and landscape.

Daria Habicher | Socio Economist & Co-Founder of LIA Collective

12:15-13:30
Breakout Sessions

Auf gute Nachbarschaft! Is a local expression to signal mutual help to the neighbourhood, to help and support each other.

In the scope of this Hubs Meetup topic, we want to highlight the case studies of the ECHN members, using the individual stories to inspire each other and reminding ourselves of the importance of our neighbours and communities.

13:30-14:30
Lunch

AFTERNOON

14:30-17:30
Hands on Workshopping – Recovery

Activity #1

Printing Activism

Analogue Printing Workshop for Activists

How can analogue printing become a tool for political expression? In this workshop, we’ll experiment with hands-on techniques and collaboratively create materials for creative activism. We’ll explore a variety of printing and design methods to make political messages visible. Using manual printing and the RISO MZ770, participants will produce both individual and collective works designed to impact public spaces.

Activity #2

Fermenting Recovery
An exploration of regenerative practices inspired by sourdough bread baking.

Working in creative initiatives can be rewarding yet demanding. Without recovery practices, we risk burnout and disconnection. What supports wellbeing in creative hubs? What can sourdough teach us about sustainable engagement?

Together, we’ll explore recovery through the metaphor and practice of sourdough baking.

Activity #3

Waterflow- energizing panoramic nature path

We flow and recover in nature, along the historic Waalwege. Discover the ancient cultivation terraces of Schlanders Sonnenberg on a guided Waalweg Panorama Tour. Waalwege are historic, traditional irrigation channels that originated in the Vinschgau Valley and are part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Tour guided by Hannes Götsch.
BASIS founder and Chief Visionary Officer Hannes was born and raised at Silandro. He knows the area like the back of his hand and has many stories and anecdotes to share.

18:00-19:30
Marend

Chest-Nuts frying and Snacks at the Garden

22:00-3:00
ECHN Cosmic Clubbing – at KASINO

Open Deckz 22:00–00:00
MANAMI (UK) 00:00–01:00
MAIA B2B REMO’O (IT) 01:00–03:00

ECHN HUBs Meetup DAY 3

Friday, 17 October 2025

MORNING

Location: BASIS Vinschgau Venosta 

Drusus-Kaserne/Caserma Druso
Kortscher Straße 97/Via Corzes 97
39028 Schlanders/Silandro

Side Event
10:00-10:30
Morning Coffee & Registration
10:30-12:30
ECHN General Assembly

(ECHN members only)

&

Open Space Networking
12:30 – 14:30
Lunch

AFTERNOON

20:00
Concert
Gaza Live | Ësenaim // Fundraising Doctors Without Borders

Ësenaim. is a South Tyrolean–French duo that grew out of many years of humanitarian work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). During missions across the world – from Haiti to South Sudan – Sarah Guefif and Michael Casera began recording sounds, voices, and texts to preserve experiences that words alone could hardly carry.
Their artistic approach is conceived as an act of testimony: a way to transform memory into sound, and to give voice to what risks being forgotten.
After two EPs (Prologue and Gaza feat. Mohammed Moussa), their debut album Talk About will be released on 17 October 2025 on the Danish label Petite Victory Collective.
A work that blends electronic music, poetry, and field recordings into an intense, emotional journey – toward people, places, and stories too often unheard.
The album release event will take place at BASIS Vinschgau Venosta. It marks the start of the duo’s European tour and will be held in support of Médecins Sans Frontières, in collaboration with MSF Italy.
The evening will bring together live music, audiovisual elements, and space for encounter – between listening, storytelling, dancing, and pausing.

 

Keynote speaker:

text text text.

Special event | Visit to Lottozero in Prato

photo credit: Lottozero 

 

Timișoara: European Capital of Culture

Timișoara – Creative Hubs in the 2023 European Capital of Culture

Timișoara, as the European capital of culture for the year 2023, places the focus on strengthening the sense of community in the city. Boosting the confidence of its citizens to  actively participate in the cultural production of their local communities is among the main objectives of the ECC institution this year. In this regard, Timisoara’s vibrant community of creative hubs leads the way into a common creative future. 

 

 

Organisers

BASIS Vinschgau Venosta, located in the repurposed Drusus barracks in Silandro, South Tyrol, is a dynamic hub for social innovation and creativity. Founded to transform a historically significant site into a community-centered space, BASIS combines business, education, culture, and social engagement. Its mission is to foster sustainable regional development by empowering individuals and groups to actively shape their local environment. A key feature of BASIS is its focus on inclusivity and collaboration. By fostering cross-generational and cross-sectoral exchanges, the hub builds bridges between diverse perspectives, creating fertile ground for innovation. BASIS revitalizes the region by blending tradition with modernity, offering a platform for education, experimentation, and sustainable development. A constructive climate provides the courage to experiment, strengthens individual responsibility and allows dynamic and resilient growth. 

https://basis.space/en/

The European Creative Hubs Network is a peer-led network with a mission to enhance the creative, economic and social impact of hubs around Europe and neighbouring countries. As focal points for creative professionals and businesses, hubs offer the most effective way to support the growth and development of cultural and creative industries. The European Creative Hubs Network Project activated a program coordinated by ECHN for the members of its network. This project has been funded since 2021 by Creative Europe, as one of the European networks supporting the cultural and creative sector.

ECHN

The program aims at empowering creative hubs as main focal points for creative professionals and businesses. The central fronts of action include mobility opportunities for hub managers and community members, learning exchanges and workshops, advocacy at local and European level and academic research to highlight the role of creative hubs within the cultural and creative industries.

www.creativehubs.net

With the support of

Speakers

Hannes Götsch

BASIS Founder & CVO

Christine Kaaserer

Mayor of Silandro/Schlanders

Philipp Achammer

Provincial Councilor for Culture, Innovation, Education, Youth

Miguel Ángel Herrera Gutiérrez

Mayor of Genalguacil and Head of the project Genalguacil Pueblo Museo

Ignácio Marquez

Rural Hackers

Michael Hofer

CEO da – Citizens’ cooperative of the Upper Vinschgau

Gerrit Jan van ‘t Veen

Managing Director Popdistrict Den Haag

Ekaterina Pelevina

Project Assistant at Culture Moves Europe, Goethe-Institut Brussels

Charlotte Jerie

Creative FLIP

Elisabeth Bechara

Friche la Belle de Mai

David Prieth

Project Manager for Free Spaces Vienna Project

Daria Habicher

Socio-economist & Project manager

European Creative Hubs Network /
Pireos 84, 104 35 Athens Greece /
+30 210 3425335 /
info@creativehubs.net