[artinfo] UrbanFestival 2008 / Call for proposals

[sonja]

*UrbanFestival: How we regret*

May 2008

*CALL FOR PROPOSALS*

Deadline for Submission: September 1, 2007.

Submission Guidelines: All proposals must be submitted via online 
submission form at http://www.urbanfestival.hr/08/hr/poziv.html, and 
so we kindly request that you do not submit any additional materials.

Decision Deadline: All applicants whose proposals have been selected 
for further review will be contacted by October 15, 2007.

UrbanFestival is an international multimedia festival of contemporary 
art in urban public spaces and its core objective is to have art 
permeate city life, intensify the interaction between the city, along 
with all of its infrastructure, and its residents.
Ever since it started in 2001., UrbanFestival has been concerned with 
the public and public space in particular, not only in terms of its 
thematic focus and program selection but also in terms of its unique 
organizational forms and experimentation. By deliberately stepping 
outside the ivory towers of art galleries and theaters, we have been 
attempting to widen the scope of our activity and bring to life the 
public space as a place of coexistence and juxtaposition of divergent 
points of view, even potential antagonism.
In the age of representational culture and a growing number of 
festivals, UrbanFestival has been designed more as a platform, a 
place for experiment, a structure that should be able to respond to 
local needs and intervene in the immediate context. We have decided 
to replace the conception of the city as a place whose existence is 
independent of its built-in structures and practices, a place of 
regulation of the everyday, an expression of the state power or of 
the ruthlessness of capital, with a political understanding of the 
city - the city, as a place that is constantly being reinvented by 
the practices of its residents.

*The theme of UrbanFestival 2008 is: How we regret.*

We are looking for open, interactive, and participatory projects that 
are socially committed. All selected artists are obligated to come to 
Zagreb for a research visit.

*Organized by:* [BLOK] - Local base for culture refreshment is a 
non-profit NGO that produces and organizes innovative artistic 
events, works on widening and changing public space through inspiring 
citizens participation, hybrid artistic-research projects reflecting 
on social phenomena and urban structure. [BLOK] works to create and 
maintain the continuity of artistic effect in public space.