Ten artists and curators were invited to co-habitate in Half a House with N.O.W artists and partners. Fabio Ciaravella, Claudio Beorchia, Margherita Isola, Greta Francolini, Anna Marocco, Justin Randolph Thompson, Laura Perrone, Giulia Dellavalle, Elisa Decet, Chiara Orefice were selected through the process of the following open call.
Open call for HALF A HOUSE
Summary
Half a House is a 5 day project initiated by the artists Sonia Gómez (ES), Leonardo Delogu (IT), Brogan Davison (UK), Gosie Vervloessem (BE) and Pétur Ármannsson (IS) part of the N.O.W. network, taking place within the Fabbrica Europa Festival 2017 in Florence from 10 to 14 May 2017.
1. N.O.W. New Open Working process for the performing arts
N.O.W. is a network of cultural professionals (curators, producers and artists) working in the field of the performing arts, that aims to develop a transnational laboratory platform to explore new ways of supporting artists and their processes.
This experimental structure is made up of 4 labs that shape the project and determine the 3 year program of activities. Half a House is the final result of the Lab 2, wherein the focus lies on RETHINKING art workers careers beyond national contexts and frameworks, EXPERIMENTING with transnational management approaches that is adapted to our current times and DEVELOP dialogues and strategies to ensure a better sustainability for art workers careers.
The partners of N.O.W. include EXTRAPOLE – France / FABBRICA EUROPA – Italy / INDISCIPLINARTE – Italy / LATITUDES CONTEMPORAINES – France / LÓKAL – Iceland / MOM – EL VIVERO – Spain / TRAFÓ – Hungary and WP ZIMMER – Belgium.
2. The project
Half a House is inspired by the work of the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, who after the earthquake and tsunami in 2010 in Chile, built half houses that could be finished by its’ inhabitants according to their own needs and in their own taste. Half a House explores this notion of co-creation of a space, not completely shaped and closed, and aims to subvert the negative value often associated with the notion of unfinished in a neo-liberal view and paradigm. As the disasters in Chile led to a new and adaptive domestic model, Half a House is an artistic reaction to the transitions happening in the art sector today – replacing existing hierarchies with an experimental space creating alternative conditions for purposeful relationships.
Half a House is an invitation to investigate what artistic practice would look like if, in times of pressure, we don’t put all our energy in finishing the walls: what if we leave the house ‘half’ and take time to reflect and restructure, explore new ways of operating, faced with the wind blowing through the unfinished walls?
Instead of resurrecting the walls, Half a House proposes to renovate by ‘sharing’ practices and ideas, merging workspace and daily life between different players within and outside of the arts field – curators, artists, programmers, theoreticians, scientists, activists, social workers – researching questions related to artistic practice and beyond: How can one be productive and fragile at the same time? Can openness be a force and a possibility for navigating in a moment of drastic changes? Can collaboration/co-creation and sharing be a new method and model for our working relationships?
Half a House is an artistic investigation collectively carried out through a co-living format, merging daily tasks and abstract topics, workshops, experiences, guests and performances. Themes of private and public, fragility and the unknown will be further explored through the process of the co-creation of a living and working space, a co-habitation of different partners in an artistic process who explore sharing as a condition and a practice to keep the work unfinished and the winds blowing.
3. When and where
Half a House will take place over 5 days between the 10th-14th of May 2017 in the Palazzina Ex-Fabbri building in Florence as part of the Fabbrica Europa Festival 2017.
4. Who is it for?
Half a House is seeking 10 participants based in Italy, to join a process of co-creation, co-habitation and sharing of practice. Half a House is looking for artists and curators that want to challenge their practice by opening it up to accidental encounters, negotiating new ways of living and who are not afraid to spend intensive time in a collective working space.
The participants will co-habitate with the NOW artists and partners and the physicality of the space itself will be a process of sharing. The group will build and craft their own private space as well as the communal areas. Mobile and flexible modules will be used and organized by the artists, partners and participants accordingly to the activities and the questions that arise in the process. This will create an ephemeral and dynamic house ready to change and react to needs and functions.
Through working in a horizontal structure and playing with the concept of hierarchy, the project aims to create a community that supports the sharing of knowledge, interdisciplinary practice, openness and risk. How do we, together, create a space that is open for negotiation and how can the process itself become a home?
5. Fees and practicalities
This call is open to people who are currently working in Italy. The participants will be paid a total fee of € 400 (note: the project does not cover per diems or travel costs). Food and accommodation will be provided during the 5 working days. Participants are expected to arrange their own travel to and from the venue and are required to be available for the entirety of the project. The spoken language of the project will be mainly English.
6. How to apply
Please send your application in English to nowhalfahouse@gmail.com by the 30th of March 2017. The application should be no longer than 2 PDF pages. Include the following information:
Name:
Date of birth:
Email address:
Phone number:
Website/Portfolio: City of residence:
and feel free to answer the following questions with whatever means you see fit, for example written text, drawings, recordings etc.
- What do you take in your luggage for a 5 day trip to Half a House?
- Imagine, one of the walls of the building you are currently in, falls down, what do you see, feel, smell or do?
- What are the main building blocks of your artistic practice? And how can you relate them to the Half a House theme? For example what would you suggest to share in the empty spaces with the Half a House schedule?
The selected candidates will be contacted by email on April the 7th 2017 and their names will be published on the project’s website (http://nowperformingarts.eu/) and on Fabbrica Europa’s website (www.fabbricaeuropa.net).