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TRANSVERSAL AESTHETICS / SILENCED ~ REACTIVATED
Idensitat + Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana 2023 - 2024

Transversal Aesthetics is an Idensitat project taking place in a number of Spanish locations, and  within the Valencian Region, thanks to the collaboration of the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana. Transversal Aesthetics aims to realise projects involving research, mediation and artistic production connecting themes with local contexts, and so activating a variety of social spaces through the transversality of artistic practices. There have been three previous editions since 2018, each dealing with a specific theme (Ecosystems of leisure, Ecosystems of Fiction and Community~Immunity), all of which used a methodology based upon connections between individuals  such as artists, agents involved in other social activities, and agents working in the cultural, educational or institutional fields. Transversal Aesthetics made use of a variety of formats, seeking new ways of understanding production based upon residencies in local contexts. For this fourth edition, working processes will be developed around the concepts of silenced ~ reactivated.

Open Call for Submissions from 09.06.2023 to 09.07.2023

THEME: SILENCED ~ REACTIVATED
While the concept of the silenced refers to a condition of invisibility, disconnection, isolation, the concept of the reactivated leads us to the beginning of a new vitality that happens after a process of interruption, disconnection or lethargy.  When we relate these circumstantial conditions to certain spaces, we may argue that there is a process of transience or temporality that defines the very vitality of spaces, which pass from one state to another through intermittent cycles, sometimes redundant and sometimes random. No place can be both silenced and reactivated. Silence is also recollection, introspection, reflection, while activation may be understood as the impossibility of stopping, of growing, of doing, of disconnecting, of not intervening. When silence is due to imposition, the need for reactivation becomes immediately apparent, in the same way that when a state is established in which it is impossible to escape over-activation, the desire for seclusion, for silence, arises, understood in this case as an activist positioning, or a transformative stance. Both silence and reactivation are states which can, and which usually do, combine, and it is in this constant flux that the possibilities either of inhabiting spaces differently, or of experiencing the rhythms of motion between silence and reactivation, become apparent. We define this in-between place with the symbol ~, as something which stands between two stages which from the start are posited on the basis of a certain incompatibility, as well as a clear interdependence.

Following in this direction, we are interested in examining the transition between a silenced space and its reactivation, and the role that art can play in this fragile change of structure. A movement ~ which, although sometimes perceived as simple or even subtle, contains a great capacity to 'reactivate' a space, a social context, or a renewed attitude in relation to the uses made of the spaces, or the activities which take place in them.  We consider that in this transition, artistic practice may act as a catalyst and an accelerator for the transformation between these two conditions, crystallising and causing the appearance of an intermediate space, moving between one state and another, and generating a variation which in many cases is ephemeral and even momentary, but which is capable of modifying, of questioning, or of making rigid structures flexible.

In this new edition of Transversal Aesthetics in the Valencian Region, the idea embodied by the symbol ~ is deployed in three different contexts, places or spaces in a transitional phase between the silenced and the reactivated. Based upon this approach, the programme which we offer is located in the interstice between these two states; activating with the ~ a series of research-based, creative and/or mediational practices capable of stimulating, producing or evidencing a movement or transition from the silenced to the reactivated, and even vice versa.

METHODOLOGY AND LOCAL CONTEXTS
Working in accordance with the above plan, the three cities which will define the working contexts related to the theme are: Alicante, in association with the Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras; Benicarló, in  association with the MUCBE (Museu de la Ciutat de Benicarló); and Valencia, with the support of the CCCC (Centre del Carme de Cultura Contemporània). In each of the above-mentioned locations, spaces for collaboration with other social environments will be opened up via three different contextualised artistic practices.

The projects will be selected on the basis of a public open call for submissions which will focus upon identifying environments, with the aim of establishing an artistic practice oriented towards conceiving (and bringing about) reactivation or silencing,  while opening up a space for debate and critical reflection around the ideas behind these concepts. 

Artists participating in the three cities must share methodologies, and a sensitivity to issues raised by the proposed theme; issues such as the recovery of voices, the urban imaginary,  working in a neighbourhood or urban context,  the social or educational environments, and in general, the thematic and methodological framework described in the proposal. 

Idensitat  will act as mediator, coordinator and co-promoter of the various working processes, aiming to create social spaces by linking contexts to spaces of creation.

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The open call for submission of projects will begin on the 10th of June, and will remain open until the 09th of July.  The selected projects will be announced at the end of July. 

APPLICATION FORM

It is only possible to apply for one of the three options. Both in the title of the file and in the content of the proposal, the choosen option must be clear.

Alicante: a two-month residency of research and creation around the proposed theme will take place between October and November 2023. The selected project must propose a working context, based on the conceptual framework described within the open call. The residency will take place at the Centro Cultural Las Cigarreras in Alicante, and will be activated jointly with Idensitat

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València: A practice developed intermittently using face-to-face and distance activations, starting in January 2024, linked to mediation practices. This practice, linked to processes of mediation and production, will be supported by Idensitat, with the collaboration of the CCCC. The València residency is planned to be non-intensive, corresponding to the idea of activation - deactivation proposed in the open call. Therefore, applicants must take into account that the material resources will be equal to those provided for the intensive two-month residencies. The València residency requires a hybrid and flexible calendar, including on-site and distance action, using this non-intensive structure, and following its methodological direction and distribution of resources.

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Benicarló: A two-month residency between October and November 2023, in collaboration with MUCBE, with the possibility that the museum itself may be the subject of work, or within the local, social or neighbourhood associative context of Benicarló with support and accompaniment from Idensitat and local agents.

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GRANTS:
The residencies in València and Benicarló will include €2,400 as artist’s fees, €2,000 for production, which will be managed directly by the artist, and €1,400 for accommodation and travel, managed directly by the organisation.

The residency in Alicante will have €2,400 as artist’s fees, €2,000 for production and a travel grant of €400. Accommodation is covered by the organization and will take place in a single room in a space shared with other residency programs.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION:

Proposals should be sent in digital format using the specific form, filling in each of the required fields, and attached in a single document using PDF format (maximum 8 mb), which must  include: 

- Proposal / pre-project: a written document defining the basic lines of the project and the selected territory (3 page max), indicating a working methodology which takes into account the bases indicated above objectives, actions, budget, possibilities for formalisation and timetable of work. 

- A dossier with a selection of a maximum of 4 previous projects or artworks, contextualising each of them through texts and images, to facilitate their understanding (if necessary, including links to websites).

- Short text (400 words) answering the question: What is your motivation for participating in this project?

- Summary CV of person(s) involved in the project proposal, highlighting relevant aspects related to the proposal. In the case of groups, a representative must be specified (maximum 1 page per person).

- Contact details (name, telephone number, e-mail and postal address). 

 

The selection jury will consist of the Idensitat team, Carolina Fuentes Mascarell from Las Cigarreras Cultural Centre in Alicante, Lorena Luján from MUCBE of Benicarl and Nerea de Diego, artist and professor of Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA).


More information about selected projects

More information about previous editions