Opportunities: Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival 2020 Open Call (Nicosia, Famagusta, Limassol – Cyprus) Deadline – 31 May 2020

Open Call or Artists
Application Deadline: May 31st, 2020
Festival period: end of November – early December 2020 (dates TBC)

The Festival
Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival (BFPAF) showcases new and experimental work by local and international artists, challenges physical and artistic barriers, and creates opportunities for artists to meet and exchange ideas. It creates the environment for the questioning of preconceived ideas of the performing arts, the relationship between artists and audience, and shines a new light on the relationship between arts and society. The festival hosts innovative work, artists who practice cutting-edge methodologies, and are open to inter-disciplinary and cross-sectorial work.

The Festival’s programming aims to offer both local and international artists a platform to showcase their work and offers the opportunity for interaction between artists, between artists and audiences, of audiences and space, as well as with the BFPAF institution, in a celebratory spirit of multiculturalism and peaceful coexistence. Taking place in a divided country, Buffer Fringe Festival assumes more responsibilities than an arts festival taking place elsewhere. It is one of a kind in Cyprus and globally.

BFPAF Theme “Displacement: people, ideas and artistic practice”
The Festival is a creative meeting between local and international artists, interdisciplinary artists, students, and scholars. Last year marked the creation of the first immersive space in the buffer zone, with the theme and methodology becoming blended into one to produce an artistic result.

This year has proved a great challenge for the artistic community, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. As a Festival, we stand in solidarity with the arts community, and have decided to keep the theme of the festival, but to re-shape the structure of the festival to be more flexible, aligning with the times.

But first, let us introduce you to our 2020-21 festival theme:

The Concept of the BFPAF 2020 is based on the idea of materializing the displacement of people, ideas and practices, based on (but not limited to) the following questions. These are not meant to limit your ideas or freedom to approach the theme, however you chose:

• What does ‘displacement’ mean to you (artistically and personally)?
• How do you perceive the relationship between migration, mobility, and displacement, and how can we differentiate between them?
• How do you understand ‘mobility’ as an experience of people, ideas, and practices, in your own reality or that of others?
• How do you understand displacement as a process, an ever-changing process that spans through time, memory, and aesthetics? Does this relate with nostalgia, and how?
• How is displacement manifested as a day-to-day practice? What does it mean during the COVID-19 crisis, in social/physical isolation and confinement conditions?

In a process that we started in 2019, we ask that the idea of displacement is blended with the methodology of the festival, offering performance spaces in three cities, Nicosia, Famagusta and Limassol, as well as the possibility for project development through the unified 2020-21 planning of the Festival.

SO what we need from your proposal:

Propose work relating to the theme of the Festival, that is inherently process-based and collaborative. This means:

• process-based > we want to see your creative process. This process can take 2-4 months (Autumn 2020), and should be shared with an audience online or offline. You don’t have to work every day, but we want to share with the audience your creative process, on a regular basis. You can register this on social media, through a (image) blog, podcasts, videos / YouTube channel or other means that you can think of to share with us what you are doing.

We will be hosting a performance of your work that you are comfortable to share with the public, either online or (preferably) offline at one of the festival stages, during the festival.

• collaborative > The team putting this together can be local (mono-communal or bi-communal), international, or mixed. We welcome collaborations between artists that bring in different experiences and skills. You can of course work in more ‘traditional’ structures, but we welcome experimentation in terms of the roles of creatives in your process. Solo work is welcome, taking into account the criteria set forth.

Your work must adhere to the values of artistic freedom and mutual respect, and strive for artistic excellence and the production of meaningful art, while at the same time recognizing the space as one of past trauma, but which also holds promise for a peaceful future.

All forms of experimental performance work are accepted, which can contain (but are not limited to) theatre, music, dance, acrobatics, installation/visual art and other cross-disciplinary elements. Moreover, we welcome proposals for participatory, durational, and/or site-specific formats. For performances in languages other than English, the text must be provided in translation in English by the artists.

Finally, and as part of a process of development of the Fringe community on the island, artists will have the opportunity to engage with the BFPAF creative staff in a process of consultation, with the Artistic Director and the two Creative Directors.

Work will be selected by an artistic committee, headed by Artistic Director Ellada Evangelou, and comprised of representatives from the Home for Cooperation, artists, curators and professionals from within the field of the performing arts.

Support for participating artists:

• An honorarium of €1,500 groups (over 3 people) / €800 for solo artists & duets
• Support in your fundraising, with BFPAF partners and long-standing supporters and donors
• Support in promotion of the performance and sharing your process on the BFPAF social media
• Rehearsal space can be arranged upon request by the artists
• The opportunity to meet other artists, access to all other performances and parallel events of the festival, share your experience over social and networking events and an opportunity to expose your work to other international festival directors.

Parameters / Requirements:

• Duration between 30’ to 70’ minutes (Exceptions are durational, promenade and/or Loop performances)
• Technical Requirements for your work will be adapted and adjusted to the final venues of the Festival.
• English text/subtitles must be available for the performance, if the language is other than English.

Selection Criteria:

• Direct relevance of the subject matter of the work with the theme of the Festival. The description of the art product needs to answer to one or all of the questions posed in the Theme. Non-relevant works will not be considered.
• In terms of methodology, innovative work will be preferred, although that does not exclude more ‘traditional’ performances. The use of collaborative creative processes, multimedia, interaction, and others, and the exploration of new ways to expression and communication of the work, will be appreciated in the application.
• Cross-disciplinary and cross-sectorial work will receive extra merit. Involving means of creation of the artistic work and presentation of the work from sectors such as academia, social work, peace-building, architecture and spatial design, and others, is welcome.

Other Terms:

• If you are performing or adapting a work that is under copyright, you must get permission in writing from the author or their literary agent or publisher.
• Selected artists will be asked for materials towards the outreach strategy of the BFPAF, which the Home for Cooperation can use at their own discretion unless otherwise agreed.
• Insurance for the venues of the BFPAF will be arranged by the Home for Cooperation, but your own personal travel insurance, as well as insurance for any injury that may be caused to the members of the audience by you or your set or props, needs to be arranged by you, prior to your performance.