LABoral will lead the creation of European Network of Contemporary Audiovisual Creation with the support and funding of the EU
Together with LABoral as leader, with LEV Festival, as strategic partner, other nine artistic entities from around the world will take part in the project
Logos, by Charles Sandison, work shown at LABoral in the Datascape exhibition. Photo: LABoral/S. Redruello
LABoral will lead, with EU funding, the setting up of a European Network for Contemporary Audiovisual Creation (ENCAC), a transnational cooperation project of support, fostering, dissemination and interaction between citizens, artists and researchers interested in visual arts, sound creation and digital culture.
The European Network for Contemporary Audiovisual Creation is one of the 64 projects selected -five of them in Spain- by the European Commission out of 476 applications submitted to the last call of the programme Creative Europe, a EU initiative for the period 2014-2020 aimed at boost the cultural and creative industries, with a total budget of 1.460 million Euros. Moreover, LABoral will be the only Spanish art centre that will receive EU funding for this new phase of EU aids.
The project will be carried out between next May and June 2017 and will receive 200.000 Euros in community funds (representing half the cost of the activities planned by the Network) for developing a wide programme of research, production, education and dissemination of the new audiovisual practices.
The European Network for Contemporary Audiovisual Creation is the second proposal in which LABoral takes part selected to receive EU funding in less than one year. Together with other seven artistic institutions and two scientific ones (CERN and ESO) and under the leadership of Ars Electronica, the Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial de Gijón takes also part in European Digital Art and Science Network, pa transnational research project aimed at fostering the cooperation between artists and scientists under the principles of interdisciplinarity, the European intercultural exchange and the development of new audiences.
The partners
Under the leadership of LABoral, together with L.E.V. Festival (Laboratorio de Electrónica Visual) -taking part as strategic partner-, this new Network is integrated by Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria; hTh – CDN, Montpellier, France; Le Lieue Unique, France; Resonate, Serbia; and DISK, Germany. The activities planned by the European Network for Contemporary Audiovisual Creation will then be included in the programme of other four non-European partners: Mapping Festival, Switzerland; Avatar, Quebec, Canada; Elektra, Montreal, Canada; and Mutek, Mexico.
Goals
The European Network for Contemporary Audiovisual Creation is aimed at boosting innovation by combining the knowledge, experience and resources of its members. The different nature of the members also brings in an interdisciplinary and complementary perspective. Its contribution to the process of the creators, in the different fields covered by the project – research, production, education and dissemination of new audiovisual practices – will foster a more effective advancement in the implementation of innovative solutions that can be exported, that are sustainable and that bring the new audiovisual culture closer to the public and the industry.
The structure of the Network will support European creators and foster intercultural exchange, transdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, professionalisation, international dissemination and the sharing of knowledge.
Moreover, the network will boost the interaction and collaborative work among European creators/developers in the different fields: Sound, visual arts, scenic arts and digital culture by fostering and boosting intermedia research. To this end, research on new technologies and languages will be essential to accomplish on of the main goals: Extending the scope of action of the audiovisual creation tools that the European Network for Contemporary Audiovisual Creation will put at the disposal of creators.
Likewise, training at different levels is considered a strategic pillar. On the one hand, with the purpose of boosting the capacities of creators, reinforcing their knowledge and skills so that they can contribute more to the various creative and cultural industries; and, on the other hand, with the clear purpose of expanding the critical mass and bringing these practices with a wider audience, based on collective participation and critical thinking through actions that make us re-think the environment that we inhabit.
Programme of activities
From next May to June 2017 several actions will be conducted in the aforementioned areas of research, production, education and dissemination, through the following initiatives:
- Creation of a curatorial committee made up by representatives of the members of the network.
- Launching of open calls for selecting research and production projects by European artists in the fields of interest established by the curatorial committee.
- Programme of artistic residencies taking place in several venues and that can be shared-residencies.
- Presentations and travelling exhibits of the results following the creation of a specific section of the European Network for Contemporary Audiovisual Creation in the various member festivals.
- Meetings of European developers and artists in several venues integrated in the network.
- Expert training programme (workshops, talks, conferences, round table).
- Creation of repositories and launch of an experimental multimedia label
The total of activities planned includes 20 residencies, 12 professional workshops, two developer meetings and 24 presentations, installations, performances, seminars and round tables.
Evaluation by the Commission
The proposal lead by LABoral has received a score of 89 out of 100, according to the resolution of the Education Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency or the European Commission. Key facts for selecting this project have been things like “the relevance of the proposal” and “the quality and great interest” of the proposed activities. The Commission also emphasises the “impressive high qualification” of the partners, as well as their prestige, long experience and their connection with the public at local, national and international level.
The synergies generated by the potentials of each participating member have also been key for selecting this project as it “multiplies the possibilities to create new networks and platforms for disseminating the work of digital artists and creating new audiences”. All this is, according to the resolution granting the funding, “explained in the dissemination plan submitted with the proposal”, the resolution points out as well the “innovative character of developing a new experimental label to support the dissemination of the initiative to other fields more related with the industry”.
