Part of this is about us learning something beyond using words. It is not possible to continue to operate externally as if we are experts without us acknowledging the fact that we need to become experts through a certain process of engagement.— Igor Dobricic during the Rotterdam Getogether
The Rotterdam getogether further defined the goals of Almostreal as a project whose main concern is collaboration, how to fund and facilitate collaborations. Not only to fund the collaborations between artists and artistic practices across different geo-social contexts, but also to facilitate collaboration between artists, organisations and individuals in the foundational setting. The main intrest of collaboration between funder and artist is to be able to enable new links and relations between these two spheres so that both may be able to positively influence the other and more generally, for Almostreal as a support project to practice itself the rhetoric of collaboration it proclaims.
It was decided during this getogether that Almostreal is essentially a close-up study of and a means of support for collaboration that looks into the different cultural values, components and concerns involved in different types of collaboration. Almostreal should therefore follow and document each unique instance of collaboration occuring within Almostreal by using the proposed webplatform ALMOSTweb. The living archive of collaborations of both failed and successful collaborations would bring to light the real rather than the assumed upshots of different social and artistic processes that emerge out of cross-cultural collaborations.
As Almostreal comes to an end, these case studies could be shown as practice-based examples which give informative insights. The Rotterdam getogether identified 6 main types of collaboration that form the basis of Almostreal. They are:
Between the projects within each stage
Between the 5 stages
Between ALMOSTREAL and the supported activities
Between different members of ALMOSTREAL
Between ALMOSTREAL and the ECF / Between the ECF and other cultural organisations who fund or advocate policies
Between the ALMOSTREAL and the (arts) community