AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

MIGROS
pour-cent culturel

2008 Belluard Bollwerk International www.belluard.ch
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CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The Belluard Bollwerk International (BBI), Wrights & Sites and the Pour-cent culturel Migros are looking for ‘mis-guided’ projects to reveal the unexpected, the ‘elsewheres’ in the city of Fribourg (CH).
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Our perception of space is shaped by habitual and conventional relationships to it, by the tangible and intangible laws of place. Our movement through city space is deeply affected by dominant spatial frameworks. These are constructed by municipal authorities, the tourism or heritage industries, architects and planners, real estate agents, surveillance camera manufacturers, and so on, with the aid of devices such as guidebooks, maps/plans, information sheets, guided tours, CCTC and security, signposts and pathways.

The British group Wrights & Sites' principle of 'Mis-Guidance' draws on and disrupts these systems, placing the fictional, fanciful, fragile, personal and micro-political on equal terms with 'factual', municipal history. Rather than telling you where to go and what to see, Mis-Guided tours, books, maps, audio journeys for Walkmans, etc. refocus your attention, find new routes and give you ways to see a city that no-one else has found yet. Mis-Guides are forged passports to your 'other' city, the 'elsewheres' of a familiar or unfamiliar place.

* The BBI, Wrights & Sites and the Pour-cent culturel Migros are looking for playful, cultural, political, seductive, sensual and/or radical 'mis-guided' proposals that disrupt one or more existing spatial frameworks in order to uncover a hidden or unrealised side of the city of Fribourg, Switzerland.

* Projects can take the form of choreographed physical activities, work with new/locative media, discrete artist-led walks, meetings in unusual places, provocations that might take the form of maps, apparently mislaid personal letters, lists or timetables etc. They may leave a ‘trace’ on the city, enact a rearrangement or simply perform a trajectory.

* The call is open to all: to artists and practitioners from other fields, to Fribourg residents and people from other places, to individuals or groups.

* Selected proposals will be realised as a part of the BBI festival 2008. [www.belluard.ch]

* The project will take as its hub a temporary 'Mis-Information Centre', where the public can view documentation, pick up maps, leaflets, postcards, talk to the project participants or meet to go out on 'Mis-Guided tours'. Works may be accessed through the centre, but all will provoke the public to explore beyond it, either in the company of the maker or perhaps with a map, an audio tour, a set of instructions, a handful of objects etc

* All participants will be expected to be present in the 'Mis-Information Centre' for at least a few days during the festival and to be represented there (with documentation, objects, texts, artworks) throughout the festival.

* Projects will be selected by a jury of arts practitioners and specialists from other fields.

* Selected artists will be mentored by Wrights & Sites (UK), a group of four artist-researchers committed to producing work that responds to site, city/landscape and the people who inhabit them [www.mis-guide.com].

* A basic knowledge of English is necessary for the mentoring by Wrights & Sites.

Rules

· Each project is to be presented on one A4-format page, along with personal details (name, postal and email address, telephone number).

· Applications must be written in English, German or French. (German and French applications should be accompanied by an English summary of 1000 characters).

· Plans, drawings, photos etc can be added.

· Projects must be sent by February 18th, 2008, at the latest (postal stamp is proof) at Belluard Bollwerk International, Contest 2008, PO Box 214, 1701 Fribourg, Switzerland. Or to: info@belluard.ch

· Results will be announced latest mid-March 2008.

· The jury reserves the right not to comment on its decision.

· The material sent will not be returned.

· For each selected proposal there will be a budget of 2500 CHF plus a production budget for the realization of the project and the presentation during the BBI 2008.

Participants have to be available for

* Mentoring by Wrights & Sites in Fribourg from April 4th to 7th and/or April 24th to 27th.
* A production period in Fribourg starting June 10th 2008.
* The project will be presented during the BBI 2008, between June 21st and July 6th 2008 (tbc).

for further information: http://www.belluard.ch/en/page1.htm