Editorial

The Co of Conversation, Collaboration, and Community #1

Nele Wynants

The cover of this FORUM+ issue features elements from Night Journey, an artistic research tapestry that depicts traveling mountains in a nocturnal landscape. This work resulted from a collaboration between Berlin-based artists Luis Ortiz and Gabriel Rossell Santillán, and the Bën Za community of Teotitlán del Valle in Oaxaca, Mexico. The Bën Za are known for their masterfully hand-woven tapestries, a craft passed down from generation to generation.

During their extended stay in the community, Ortiz and Rossell Santillán ventured into the mountains with the Cruz family. Their exchanges centred on questions of territoriality and the importance of Picacho as a mountain guardian. Despite their different cultural backgrounds, the artists and weavers shared similar concerns about the loss of connection to the landscape.

The basis for the artwork evolved from a painting in watercolour, vinyl, and ink; and was then transformed into a hand-woven tapestry in the Cruz family studio. Under the direction of the weavers, organic pigments were used according to traditional techniques. The original painting was destroyed during the weaving process – a transformation that embodies the essence of the project: a relational understanding of mountains and the people who are connected to them.

Without detracting from the complexity and richness of Night Journey – a work that is exceedingly layered and explained in detail by the artists later in this issue – we could not have found a more appropriate image for the cover. The tapestry’s creation process, characterized by interaction and the exchange of cultural perspectives, subtly reflects how FORUM+ takes shape: as the result of collaboration, communication, and many hands.

Each contribution to FORUM+ goes through a careful process of dialogue and refinement that incorporates different perspectives. Once authors entrust their first draft to the editorial and advisory board, a conversation about content, structure, and argumentation starts. Sometimes this requires subtle adjustments, such as finetuning the phrasing or clarifying an argument, but sometimes more substantial revisions are needed to further elevate the text. Minor and major imperfections are identified, unclear patterns are refined, and in some cases the author is challenged to explore new motifs. This process exquisitely demonstrates that research – and its dissemination – is essentially a collaborative practice.

We have been doing it this way for ten years now. FORUM+ in its current form will celebrate its tenth anniversary in 2025, making it a special year for our journal. During those ten years, the journal has grown into an internationally recognized peer-reviewed platform for research in the arts. Starting this year, we warmly welcome Falk Hübner as co-editor-in-chief. As a member of the editorial board from the very beginning, he already contributed greatly to the visibility of FORUM+ in the Netherlands, and our network of authors, editors, and readers has continued to grow beyond our national borders. This shared editorship underscores our belief in collaboration and dialogue as a cornerstone of FORUM+.

We are also changing publishers. In recent years, FORUM+ was issued by Amsterdam University Press, a collaboration that gave us broader international visibility, owing in part to our diamond open access status. We would like to thank all contributors: the publisher, the production manager, the freelance copy editors, the communications staff, and the subscription service.

So also starting this year, FORUM+ and Brepols Publishers are joining forces. Besides a strong international positioning, we also want to strengthen the local accessibility of the journal. Open access remains essential to make research in the arts available to the widest possible worldwide audience. At the same time, the paper edition will continue to exist: those who want to read the FORUM+ physically can take out a subscription or purchase individual issues, both online and in specialized bookstores.

Because alongside our advocacy for broad digital distribution, we remain proud of the journal as a tangible object. This material form uniquely captures the arts and the attention to form. We also want to acknowledge the often invisible work done by our indirect collaborators: the designer who makes each article stand out, the printer who guarantees the highest print quality, and the postal worker who brings the journal to our readers’ doorstep.

The editorial office plays an essential role in guiding and connecting all the threads that make up the fabric of FORUM+. This continuous exchange is at the very core of FORUM+: a dynamic network in which researchers, artists, and thinkers interact across the boundaries of artistic disciplines, institutions, languages, and countries. Here, a community emerges that not only documents research in the arts, but actively shapes it – borne through dialogue, critical reflection, and a shared curiosity.

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Nele Wynants

Co-editor-in-chief FORUM+