Social Engagement

The next edition of the Fotofestiwal will be held on 9-26 June 2022 in Łódź (Poland). The organisers are looking for artists to submit artistic and social projects on the theme of community – encompassing also ideas of utopia, local spirit, cooperation and integration.

DiffMix started in 2020 with the idea of bringing citizens and artists together to transform public places in Differdange, Luxembourg. Citizens identified online and offline five places that they wanted to transform and what their needs were. Now it’s up artists, designers and creatives from Europe to propose how these transformations can take place, and how they can be realised together with the citizens of Differdange.

Art in Public Space Tyrol 2022 will be dedicated to artistic social practices that operate in both rural and urban spaces. Artists and collectives working in contemporary visual arts can propose anything from permanent sculptural art projects, to temporary interventions as well as participatory, performative and dialogical formats. Two or three proposals will be commissioned to be realised in 2022.

ArtHouse Jersey is calling for Portuguese, Polish and Romanian artists with experience of socially engaged practice (in any discipline) for a residency on the Island of Jersey, running 17 January – 25 February 2022. Large numbers of Poles, Portuguese and Romanians call Jersey home and ArtHouse Jersey is offering an opportunity for one artist from each country to learn about, research and explore the lived experience of their compatriots, creating a piece of work that celebrates the contribution each community makes to the Island.

The European project Intimate Bridges is a collaboration with theatre companies and civil society organisations that tries to bridge the gaps between refugee/migrant and local communities. An international conference is being organised on 14 September 2021 in Athens to present Intimate Bridges, and companies with similar projects (or intentions to start them) are invited to apply to participate.

Idensitat and Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Huarte are offering a residency to one artist, or collective of artists, to develop a project within the social context of the towns of Huarte, Burlada and Villava (Navarra) and under the theme ‘Immunity Community’. The residency is proposed as a hybrid of on-site and remote work in order to complete the project. The on-site period will last approximately five weeks between October 2021 and April 2022.

Initiated by the French Ministry of Culture and DRAC Grand Est, the Fabrique d’Europe (‘Making of Europe’) project will organise a series of ten-week residencies for research, experimentation and creation from January – July 2022. Under the programme, young European arts and culture graduates (graduated after 2010) will work with high school students from rural and peri-urban areas to share the act of creation.

AiR Vesterålen is a comprehensive artist residency programme for five municipalities in the Vesterålen islands, Norway. There are five residencies, in different locations and with different themes, which take place at different periods through the year. The first is in Bø with a theme of ‘Art/Nature/Play’. Applications are welcomed from artists of all disciplines who live and work in Europe (EU, EEA and UK).

In the framework of the European project Who Cares?, Centro Huarte is offering an international residency programme for two or more artists, taking place from 1 September to 24 October 2021. Projects are encouraged to investigate care and affective practices in relation to the current moment we are living through. Applicants should have an EU passport or be based in an EU member state and preferably be fluent in the local languages (Spanish and/or Basque).

Located in Lasauvage, Luxembourg, the Nomadic Island project it is a platform for experimentation which unites a diverse group of artists with an equally diverse group of local residents. Artists are invited to apply for a three-week residency (18 July - 8 August 2022) to realise a project with this international community around the theme of ‘alternative ways of living and working’.

WIENWOCHE understands itself as a (post-)migrant, queer-feminist festival for art and activism and looks at cultural work as an interventional tool in social, political and cultural debates. The tenth edition of WIENWOCHE will take place 10-19 September 2021 in Vienna, Austria. Titled ‘Back to Normality’, it pursues a mission to travel to the year 2121 to take a look back, question and rethink today’s concept of ‘normality’ from a present, past and future perspective. WW 2021 invites applications from collectives, initiatives and solo artists working in a wide variety of formats.

The next edition of MEXE will take place in Porto from 17-26 September 2021 with the theme ‘The Risk’. The festival seeks proposals for shows, installations, performances, workshops and documentaries which engage with community artistic practices. Given the unpredictable context of the pandemic, the next edition of MEXE may consider a mixed presentation model: on-site and virtual.