Ulysses: A European Odyssey

ended

Ulysses: A European Odyssey (UEO) is a new network of 16 partners co-producing a single performative project of 18 scenes from 2022-2024 across public spaces in 18 European cities - Athens, Trieste, Vilnius, Budapest, Marseille, Paris, Berlin, San Sebastian, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Cluj, Zurich, Groningen, Eleusis, Oulu, Lisbon, Dublin & Derry. UEO is inspired by a European masterpiece, James Joyce's Ulysses (published 1922), in turn inspired by Homer's Odyssey. The project is a multi-disciplinary response, each city engaging with one of the novel's chapters and with social themes identified in each chapter. There is a focus on each event engaging with a public space, inspired by Joyce's belief in public space as a civilising influence. The project is shaped into three Acts and 18 scenes: Act 1 2022 cities 1-6; Act 2 2023 cities 9-15; Act 3 2024 cities 16-18. The project design of pan-European collaboration inspired by a single work of art brings together different sectors - museums, a cultural tourism body, festivals, theatre venues, filmmakers and civic government - across different art-forms - photography, gastronomy, social arts therapy, public art, environmental arts, digital art and the dramatic monologue - with different levels of scale and experience. Each city partner will host a cross-sectoral symposium exploring the relationship between the city and its Arts & Society theme - migration, democracy, mental health, envirnomental pollution, social co-existence, sexual equality and freedom of speech, among others. An exchange between cities of 30 emerging artists will occur. The project will culminate in the publication of a book titled Europe-Ulysses in which 18 innovative writers (one from each city) will write a response to their theme.