Blurring Ethnic and Cultural Boundaries: Narratives of Migrantised Artists and Producers in the Cultural Scene in Flanders (Belgium)

This paper studies how artists and cultural producers with a migration history inherently feel they belong to the Flemish artistic and cultural scene. These artists continue to shape this scene while navigating existing ethnic and cultural boundaries. A postmigrant analysis of 15 interviews conducted in Flanders was used to move beyond research on people with a migration history as mere subjects of study. Instead, we wanted to focus on migrant subjects as producers and innovative creators of culture and arts. In doing so, we found that migration and migration-related consequences form a significant influence in their cultural productions and creation process. Using this lens helps to reframe one-dimensional notions of migrant identity, culture and belonging, and to make space for a plurality of voices and experiences of artists and cultural producers that go beyond simply belonging or not to the cultural and artistic field. The paper centralises the agency and situated lived experiences of artists and cultural producers with a ‘migration’ background, while scrutinising the plurality of their voices. Our analyses demonstrate how participants emphasise the journey, where art is considered a continuously changing process of identity formation, empowerment and/or resistance, instead of a conventional trajectory towards a specific goal.