Imaginarius Festival opens competition for European circuit
The direction of Imaginarius – International Street Art Festival of Santa Maria da Feira announced today that it has opened until the end of the year a call to select artistic projects for a European circuit of residences and festivals.
The initiative is the result of the participation of Imaginarius in the international cooperation project “Roundabout Europe“, which, with Santa Maria da Feira as “only Portuguese partner city“, also involves the KoresponDance Festival of the Czech Republic, the Out There of the United Kingdom, Passage Festival of Denmark and the Spoffin Festival of Holland.
For the councilman Gil Ferreira, who oversees the Ministry of Culture and Tourism at the Feira Chamber and in this capacity oversees the Imaginarius, this call to action has two merits: “The positioning of Santa Maria da Feira on the international circuit from artistic creation to public space and the position of Imaginarius as a reference project in the international context. ”
The call for Roundabout Europe candidates is aimed at emerging or professional artists with creative proposals that are geared towards the public space and which can integrate a European circuit of artistic residences and street art festivals.
Gil Ferreira explains that “each artist will make a residence and present a work in progress in two of the festivals” involved in the project – which, resulting from a joint application to the European Creative Program of the European Union, aims to train new talents for the arts of the street.
“Together with the aim of strengthening capacity in this artistic field, the five partner festivals seek to raise artistic quality and make the outdoor arts recognized, giving artists and companies a solid career and access to new audiences, networks and markets,” defends the alderman.
In addition to generating new opportunities for artists who are now starting in a street context or who are at a turning point in their creative profile, the project also aims at developing skills at various levels, “creating coaching activities during periods of artistic work “and also promoting” new working methodologies ”
Candidates can submit their proposals by December 31, after which the artistic directors of the festivals involved will select a total of five artists and companies, whose names will be made public on February 28.
According to an official source at Roundabout Europe, “the positive response from the European Union makes it possible for the first artistic residencies to take place next summer.”
The program envisages that, over two years, 10 artists and companies will benefit from the experience, each of which will be involved in two different festivals.
The common goal, says the same source of Roundabout Europe, is always to help the selected “to make their work profitable in professional and economic terms, without losing their artistic values“.
