CASE
Since 2011 Video Sound Art has supported young artists in the production of new works through an annual Open Call offering research opportunities, starting from residency programmes, in dialogue with archivists, scholars, craftspeople, specialists in the field and the whole festival team.
In response to a historical moment of deep crisis — cultural, geopolitical, environmental — that asks a critical attitude of everyone, Video Sound Art launches a new Open Call for the XIV edition of the festival, proposing for the first time to suspend the usual process of producing new works and to put critical, theoretical enquiry at the centre.
The Open Call, titled CASE, is centred on the theme of dwelling and will feed into the fourteenth edition of the festival, scheduled for October 2024 in Milan, in the Lodi–Corvetto district.
Tools foster conviviality when: – they can be used easily, by anyone, as often as one wishes – they are used to reach the purpose the person has identified – one person’s use of them does not prevent another from using them in the same way – they require no prior certification from the person using them – their existence imposes no obligation to use them
The Open Call comes from the intention to reflect on the theme CASE through a “convivial” method, fostering a shared, participatory reflection that will take place during the days of the festival.
A convivial society, following Ivan Illich, rests on personal energy, on each person’s ability to govern that energy and to connect it with others, encouraging the shared building of questions of collective and civic meaning.
The aim is to encourage the resignification of cultural and social forms, feeding the conscious development of a theory of cultural creativity. The explicit reference is to the work of the anthropologist Tim Ingold, who reminds us how essential it is today to work in contexts marked by intercultural coexistence, starting from studying “with people” and building new ways of seeing and living the world.
How to apply
The call is open to students enrolled in an academic course, independent researchers (including those with an artistic practice) and secondary-school students of age. The only eligibility criterion is being 18 or over. The research will be presented in written form and may arise from a critical reflection on the theme, from an idea for a future project or from a workshop proposal. The call seeks to prompt reflections on the theme CASE that bring out its many senses and shades of meaning.
Send your application to opencall@videosoundart.com, with “Candidatura Open Call 2024” in the subject line.
The email must have attached a PDF file containing, without exception:
– an abstract of the research (max 5,400 characters including spaces)
– a short biography (max 1,000 characters including spaces)
– a bibliography for the research (max 4 references)
The email must give the applicant’s personal details together with a telephone number. To avoid transmission errors, please check that the attachment is no larger than 2MB.
The document may optionally include visual elements such as images, drawings, graphics and so on (max 3 pages).
Selection criteria
Proposals will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:
- consistency with the theme of the call
- clarity of approach
- research that can be shared publicly through participatory forms of restitution will be viewed favourably (for example, an idea for a workshop arising from the research presented)
The winners will receive a prize of 400 euros as an invitation to continue the research, plus the cost of any travel and accommodation.
The stages of the call are:
a. abstracts to be sent by 22 September
b. winners selected by 10 October 2024
c. meeting with the staff and mentors in the second half of October
d. public restitution during the days set aside for the project (24, 25, 26, 27 October) at the Circolo San Luis 1946 in Milan, the nerve centre of the XIV edition of the festival.
The jury
- ANNUNZIATA ALBANO Annunziata Albano is a designer and a doctoral candidate at the Politecnico di Milano. Her research focuses on public services such as the Laboratori di Quartiere, combining participatory design and service design to foster cooperation between local actors. She is involved in the activities of Off Campus Cascina Nosedo in the Corvetto district and works with several third-sector organisations. Annunziata trained in spatial design and has taken part in various projects marked by their social impact, including the guidelines for the Stanze della Vita of the Associazione Italiana Donatori di Organi, the organisation of the workshop Design for Ukraine’s Heritage and the touring exhibition Senzatomica.
- SARA BORRILLO Sara Borrillo is associate professor of History of Islamic Countries at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, where she currently coordinates the project MEGAMAPS – Mapping Emerging Gender Artivism in the Mediterranean Arab Public Space, funded by the European Research Council (ERC). She works on gender questions, feminist movements in the Middle East and North Africa, female religious authority and reformist Islamic thought, as well as on activism, socio-political transformations and artistic and cultural practices in the Arab region after 2010–2011. She has worked with several universities, research bodies and NGOs in Italy and abroad. Her publications include Artivism, Culture and Knowledge Production for Egalitarian Citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa post 2011 (with Mounira Soliman), Studi Maghrebini (Brill, 2020) and the monograph Femminismi e Islam in Marocco. Attiviste laiche, teologhe, predicatrici (ESI, 2017).
- FRANCESCO CHIODELLI Francesco Chiodelli is associate professor of economic and political geography at the University of Turin (Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning), where he directs OMERO — the Interdepartmental Research Centre for Urban Studies. His research sits at the intersection of urban space and institutions (norms and rules in particular), with a specific focus on questions of illegality, informality, conflict, diversity and pluralism. His articles have appeared in the main international journals in geography, planning and urban studies. He writes regularly for Italian newspapers such as Il Manifesto and Huffington Post Italia.
- LAURA RACCANELLI Laura Raccanelli is an urban anthropologist and a doctoral candidate on the Urbeur – Urban Studies programme at the University of Milano-Bicocca. Her research analyses urban transformations through ethnographic method; she is currently working on an ethnography of Milan’s Corvetto district, interested in the processes that produce spatial inequality, with a focus on the relations between aesthetics and politics and on the role of art in the periphery in what she — observing the impact of the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics — calls “the district of the pre-mega-event”. She also writes screenplays for documentary and fiction cinema, and has written about cities and neighbourhoods for the magazine Monitor. Taking part in the selection process will be Laura Lamonea, artistic director and curator of the festival; Erica Petrillo, curator and head of research for the XIV edition; and Tommaso Santagostino, coordinator of the open call. Bibliography: AA.VV., Arabpop. Rivista di arti e letterature arabe contemporanee Vol. 4: Casa, 2023, Naples Illich I., La Convivialità, 1974, Milan; orig. ed. Tools for Conviviality, New York, 1973 Ingold T., Antropologia. Ripensare il mondo, Milan, 2020; orig. ed. Anthropology. Why It Matters, Cambridge, 2018 Meschiari M., Disabitare. Antropologie dello spazio domestico, Milan, 2018
- Open Call 2024 CASE
- Apertura Open Call Open Call open 25 July – 15 September 2024 EXTENDED TO 22 SEPTEMBER Winners announced by 10 October 2024 Public presentation 24, 25, 26, 27 October 2024 at Circolo San Luis 1946, via Don Bosco 7, Milan To take part, write to: opencall@videosoundart.com From an idea by Laura Lamonea and Tommaso Santagostino
- Coordinamento Open Call: Open Call coordination: Tommaso Santagostino
- La ricerca CASE di The CASE research by Erica Petrillo with BASE Milano, developed in the context of a curatorial residency in 2023/2024
- Approfondisci la ricerca Read more about the research