MAGIC CARPETS

CREATIVE EUROPE / PLATFORM / call for partnership 

Idea and invitation:

This invitation calls to create a platform of organisations to boost the skills and visibility of emerging European artists in visual / public art scene. When collaborating with local artists and communities, resident artists create new works related to current issues of global nomadism, displacement and encountering otherness.  Legends, mythologies, tales, superstitions, and current stories of the city where artist(s) arrives and city which he/she leaves could become a unifying line of the whole project.

Partners are expected to have resources to:

– host arriving artists;

– ensure the creative climate for new productions based on research of local context and collaboration with local artists and communities;

– boost visibility of guest artists and his/her international career, possibly including their projects into bigger events your organisation runs regularly;

– contribute to the content of communication and dissemination of the project internationally.

Problematics:

City as a case study / connecting city of departure and city of arrival / acting in public / intervening the public zones / creating situations to interact and interface / reaching new audiences / using co-creative methods / creating platform for emerging artists to work in socially engaged and responsible art field.

Methods:

Co-creation / inclusion of resident and local artists and experts (inhabitants of certain area of the city) in creation of new artworks and actions / research on local history, stories, legends, public spaces and memories / integration and disclose of common European consciousness and topics / active and passive interventions into public space / discuss and act in public.

Actions:

Public art, community art, exhibitions, performances, online art, etc.

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The title and concept is conceived by Benedetta Carpi De Resmini (Rome / Italy)

MAGIC CARPETS (full concept)
Concept:
Travel is one of the ways that humans have established over time to relate to different civilisations, giving us important clues to the fundamental characteristics of mankind in interacting with its environment. Journey belongs to our traditions, it depicts that open and fascinating concept that is linked to our popular traditions, to the paths of fairy tales, to the archetypes that bring us to a constant longing for the unknown.

The title Magic Carpets refers to stories that lead us to another place and to a long nomadic tradition that expands geographically. The magic, or flying, carpet brings to mind the Arab world in the fairy tales of The 1001 Arabian Nights. The epic world of the Arabian Nights sounds like a metaphor of the current reality in Europe. This book in fact includes a great variety of tales covering fables, poems which open the possibility of alternative readings and a more complex one that involves a sort of representation of the outside world. Folk tales, in all of Europe, form a true network of connections and the same or similar characters can be found in many places. These old stories have become, therefore, the base for many others. Therefore, starting from the pattern of a carpet, each partner will enhance this idea of travelling from one city to another through the figurative writing of a common tale that will be written by each participant, by exchanging ideas.
Artists and experts are invited to create metaphorically and then physically a common place for everyone where stories, legends, symbols, artworks, and ideas can be shared.  

 

Invited partner organisations: 

Kaunas Biennial / Kaunas / Lithuania
Latitudo Srl & Qwatz  platform for contemporary art /  Rome / Italy
Le Magasin Contemporary Art Centre / Grenoble / France
Industrial Art / Wroclaw / Poland
New Theatre Institute of Latvia / Riga / Latvia
Prague Biennale / Prague / Czeck Republic
META Cultural Foundation: The Biennial of Young Artists / Bucharest / Romania
EVA International: Ireland’s Biennial Festival of Contemporary Art / Limerick / Ireland
Centre of Contemporary Art-Tbilisi: Tbilisi Triennial / Georgia
KUNSTrePUBLIC e.V. / Berlin / Germany
Ideias Emergentes: CONTEXTILE biennial / Porto / Portugal
LAB852 / Zagreb / Croatia
Folkestone Fringe / Folkestone / UK
Art Cube Artists Studios / Jerusalem/ IL

Partners are preapring an appication to Creative Europe, PLATFORM category. More about objectives and priorities of the programme…  

If your organisation would be interested to become a partner in this project, please contact us at info@kaunas.biennial.lt