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Residency for performing artists at BUDA and performance opportunity at NEXT

Mophradat has partnered again with Kunstencentrum BUDA in Belgium, to offer this time two opportunities to performing artists from the Arab world.

• A one-week residency in BUDA for artists in a research phase to continue developing their project using BUDA’s facilities

Mophradat will support the selected applicant (working with maximum two collaborators) will their travel, visa costs, and perdiem. BUDA will cover accommodation and meals.

• A three-week period residency for artists in the last phase of their project to use BUDA’s facilities to finalize their piece. Immediately following the residency, the new work will be performed during the 2022 edition of NEXT Festival, which takes place across the Eurometropolis region of Kortrijk and Tournai in Belgium, and Lille and Valenciennes in France.

The selected applicant (working with maximum three collaborators) will have their travel and visa costs, per diem, and honoraria covered, in addition to receiving a contribution to their project’s production costs, and a presentation fee for the performance at NEXT Festival.

Kunstencentrum BUDA in Kortrijk is a platform for contemporary art festivals, an art house cinema, and one of the largest workspaces for performing arts in Belgium. Founded in 2006, BUDA constructs an artistic context in which the artist’s desire to create and learn is central. It offers time and space, customized support (logistic, technical, feedback), a network of artistic and professional contacts, and the possibility of an informal presentation for a test audience. BUDA is part of NEXT Festival.

NEXT is a yearly, international performing arts festival that started in 2008 in four cities in the cross-border Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai and Valenciennes, organized by six French and Belgian co-organizing artistic houses and 10 to 15 associated partners. It evolved into a collaboration platform and a landmark event for cultural and artistic professionals from all over Europe. It brings together disciplines, communities and cultures and encourages exchange of cultural diversity, and encourages and facilitates intercultural dialogue amongst programmers, artists, festival organizers, cross-border politicians, students, and broad audience.

SPECIFIC ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

In addition to complying with the general eligibility criteria that you can read here, please note the following:

• Applicants cannot apply with the same project for both residencies
• Applicants must be working on a new and original performing arts project.
• Applicants must be working with contemporary forms of performance (classical theatre, community theatre, classic dance, and so forth, are not eligible).
• Unconventional projects dealing with experimental forms and/or concerned with progressive discourses are encouraged to apply.
• For the three-week residency and performance at NEXT, applicants must have advanced in the development of the project and have confirmed co-producers or a financing plan, as this residency only partially contributes to the production costs.

PROCESS

For both residencies:

• The applications will be assessed by Mophradat and the final selection will be made in collaboration with BUDA
• All applicants, whether selected or not, receive a response to their applications by January 15, 2022.
• Due to a high volume of applications and the confidentiality of the selection process, Mophradat cannot provide individual feedback explaining the reason an application was not selected.
• Upon selection, the resident will sign separate agreements with Mophradat and BUDA.
• A short-written report of the applicant’s experience must be submitted to Mophradat within two weeks of the residency’s end.
• Any cancelation due to Covid19 restrictions are beyond the partners’ responsibility.

For BUDA/NEXT residency:

• The applications will be assessed by Mophradat and the final selection will be made in collaboration with BUDA and NEXT.
• Upon selection, the resident will sign separate agreements with Mophradat, BUDA, and NEXT.
• The partners will support the selected applicants through the necessary visa applications; and if the artists are unable to travel due to visa refusals, the project will be compensated.

The artists invited for residencies at BUDA Kunstcentrum in Kortrijk, Belgium, following the 2021 open call for Art Time Residencies, are:

Layal Berberi (b. 1988, Lebanon), along with collaborators Mayssan Charafeddine and Ramy ElNagar, will be in residence to continue developing their project “Moving Spaces” –
a choreographic research that looks at the body as a physical entity, how it moves and feels, in relation to astral bodies, by using tools derived from somatic practices.

Stephanie Kayal (b. 1989, Lebanon) will be in residence with music composer Abed Kobeissy to finalize their upcoming collaboration Galactic Crush (working title) to be performed at the 2022 edition of NEXT Festival. The work, which resonates with the traumatic impact of the Beirut port explosion in 2020, seeks, with a somewhat childlike approach, to feed an uncontrollable craving for vengeance and resistance, and explore how dance can be used as a martial art in such situations.