10 Feb 2009

UNIDEE in Residence 2009 - call for applications

OPEN CALL FOR APPLICATIONS 2009

UNIDEE In Residence 2009: 15th June – 15th October
Application Deadline: 28th February 2009

They arrive at UNIDEE in the middle of June. _They begin to question, to look around, to inquire. _They observe you with eyes in stereovision; one eye keeps close watch, the river rushes by at the foot of Cittadellarte, the textile factories, the city of Biella extending up into the mountains and its social fabric and cultural institutions. The other eye looks into the distance, watching the world, their own city woven by its inhabitants, living organisms and institutions, and the planet itself immersed in one grand illusion.

They want to understand what this Cittadellarte is. They have their own Cittadellarte in mind, maybe a rough sketch, an idea, or a dream. They will talk about it and discuss at length, filling these spaces where textiles were once produced with the energy of the water, enterprise, and the labour of an entire generation.

They are artists, curators, managers of socio-cultural projects; perhaps all these roles together. They question, try to understand and then act; producing ideas, elaborating on them and discussing their thoughts. They develop these thoughts into working plans, projects, and then transforming them into a concrete practice. They are activators of creative processes for social responsible change.

They live in Cittadellarte, day and night. They have their private room, but the workspace is open and common. The experience is shared in a group of 20 young people from various cultures, together they form a micro-society.

Then in the middle of October the residence concludes. But the University of Ideas continues and changes course. They return to their epicentre where they input their accumulated potential, no longer alone but rather participating in a global movement that advances as one tide; gaining energy from the everyday practice and work of tens, hundreds, and thousands of individuals and organisations.

It is in their epicentre where they can get engaged rather as activators than as individual artists or curators. Where they can step in the game interacting with existing structures, or creating new initiatives, while giving rise to their own Cittadellarte.