Call For Residencies @Tenuta La Favola Noto – Italy

CALL FOR RESIDENCIES @TENUTA LA FAVOLA NOTO – ITALY

BRIDGE ART//CONTEMPORARY VISIONS, a project patronised by the municipality of Noto, issues a single call with the aim of assigning the 2016-2017 artistic residencies, which will take place in Noto – Siracusa, at Tenuta La Favola.

The residencies will take place during the following periods:

– smArt_grounding between October and November 2016

– full(Y)_grounding 9th January – 28th February 2017

Artists and curators are invited to send a contemporary art project in consonance with the topic: RELIANCE/RELIANZA

Open Call: 27th June 2016 – Deadline for applications: 30th September 2016

TOPIC

Reliance (re-binding/re-linking in English; relianza in Italian), is a French term describing a neologism which blends the words alliance and relier. It was conceived by the philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin and defines the state of all the things and of all the beings, which are connected, related to each other in an interdependent relationship. According to the French sociologist, the responsibility of the individual is essential, because he is indissolubly connected to all that surrounds him, starting from the universe until the most little creature on earth. Morin wrote, “On a minuscule lost planet […] destined apparently to convulsions, tempests, earthquakes, life emerged as an inconceivable victory of the reliance virtues. The more we realize that we are lost in the universe […], the more we need to be related to our brothers and sisters in humanity. Every ethical act, every civil action is an act of reliance. Reliance with the other one, reliance with the community, reliance with the humanity and, lastly, integration in the cosmic reliance”. (Edgar Morin, L’ Èthique complexe).

In the generalized crisis of the present, Morin perceives the germ of a possible renewal. The acceptance of the uncertainty must turn into attitudes whose key value is the reliance: “being” interconnected through relationships with one’s interior and, at the same time, with the environment.

RESIDENCIES

Bridge Art residencies will take place in Noto, UNESCO World-Heritage site, at Tenuta La Favola, a zero environmental impact wine-producing holding, which for years has been on the cutting edge of organic production techniques. Residencies will be part of a wider art project aiming to create a hotbed and laboratory of artistic experimentation on the most recent researches of the contemporary, in a site concerned with environmental issues and sustainability in order to create, not just metaphorically, a multicultural platform which turns into a bridge between foreign and Italian realities. The selected artists will be able to meet, explore, contaminate, find one another and become a community, absorbing the influences of the place and fostering a creative path. This path opens and is opened to new considerations, proposals and influences, to exchange and integration, to the continuous and profitable renewal of ideas that can be at the same time an opportunity for growth and human, artistic and economic development .

BRIDGE ART residencies aim to:

promote and incentivize national and international exchanges for artists and curators;
facilitate the contacts of residential artists with the territorial realities (schools, institutes, universities, associations, authorities, etc.) in order to activate cultural contaminations and new opportunities and, at the same time, to open the host communities to the shared knowledge and fruition of contemporary art;
offer a place for work, research and observation;
put into contact artists and curators from different cultural origins, with the aim of increasing the occasions of dialogue and experience exchanges;

LOGISTICS

Residences will take place at Casetta degli Artisti, inside one of the experimental organic fields of Tenuta La Favola, in the southernmost part of Sicily. The Casetta is an ancient rock millstone house (a place for processing the grapes in order to turn them into must), entirely recovered by maintaining the original structure made of stone walls, wooden roofs, Sicilian terracotta floor and walls painted with natural pigments. The structure of about 50 sq. m. consists of a room with a living corner equipped with two single beds and a double bed, a separated kitchen and a toilet. Some work places have been set outside.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR THE SELECTED ARTISTS

Admission criteria

There are not age, nationality, ethnical or religious restrictions.

Due to the lack of space, applications from groups of artists and/or curators over 3-4 members will not be accepted.

The applicants admitted to the residencies will be selected according to the following criteria:

a) Artistic career

b) Valorisation of the multicultural presence in the project

c) Quality of the project proposal

d) Coherence of the project with the topic and the principles of the residence

e) Ability to relate with the local contexts.

Selections

The selection will take into account only those participants who have taken part in the open call.

