PATHS OF RURAL MOBILITY
Artist Residency Program in Sound and Intermedia Arts for 2014
Montemuro, Arada and Gralheira Mountain Ranges (Portugal)
April and October 2014

An organization of Binaural/Nodar
In partnership with Audiolab.org (Basque Country) and Tramontana Network of Memory Archives from Southern Europe

[Call for creative projects open until 31 October 2013]

1. Creative proposal

Rural societies as the mountain ranges around Nodar (central Portugal) are usually understood as still being anchored in a sense of rootedness, of deep connection between communities and their landscapes of reference, in which mobility is essentially seen as being forced by extreme circumstances, as an exit from the natural flow of life (eg, emigration or military draft).

However, if one attentively analyses to the social history of these communities, we find a whole series of movement impulses since ancient times, and were probably the limitations of routes and transportation that made the radius of action more limited than the desired or needed.

On the other hand, the rapid social change of Portugal in recent decades stimulated an increase in the pace and range of geographical mobility, and people with life experiences abroad or even born elsewhere are now common in rural villages.

Binaural/Nodar’s artist resdiency program in sound and intermedia arts for 2014 will specifically focus on the ancestral and contemporary aspects of mobility in the rural areas of Montemuro, Arada and Gralheira mountains trying, by hosting artists’ field work together with communities and landscapes and innovative uses of audiovisual technologies, and interactive communication, to contribute to the debate on the new directions of rural mobility.

Below are the types of rural mobility which should be selected by each proposal (a typology for each proposal):

  1. Commercial Mobilities: food pedestrian vendors, cattle and goats vendors, ore traders during the XX World War, traditional itinerant services (animal killers, animal castrators, blacksmiths, carpenters, basket weavers, coopers, clog makers, etc.), modern international transport drivers (TIR), smuggling, itinerant minivans selling grocery, bakery, greens and fruit, fish, etc.
  2. Farming Mobilities: the mobility of farmers employed both within the region and to other regions, etc.. The cyclic mobility depending on the seasons and their agricultural activities.
  3. Shepherding mobilities: the paths of transhumance, the daily mobility of shephers, etc.
  4. Religious Mobilities: pilgrimages (to both local sites and to Fatima), promises, processions, sacred routes, etc.
  5. Leisure Mobilities: the roaming of musicians and people from villages to traditional dance and music parties, etc., New ways of leisure and rural as weekend or vacation.
  6. Social mobilities: Marriage, military service, war, school, university, seminary, emigration and immigration (Lisbon, Porto, France, Switzerland, Brazil, etc..). Departure and return. Traveled paths, crossing borders, etc.


2. Application

a) In the selection process the following types of artistic works will be privileged: Electroacoustic / vocal / sound art compositions; Permanent or ephemeral sound sculptures; Radio works; Free improvisation and performance works for/from the local religious phonosphere.

b) The artistic creation labs will be developed in two phases, in April and October 2014 (each artist will develop his/her project during three weeks in only one of the mentioned periods).

c) Applications are accepted only if sent by October 31th, 2013, exclusively using the online application form found at: http://www.binauralmedia.org/news//news/en/artist-residency/application-form.

d) The document attached to the application (a pdf, doc or zip file) should include the following information:

  1. Art project proposal to be developed (indicating both work methodology and planned chronology);
  2. Brief artistic biography (one paragraph) and Curriculum Vitae;
  3. Web links to previous works from the artist(s);
  4. Material and technical needs of the project;
  5. Proposed time period for the artist residency.

d) For additional inquiries, please write to Manuela Barile (manuela-binauralmedia.org) or Rui Costa (rui-binauralmedia.org).

e) For additional information on the conditions of the residency, please refer to Binaural/Nodar’s website: http://www.binauralmedia.org/news//news/en/artist-residency/the-residency.