RE:SOURCE OPEN CALL 2: The Sanctuary
FIBER x Semibreve | Residency: 6 – 16 November
Deadline: 23 August 2023
Continuing with the second part of our Reassemble Residency, FIBER Festival is now collaborating with the Portuguese Semibreve team inviting artistic makers and thinkers to respond to the second RE:SOURCE Open Call: The Sanctuary.
This open call encourages artists, designers, and artistic researchers based in the Netherlands to conduct artistic research around the captivating scenery encompassed within the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Gerês-Xurês, located in the North Region of Portugal as well as the Autonomous Community of Galicia in Spain. This will lead to the creation of an art installation.
The territory’s importance as a site of natural and cultural heritage is recognized by UNESCO adding it to The World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The varieties of landscapes – reaching from mountain ranges to rivers and low valleys – as well as various microclimates encompassed within the area enable an impressive diversity of species and habitats. These qualities also allow the reserve to be an ideal home for numerous migratory species, offering them refuge and safety outside of their natural habitats.
Qualities of interconnectedness and symbiosis, allow diverse species of animals and plants to thrive; the territory also embodies an element of separation, as it hosts the border of two countries, Portugal and Spain. Divided by man-made borders and united by nature, culture, and history, the site offers interdisciplinary perspectives on and guidance towards dealing with changes and interactions between social and ecological systems.
The Sanctuary
A sanctuary is more than just a physical space, it provides refuge, comfort, and safety to those seeking shelter. Originally, the term referred to the idea that something important – something holy or someone loved – was kept within the boundaries of a sanctuary. Focusing on the preservation of something or someone. Quickly the meaning got extended to places of safety and protection from various possible threats. And within a sanctuary, there is balance, where diverse species cooperate, allowing the ecosystem to thrive, and where knowledge and secrets are kept.
Understanding the Sanctuary as the beginning of an artistic exploration into histories of transformation, regeneration, and conservation, what can we learn from the site for a more sustainable interaction between us humans and nature? Can we trace, visualize or speculate on the many symbiotic relationships that are preserved here? Guiding us towards future imaginaries of our society and the natural world around us, what can we take from illuminating and understanding the entanglement between the biosphere reserve’s inhabitants and the intricate life they create? Are you an artistic maker and thinker interested in exploring these themes and have you already done research into the topics, connecting them to bigger questions around the current climate emergency? Then we encourage you to apply to our second open call!
You can apply to this open call before the 6th of August 2023. Research and a physical installation developed during this residency will be showcased from 15 to 16 December 2023 in Braga, Portugal. Please keep in mind that the work is not shown during the Semibreve Festival in October but within the context of a different event. Stay tuned for more information
RE:SOURCE is a collaboration between: FIBER Festival (Amsterdam), Semibreve Festival (Braga), NEW NOW Festival (Essen), and made possible with support from the Creative Industry Fund NL and Amsterdam Fund for the Arts.