A 3 minutes pitch for a long term project on sustainable international touring
This is the transcription of the PE pitching session on Thursday September 9th
… with some little more details here and there.
Who I am
I’m Federico Toso, of DOC Servizi cooperative for artists, where I’m charged to develop Outdoor & Circus Arts sector.
Where we are
We act nationally, but for this project we are based in Turin (North West of Italy), in a participative cultural hub called TYC – Off Topic, with a contemporary theater, a music club, a bistro, a co-working space and a huge artistic and cultural programming that we don’t intend to overfill. We are looking on the surrounding area with the wish to promote and experiment new form of interactive actions with the community.
The area around us is a sort of periphery in plain center of the city, with 5 different urban identities strongly unconnected. The area where we intend to work is the social housing complex next to us: 4 buildings, 3 internal courtyards, 1 surrounding wall, almost 32 different nationalities, countless problems: poverty, social inclusion, integration, job access, school dropout and so on.
What will be the COED Festival
COED means for us Conceiving Outdoor as Education to Diversity. It’s a long-term project, in which artistic is just one of the languages with which we intend to explore the theme of diversity, and here we present the very first little step.
What it’s in the present
Right now, the festival is just a risky and difficult space that meets a bright idea, to be developed over the next 5 years. An idea which has been spinning inside our heads for quite a while. We did not want to transform something that we already had in our pockets, but to consciously create a new concept of relationship between space, art and community, according to the innovative guidelines of Perform Europe network.
When is it scheduled?
The first experimental session will probably take place between May and June 2022. We are working on it.
What can we offer
- Hospitality
- Support of a person with the role of cultural mediator
- Connection to the local artistic network to involve artists as well
- Cachet
- Tutoring on art projects
- Promotion in the network
What we expect by producers
We are not looking for large productions with great tech needs. We are looking for proposals that can directly involve the community living in the social housing next to us. We ask the artists to stay at least a week with us investigating on diversity subject, through performative experience, enhancing a real protagonism of its inhabitants. This doesn’t necessarily mean putting people on stage. We intend to respect the identity of each artistic proposal, while guaranteeing a true exchange relationship that can nourish the community and the artists, making both of them grow.
What we expect by presenters
We are looking also for other presenters with similar needs and visions, with which to establish a continuous networking aimed to create a more sustainable circuit (social, environmental, economic, relational etc). We would like to start with international partners close to us (but we also remain open to evaluate distant proposals), in order to try to build touring paths that can develop in a continuous line: more curved dance step than a crazy broken line of a seismograph.
Which are the pillar of our approach
The ideas on which we would like to explore innovative ways of conceiving sustainable touring are:
- To develop circularity in touring, building interconnected mini networks, tracing real continuous and non-schizophrenic itineraries.
- To develop a concept of venue not just as a destination but as a transit station too. From A to B, an artist may stop in the space in between proposing an exchange
- To focus on innovative digital networking tools to facilitate events production
- To enforce the role of artistic mentor of the local organizations
Contacts
OCA on Mail: [email protected]
OCA on Facebook
ME on phone: +39 349 148 2040
ME on Telegram: @instabilefede
ME on Twitter and Linkedin
Pictures of the project area
