ARTISTIC CREATIVITY OF MIGRANTS: THE CASE OF SLOVENES IN ERMANY

Abstract

The contribution is a study of the connection between two complex phenomena – creativity and migrations; an empiric case for the paper was Slovenes in Germany. So far, mainly psychologists were interested in creativity. Among them, only Jan Makarovič surpassed the narrow frames of the psychological profession and proceeded with creativity from the aspect of anthropology as the most complex science on human, which attempts to comprise the human being in all their manifestations. Creativity is not something mystical, it does not originate from nothing and is not endless; it is not something that descends from human inwardness and that cannot be satisfactory explained. It is about a sum of personal, environmental, sociological and cultural factors that influence the individuals’ capability of creativity. Migrations can be the external stimulating or hindering factors.
We distinguish various forms of creativity; the author excepted artistic creativity and linked it with migrations. The emphasis is on some influences on artistic creativity in the context of the after-war immigration of Slovenes to Germany where from the end of 50s to the beginning of the 70s of the 20th century and in comparison to other European states, the most Slovenes settled. Yet there were few artistic creators among them and later too, few sprung up among that population.
In the centre of migrations and creativity are above all the individual and the environment. The author linked the both phenomena through freedom, cultural contacts, and mental diseases. In the second part of the contribution, the theory of creativity is dealt with in detail, the so-called theory of the six Ps developed by Makarovič. It comprises Opportunities (Prilike) for creativity, the Individual (Posameznik), the Process (Proces), the Product (Produkt), Acknowledgment (Priznanje) and Motion (Premik) or social changes being the consequences of creativity. This theory is partly applied on the concrete migration situation of Slovenes in Germany. Emphasised are the so-called external influences of migrations on creativity, which exhibit in possibilities and incentives a creator receives from the environment. Possibly even more important in this connection is the so-called internal influence of migrations that demonstrates through the individual and their mental qualities and characteristics on which the process of migrations influences as well. As this is only the beginning of the research, many questions remained unanswered, and even more sprung up. In the future, more attention should be devoted to the individual, being a factor or actor in the migration process.