The fully funded residency programme provides opportunities for international interdisciplinary artists, writers and cultural practitioners working in the fields of visual arts, design and interactive media, music, literature and the performing arts.
The conceptual framework of Birds of Passage is incorporated by the call of Sankofa, which promotes the existence of sites for gathering parallel expressions of co-existence, and promotes the praxis of historically and politically contextualising narratives.
Addressing issues such as identity, from a Pan-African, feminist, queer, anti-colonial perspective; Birds of Passage acts as a platform for exchange, reflecting on the past and collectively imagining the future through artistic action and public participation.
THE RESEARCH QUESTION
This open call seeks artists that engage in the question of resignifications as a method of construction. How do we hold space for imagination and shapeshift through movement?
The aim of the residency is to support and facilitate the professional development of practitioners at all levels of their careers, from emerging to established.
WINNERS
Sagal FarahSagal Farah (born in Mogadishu, Somalia) Is a writer and a curator at SAVVY Contemporary - The Laboratory of Form-ideas in Berlin, Germany. She graduated from Goldsmiths University of London and has published poetry in literary journals, written about Post-colonial poetry and participated in the first iteration of the Lagos Biennial Curatorial Intensive Programme 2019. Ph: Raisa Galofre
SA SmytheSA Smythe (they / them) is an artist, educator, and critical theorist committed to black belonging beyond all borders and studying how archives of otherwise possibility come to be narrated, realised, and remembered. Ph: Elliott Tilleczek
This project won the public call “Creative Living Lab – 4th edition”, promoted by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
(Il progetto è vincitore dell’avviso pubblico Creative Living Lab – 4 edizione, promosso dalla Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero della Cultura).
PARTNERING WITH BASE:
MOLESKINE FOUNDATION
Moleskine Foundation is a non-profit organization. Our people believe that creativity is the key driver of social change, and our central focus is to inspire, empower, and connect young people to transform themselves and their communities. To do so, we fund a set of unconventional educational programs that unlock creative potential and develop change-making attitudes in youth, and we foster spaces where critical thinking and imagination can flourish.
While we share the core values of creativity and culture, Moleskine Foundation operates independently from the Moleskine Company. The brand’s financial contribution sustains the Foundation, allowing 100% of additional resources to be directly invested in programs.
ashikọ
ashikọ is an independent, visually driven + dynamic multimedia global platform inspired by Africa and its Diaspora. ashikọ is a research platform for visual culture in, of, and from the margins. At its core, it wishes to address the issue of voice/visibility; who speaks and who is listened to, thus it is linked to the politics of recognition.
GUEST CURATOR: MISTURA ALLISON
Mistura Allison is an independent researcher, curator and art historian based between London and Milan. She is the founder of ashikọ. Her work focuses on research-based practices engaging with the plurality of contemporary Afro-Diasporic visual and oral productions.
#SAMESAMECALL
#SameSameCalls are promoted by BASE Milano, each time with different partners, to narrate the plurality, including people of every age, ability, gender and race. Taking these four dimensions into account as one single intersection means weaving the lives of about 8 billions of people living on the planet, and the need of traversal and inclusive representation.
why “Samesame”?
“Same same, but different” comes from a colloquial saying used in Southeast Asia, as an attempt to see objects that are identical copies of a branded object, they are indeed “same same, but different”.
We borrow this sentence as food for thought.
Gender fluidity, non conventional bodies, dismantling of canons and conventions: key words of a narrative path built on images, voices, bodies and actions.
BASE Milano turns into a space for deconstructing, discuss representations, power mechanisms, crystallized methods of production and distribution of knowledge.
Public art, performance, parties, insallations, workshops, billposting. Exploration od ideas, approaches and formats. We promote cultural diversity as an opportunity for contemporary society.
#samesamecall
