AMD (art, music and dance) Studio Assoc. Sofia, Bulgaria is looking for European partners for a project to be submitted under the Culture Programme, Strand 1.2.1 (deadline: 1st October 2009).
Project Graffiti Rumors is about Europe's street graffiti, the messages and information they convey, the impact they have upon young generation, cultural and social life, literature and everyday language, communication and education. The project is to make parallel between Eastern and Western Europe graffiti and draw a picture how graffiti mosaic change geographically in light of EU enlargement and democratization both socially and culturally. It is to follow graffiti trajectory of enlargement starting with Italy, France, Spain, Great Britain and Germany, going East through Czech Republic, Poland, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and ending in Turkey.
The project is to disclose that most graffiti "masters" elsewhere in Europe leave no "mass culture" challenge unanswered. Propaganda, global warming, social and financial crises, consumerism, and the effects of globalization have given fuel to a new set of street artists, who prefer to convey a concept not just a name. They poke fun at the authority figures of all kind and laugh over the dominant culture's mouthpiece – propaganda. This new graffiti communication is to say "I dare you to understand"; "This is my cry against dominant cultural reality", "This is my cultural and social resistance, my independence from all institutions and stereotypes".
Project implementation includes shooting a short documentary on graffiti and individual research, direct contact and interviews with graffers, street artists (musicians, mimes, painters), "traditional" artists and performers, volunteers, school teachers and university professors, cultural and churches' officials, TV and media producers. The focus will be on modern graffiti practices, futurism, pop art and impressionism in order to illustrate how external stimuli provide the artist with inspiration and new vision. As a collection of cross-cultural graffiti writings the project will compare the differences and similarities among groups of graffers and their works. The aim is to better understand the driving forces behind graffiti phenomena and learn why most of the young people like them. The film is going to show the concept and messages graffiti convey, their relation to our everyday language, way of communication and the transformation they create within traditional culture. It will not use culture as a guide to study graffiti. It selects graffiti topics which are of interest to the society, and which may have significant impact on culture.
The project focuses on "Is graffiti art shaping the collective consciousness of the society, especially the consciousness of young children, teenagers and students"; "How graffiti relate to other modern forms of expression such as graphic design, fashion, illustration, stenciling, and subvertising"; "What should be the answer of the traditional culture to graffiti".
Together with the short documentary film about Europe's graffiti, graffers, street artists and volunteers who rub out and erase graffiti, a book about the "most popular" graffiti based on the above meetings, conversations and interviews will be printed. The film and the book shall be distributed to mass media, internet, TV channels, galleries, cultural institutions, film produces, libraries and 60 European schools and art colleges with the aim to be used in schools' curricula.
Furthermore, as a direct result of the project we expect to encourage new forms of art and establish new points of contact, share new ideas, practices and works between all actors involved in the project. A final workshop and exhibition will take place at the end of project.
Project duration: 13 months (May 2010 - June 2011)
Grant requested: EUR 180 000.
Expressions of interest can be sent to
Mrs. Galya Spassova,
Chairwoman
AMD (art, music and dance) Studio Assoc.
http://www.amdstudio.net
galya.spassova@amdstudio.net
98, Pirotska Street
1303 Sofia, Bulgaria
Tel.: 00359 2 931 1977
Fax: 00359 2 931 1538
Mobile: 00359 0885 813 560
00359 0886 621 545