Activities // Open Calls

CreArt, České Budějovice 2028 and Umění ve městě (Art in the City) are opening a call for artists in the CreArt network to apply for an artistic residency within the Confluence Festival.

The deadline for applications is 26 March 2025.

Confluence (Soutok) is a new format of a city festival organized by České Budějovice 2028 as part of the European Capital of Culture and to be held from the beginning of June till 6th July 2025. The main idea of the festival is to celebrate 760 years of the city of České Budějovice on the confluence of two rivers, influencing its identity, forming the stories of its inhabitants, symbolizing the convergence of many cultures and interconnection of local communities. The theme is inspired not only by the 760th anniversary of the founding of České Budějovice, but also by the need to explore our roots as the basis for our growth – city´s history, culture, nature, people. At the time when current technological and societal development often leads to a sense of uprootedness and loss of social or cultural anchorage, the festival aims to re-discover these lost connections and re-imagine the potential of a growing urban community.

The programme of the festival is based on cooperation of cultural organisations and institutions in the city of České Budějovice and offers a broad range of activities for a wide range of audiences with focus on accessibility in the public space. The creators, together with our audiences, will be exploring (and re-creating) the riverbanks, streets, parks and other spaces through performative arts, visual installations, music, interactive walks and workshops. The purpose of this open call is to bring an international perspective into this mosaic and give space to an artist from the CreArt network to create a sculpture or installation in public space reflecting the topics of the festival. The installation will be part of the open air exhibition organized by Art in the City (www.umenivemeste.cz).

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for visual and digital artists, sculptors, visual creators who will create an artistic installation in the public space of České Budějovice. We invite artists to reflect on the ways in which we, both as individuals and as a society, can reconnect to nature, history and cultural heritage of our city, not only in the context of the past but also within our contemporary identity. The aim of the project is to create a platform for dialogue between contemporary art, urban environment and the local community.

The artist applying for the residency must have been born or live in one of the cities in the CreArt 3.0 network: "Artists born, resident or domiciled in one of the cities of the CreArt 3.0 network: Kaunas (Lithuania), Liepaja (Latvia), Skopje (Northern Macedonia), Aveiro (Portugal), Valladolid (Spain), Venice (Italy), Clermont-Ferrand and Rouen (France), České Budějovice (Czech Republic), Oulu (Finland), Regensburg (Germany), members of HDLU (Croatian Association of Visual Artists), Ukrainian artists through collaboration with Dialog from Lviv."The artistic outcome and creative process must support the goals of the Confluence Festival and the CreArt 3.0 project in general.

What do we offer?
Within this call, we offer a residency for one artist. The residency period is 4 weeks and will take place between 1st May and 5th June 2025. The residency covers following costs and fees:

• travel costs (within the CreArt network cities)
• accommodation for the period of the residency
• material – 4 000 EUR
• artist fee – 2 000 EUR
• working space will be arranged individually based on media used and other requirements

Our team will collaborate closely with the selected artist and will provide support in research, contextualisation, contacting local communities and during the creative process, as agreed individually before the start of the residency.

Schedule and selection process
Application period: 26 February – 26 March 2025
Selection by: end of March 2025
Residency period: between 1 May – 5 June 2025 (4 weeks)

The application is open to 26 March 2025. The selection process will take place in the following days and the selected artist will be notified at the end of March 2025. Specific conditions of the residency and travel arrangements will be discussed with the artist by the end of March 2025.

The selection will be done by a committee consisting of experts on art in public spaces, community engagement and urban development.

Applications must be submitted through the CreArt platform https://creart2-eu.org/open-calls/

and must include:

• professional portfolio relevant to the goals of the project
• motivation letter (max. 1000 words) describing the artistic concept, materials/media used, and experience with working with communities and city public spaces

In case of further inquiries regarding the residency conditions, please contact the Confluence Festival manager, Anna Davis (anna.davis@budejovice2028.cz, +420 776 146 768).

 

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