For the evaluation the quality and originality of the project will be especially took into consideration. The project has to be submitted by a) curators who will indicate the participant artists; b) self-application of artists working both individually or in team, who will indicate the possible curator.

A panel of judges will assess the selected projects. The panel will be made up by the Bridge Art Scientific Committee and Directorate (Lori Adragna – Art critic and Artistic director – and Valeria Valenza – Director).

Bridge Art reserves the opportunity to invite guest artists and curators to take part into meetings, talks, debates and lectures. If necessary – for foreign guests – Bridge Art can write an invitation letter to support the selected residents for obtaining specific funds.

Bridge Art Scientific Committee

Cristina Bertarelli, Coach Consultant (New York), Filadelfio Brogna, Director of the Vendicari Nature Reserve (Siracusa), Lorenzo Canova, historian and art critic, professor and Director of ARATRO (Rome), Martina Cavallarin, independent critic and curator (Milan/Venice), Giorgio De Finis, anthropologist and Director of MAAM (Rome), Laura Falesi, archaeologist and Honorary Member of the Antiquities in the territories of Noto and Siracusa (Noto), Raffaele Schiavo, musician and composer (Siracusa/Canada), Fabio Morreale, naturalist and botanist (Siracusa), Salvatore Cavallo, President of the Mediterranean University Oriental Consortium in Noto CUMO.

Rules for participation

The participation to the selection process is free.

Each applicant has to present the following documents:

Application form duly filled and signed
Photocopy of a valid identity document
A pdf file of around 2 MB and 6 A4 pages – at most – filled out as follows:

A) Text describing the project which the artist intends to realize during the residency period and/or a curatorial text (1/2 pages)

B) Images of the artistic work (1/2 pages)

C) CV and possibly links to a website (2 pages at most)

Applications related to residencies have to be submitted not later than the terms established in the call. The material mentioned above has to be send by email to the address info@bridgeart.com specifying the residence of interest in the object. ALL THE DOCUMENTS HAVE TO BE PRESENTED IN PDF FORMAT

PERIOD

Casetta degli Artisti will be at disposal in variable periods according to the residency:

The short residence smArt_grounding will last from 3 to 7 days. The period will be decided according to the needs and the project.
The residence full(Y)_grounding will last from 9th January to 28th February 2017.

CONTRACTUAL RULES

The residency will lead the artists through expeditions into the vast environmental, cultural, historical and archaeological patrimony of the area of Siracusa and Ragusa, accompanied by researches on field and shared observations. Meetings and confrontation paths between artists and experts of various sectors (archaeologists, curators, journalists, writers, historians, biodiversity experts, local artists, etc.) will be fostered.

A) Guests from the residency full(Y) grounding are granted with:

– Accommodation at Casetta degli Artisti

– Use of car

– € 500.00 per month contribution to cover travel, food, materials and gasoline expenses. In particular cases and after prior notification and acceptance by the Directorate, extra expenses for travels abroad and the production of works will be also refunded

– Outdoor spaces for creative experiences integrated with the natural environment

– Mentoring

– Equipment, facilities and materials of the Tenuta, if expressly authorized

– Wide spreading of the results of the residencies through both printed material and the Internet (web site, social networks and periodicals of the sector).

– Meetings with local realities with the aim of activating new opportunities

– Exhibition/presentation event at the end of the residency

In exchange for this support, the guests of the residency commit to:

– Respecting the rules of the residency and the contractual rules;

– Having a respectful behaviour towards the hosting structure, the environment and the civil cohabitation principles;

– Donating one of the works produced in the Tenuta during the residency period;

– Interacting with local communities through workshops, meetings, conferences and other activities established according to the project and agreed with the Directorate.

Each artist will be required to pay a security deposit amounting to € 200.00 that will be refunded at the end of the residency, in case no damage is reported.

B) Guests from the residency smArt_grounding are granted with:

– Accommodation at Casetta degli Artisti

– Variable contribution to cover travel, food and materials expenses, which will be evaluated from time to time according to the project. In particular cases and after prior notification, evaluation and acceptance by the Directorate, extra expenses for the production of works will be also refunded