MANIFESTO

Culture is everywhere. Every week, cities are filled with concerts, exhibitions, festivals, performances and countless artistic initiatives. Looking only at the number of events, it would be easy to conclude that culture is thriving.

Yet this abundance raises another question: if culture is everywhere, why do so many people still feel that it is not for them?

Too often, accessibility is reduced to the price of a ticket. While affordability is essential, we believe it is only one part of the equation. Many people do not participate in cultural life because they do not know where to begin, because they have no one to go with, because they do not recognise themselves in what is being offered, or simply because they never feel that these spaces were created with them in mind.

Culture should not wait for people. Culture should meet people where they are.

For us, this means much more than reducing ticket prices. It means understanding how different communities experience culture today, recognising their practices and creating projects that feel relevant, welcoming and worth participating in.

Geneva already has an exceptional cultural landscape. APECIG was not created because culture is missing. It was created because we believe there is still a gap between what is offered and what many people actually experience. As a youth-led association, we naturally pay close attention to younger generations not because culture should revolve around young people, but because every generation develops its own artistic practices, gathering places and ways of experiencing culture. These deserve to be recognised as culture in their own right.

For many young people, culture does not begin inside a museum. It begins on a dancefloor.

Going to a club, discovering a local DJ, listening to an experimental live set or simply spending a night dancing with friends are all cultural experiences. They shape identities, introduce audiences to artists and create communities just as much as more traditional cultural institutions do. Over time, however, many of these spaces have gradually become commercial environments where success is measured primarily through sales and consumption. We believe they can be something more. A club night can also be a cultural event: a place where artists are discovered, ideas circulate, communities grow and creativity is shared. These spaces deserve to be recognised, supported and developed with the same care and ambition as any other cultural initiative.

The same reflection applies to the way cultural resources are used. Every cultural project requires funding, venues, equipment, technicians, volunteers and time. These resources are limited. Because they are limited, we believe they should be used where they can create the greatest cultural impact.

Too often, success is measured by the number of events produced rather than by their relevance. We believe the opposite.

A project should not exist simply because funding is available or because a venue happens to be free. It should exist because it answers a real need, reaches the people it was created for and offers an experience that genuinely matters.

Our ambition is simple: to do more with less.

Not by lowering artistic standards, but by questioning every decision we make. By simplifying where possible. By remaining independent. By investing resources where they create the greatest value rather than the greatest volume of activity.

For us, relevance is one of the greatest responsibilities of cultural production.

This is why APECIG is organised differently. Rather than building a heavy organisational structure, we have chosen to remain flexible, independent and able to adapt quickly. We believe that small teams with a clear vision can often achieve more than large structures burdened by unnecessary complexity.

This does not mean doing less professionally. On the contrary. It means directing as much time, energy and funding as possible towards the experience itself instead of the mechanisms surrounding it. Every decision is guided by the same question: does this create more value for the people taking part?

Our objective is not simply to organise cultural events. It is to build projects that people genuinely want to experience projects that feel necessary because they respond to real expectations rather than assumptions.

There is no formula for that. No institution, organisation or methodology can perfectly predict what people will connect with. It requires listening. It requires curiosity. It requires staying close to emerging artistic practices, to new communities and to the ways culture constantly evolves.

We do not claim to have all the answers. But we believe culture should remain alive, responsive and connected to the people it exists for.

That is why APECIG exists.