Water tower art residency
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
We are a nonprofit organization that creates socially engaged, people-centered activities. For more than 10 years we’ve run the biggest festival of contemporary art in abandoned spaces in Sofia, including the Water Tower Art Fest 2006 - 2016. We see this as a logical transformation to a residency/mentor program.
Water tower art residency – decentralized edition Varna in September 2021 we launched the first decentralized edition of our initiative in Varna
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Water Tower Art Residency is a new, separate chapter, but also a natural extension to the book of the NGO IME and Water Tower Art Fest - whose original format ended in 2016 with the 10th anniversary of the festival, including more than 80 contemporary art offerings - painting, sculpture, video and photo projections, installations, performances - from over 10 European countries, as well as from Brazil, Canada, USA and Japan. Based on years of experience and a network of participants and partners, the essence of Creative Water Tower Residence is to continue the set tone and tradition: the artistic development of artists and their audiences, and the creation of works in a specific context at a specific location - site-specific art. http://watertowerartfest.com/en/
For the fifth year, Bulgarian and foreign artists exchanged experience this year our choice for interventions was Varna – sea capital of Bulgaria- a multicultural city with rich historical and cultural and architectural heritage. The purpose of this project is to expand our activities in other regions of the country outside Sofia, as an act of decentralization of cultural life.
Through the project we will provide an opportunity for a platform for exchange between new participants from Varna and the existing international network of participants and organizations of the festival built over the years.
The act of decentralization will open new opportunities both for us as a cultural operator active on international scene as well as our long term partners and collaborators from around the world.
Interaction and empathy between people and a tolerant attitude towards different ethnicities and cultures as well as empowering girls and young women are the topics that we will encourage and develop through creative workshops with educational character and actions in our project. Involving children and young people in community activities through creative workshops aimed at informal education.
Key objectives for sustainability
Since its first edition in 2006 the festival has been running annually and incorporating different places and sites throughout its history. Water tower art fest since 2006. The festival we initiated had developed after its 10th anniversary in 2016 into a residency platform attracting artists from around the world for working in Sofia for certain period of time under the general topic of Social development trough creative practices, done again in different abandoned or underused buildings and sites around Sofia. The quality of those sites is the inspiration for artistic intervention but at the same time attracting public attention to social and other issues surrounding the aura of the sites in question (sometimes the buildings we use are subject to cultural heritage). The quality of abandonment prevails many areas in Bulgaria , the under population in certain regions is obvious and through our project that has won the popularity and acknowledgment worldwide.
The project encourages intercultural dialogue by inviting national and international artists from all over the world, working in interdisciplinary arts and media over a specific issue within the space in question and region. The purpose of the project is to attract public attention to our immediate urban environment filled with abandoned spaces and tackle issues of tolerance, democracy and environment via contemporary art using socially engaged artworks.
Over the years we have incorporated many buildings around Sofia and the country and populated them with contemporary art, which lead to their reconstruction and reuse. Many collaborations and initiatives have sprung out as a result of this festival and we feel proud of hosting more than 600 artists from all over the world in our 10 year history of Water tower art fest
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Within the frame of the mentor program there were series of public presentations, along with performances on different issues such as: creative approaches towards communal engagement, aesthetics and social justice, alternative and gift economies, art and ecology. The inspiration for all participants were the underused buildings we have chosen for our events. The program consisted of professional artists and young debutantes, were exchange of ideas was sought and as a result we had a final exhibition and performance events with musical concert attracting the attention of young and general public- who disbelieved at first the revitalized function of the place, but were returning with curiosity. This to say is one of our aims to work in a creative way for fostering socially change within a community so possible new opportunities will sprung out of that encounter with professional artists working in the sphere of socially engaged art. As a result now the partner space in Varna- Rebonkers is fully operating on monthly basis hosting different art and cultural events. We see our role into revitalization and social change through creative practice.
Key objectives for inclusion
From the very start of our grass root initiative back in 2006 we aimed into citizens inclusion and social interaction on issues such as environmental and social awareness through actively participating into shaping immediate environment and taking action on a social issues concerning small or large communities. We work closely with local communities and in some cases the center stage of artistic project is communication via interviews and sharing memories of local people building the armature of idea through those encounters. The inclusion of minority groups and children is very important to us so we initiate workshop on various artistic topics exploring the creative sides of participants. Our events are free of charge and there is no fee for all the initiated events part of our program. The topic of gender equalities is very dear to us and inclusion of LGBT community into our program , so we state at beginning of project our values are for tolerance and acceptance of the different. We include local activists in culture and urban design sphere as partners for having the full picture from inside. We organize art tours and visits to emblematic places in the city done in partnership with local organizations and thus mapping the alternative art places in the city. The exchange is invaluable in terms of delving in the atmosphere in the city itself by becoming local as we become acquainted with specifics of the place presented by local activists.
Results in relation to category
Regaining the sense of belonging and working towards its implementation and social development through creative practice is in the core of our mission statement right form beginning of project . By involving the local citizens we empower them into taking charge of their immediate environment and influencing the political and social reforms from grass root. The purpose of the project is to attract public attention to our immediate urban environment filled with abandoned spaces and tackle issues of tolerance, democracy and environment via contemporary art using socially engaged artworks. By using the abandoned buildings we tackle issues of importance to the local community, integrate marginal groups and different generations in communication through the arts.
Gathering artists from around the world that came together as independent entities representing their individual style and search for mutual understanding and cosmopolitanism in the face of widely spread apathy and unwillingness to cooperate.
How Citizens benefit
We worked closely with partner civil organization who played the role as a host to our residency and the rejuvenated place (old club Rebonkers) where the local citizens were involved in all the stages of its reconstruction as well as socialization. The residency had in its program artists working with the local history so some of the locals were interviewed and incorporated in the performance by Haruka Tomatsu - Memories form Varna, roma youths were involved in the workshops of VJ Ivelina Ivanova. The overall idea of resdiency is to incirporate local history and people in its program as a base for social development of the underused and abandoned space, which now in turn had turn into an art social center with vibrant program thanks to our initial push.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
The project aims to enhance the access of people to culture and arts as well as their engagement through different activities-workshops. The further development and the transfer of knowledge through cultural cooperation on the international level with team members from different EU countries and background are main elements for the maximum usage of the potential that arts and culture possess for greater social inclusion. In this regard, the project aims to put focus on the access to culture in local and regional areas for instance through the development of audiences and enhanced access for the ethnic and cultural minorities to cultural content. Because the peripheral areas/districts (outside of the city center) in the cities continue to experience a lack of cultural events, initiatives and projects in comparison to the city center. The same tendencies are relevant to the concentration of cultural activity at regional level as cultural events are concentrated in the larger cities in comparison to the smaller communities.
Learning transferred to other parties
In all our projects we keep a very good record and documentation as videos and photo galleries in our site and social profile. The possibility of transferring the knowledge has always been one of our priorities so you can find documentaries and information on our site for further collaboration activities based on sharing our experience and potential of creative input into society.
http://watertowerartfest.com/en/
https://www.facebook.com/watertowerartfest
a separate collection of online videos available on vimeo - where different artists had presented their practice as well as workshop and results
https://vimeo.com/groups/750610
