[artinfo] Open Call: Found Footage Workshop

[Lilia Dragneva]

Dear Colleagues and Partners,
 
I would like to ask you to help us by circulating the announcement below to those interested to participate in the "Found Footages" workshop, organized by the Center for Contemporary Art, Chisinau [ksa:k].
 
Thank you in advance,
 
All the best,
Lilia Dragneva
Director
Center for Contemporary Art, Chisinau [ksa:k]
___________________________________________________________________________

Open Call: Found Footage Workshop 

Deadline for receiving proposals: 5 August 2007
Announcement of selected participants: 10 August 2007

Organizer/Location: KSAK-Center for Contemporary Art, Chisinau
Workshop Period: 9-25 September 2007 (six hours per day, six days per week).
Participants: 15 persons will be selected from Moldova and East-European countries.

Project partners:
D Media Association, Romania (http://www.dmedia.ro)
Baza - Belgrade Art Initiatives, Serbia (http://www.baza.org.yu)
NBK Video Forum, Germany (http://www.nbk.org/video-f.html)

Description:
The Found Footage Workshop is an in-depth exploration of the use of archival material, the aesthetics of appropriation, sampling and detournement, and the transfer of cinematic language to digital forms. The workshop will consist in theoretical presentations, film screenings, and assisted hands-on workshops (selection of archival sources, analogue-digital transfers, montage). Each participant will produce a film based on the re-use of archival sources. The workshop will provide an opportunity for cross-cultural exchange between artists and students from Moldova, regional artists from East-European countries, and the international guests who have been invited to prepare the workshop.  

Guest tutors & content of the workshop:
John Davis (San Francisco, USA) is a media artist exploring the intersections of film, video, photography, experimental sound and social practices. Link: http://www.noiseforlight.com
* Introduction to the reuse of popular culture for critique, satire and poetic investigation. Assisting participants in extracting fragments from sources like film, VHS, DVD, television and the internet, and incorporating them into projects that reshape the media landscape with their personal vision. Screening of American found footage films.
Joanne Richardson (Cluj, Romania) is a cultural theorist, video artist and coordinator of D Media, an NGO producing digital media & engaged art. Link:  http://subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2/contributors0/richardsonbio.html
* Introduction to history of found footage and detournement, its relation to struggles against intellectual property, and the political dimensions of “counter-documentary.” Assisting participants with developing concept/montage. Screening of 1960-70s French films and post-1989 found footage from Eastern Europe. 
Stevan Vukovic (Belgrade, Serbia) is an art critic, film theorist, curator, and co-founder of Belgrade Art Initiatives. Links: http://www.baza.org.yu , http://www.o3.co.yu , http://www.schoolofmissingstudies.net
* Introduction to recent documentary film and video production from the Balkans. Screening of films by Zelimir Zilnik and other Serbian directors.  
Kathrin Becker (Berlin, Germany) is an art historian, curator and the director of NBK (Neuer Berliner Kunstverein) Video Forum. Link: http://www.nbk.org/video-f.html 
* Introduction to the NBK Video-Forum Archive. Screening of international artist videos from late 1960s to the present from the NBK collection.

Film Content/Production:
The workshop aims to facilitate a critical engagement by artists toward the current condition of post-soviet (former USSR) or post-socialist societies. We are especially interested in investigations that use film aesthetics and digital technologies to explore and comment upon the “transition” (gaps, ruptures, or continuities) between the dismantling of socialism and the current neo-liberal system, although artists can also propose ideas that depart from this focus. Each participant will develop a film scenario, select and choose appropriate archive sources corresponding to the idea, and edit a short digital film (5 to 10 minutes in length). The basic principle underlying the concept and production of the film should be the re-use or re-contextualization of archival sources, including propaganda films and archives from the socialist period (KSA:K has an available collection of these), fragments of new films, home movies or private archives, television and internet. 

Skills gained by taking the workshop:
Selecting and digitizing analogue materials (16 - 8 MM film, VHS), filming with professional cameras, editing with AVID, postproduction techniques. Films will be finished on mini DV and exported to DVD. Please note that some prior experience in video production (camerawork, montage) is required. 

Practical information: 
Selected participants will receive reimbursement for travel costs (train or bus), their accommodations and meals will be covered by the organizer for the duration of the workshop. There is no participation fees.

Criteria and submissions:
Applicants should be nationals or residents of Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, or Slovenia. We are looking for inspired proposals by visual artists, filmmakers and video activists that envision an intersection (dialogue, clash or complementarity) between past histories and present realities. Interested artists will prepare a proposal package containing the following documents: a CV (1-3 pages), a short statement about the particular interest in this workshop (150 words), a film synopsis (500-600 words), a production plan or timeline, and a tentative list/description of archival sources to be used. If these archival sources are difficult to find and specific to the region, artists are encouraged to bring them along. The application documents should be sent as a single file (.doc, .rtf or .pdf) by email. If applicants would like to submit samples of previous works, the package can be sent by post to the following address, but the electronic documents should also be sent separately by email to: 

Stefan Rusu –	FFW project curator
E-mail :	suhebator at gmail.com, ksak.info at mail.md
Address: 	Centrul pentru Arta Contemporana, Chisinau -[KSA:K],
Str. Independentei, 1, (Colegiul Al. Plamadeala)
Postal code: MD-2043, Chisinau, Republica  Moldova
Web site:	www.art.md 
Phone:		GSM+37369312435
Tel.            +37322 772507,
tel/fax:        +37322 573395

Center for Contemporary Art-[KSA:K] is a non-profit, independent institution registered in the year 2000. The new strategy of the Center is the development of cultural forms and art practices, which would reflect the dynamic of the social, political and economic transformations of the society. Center pleads for the advocacy activities in promoting of the cultural policies suitable for the defining and the consolidation of the artist position and contemporary art practices in the society.

This project is supported by ECF (European Cultural Foundation), Amsterdam; USA Embassy in Rep. of Moldova; Fine Arts College Al. Plamadeala; The Union of Cineastes from Rep. Moldova. 


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