Call for International Artists - 2023 Altofest - Naples, Italy

Call for International Artists - 2023 Altofest - Naples, Italy

5th-18th June 2023 - Artistic Residency and Programme

International Contemporary Live Arts Fest - GIVING RISE TO Human Regeneration

A project by Teatringestazione

Invitation for proposals - deadline 4th February 2023

Altofest was born in 2011 as an act of resistance, both artistic and political. The aim is to GIVE RISE TO a community based on the "poetic citizenship" principle. It calls to dialogue all the social components of the human-urban fabric in which it is grafted. It acts as a semantic interference in everyday life, allowing inhabitants to speak to each other in a neutral language and meet in a shared risk space, daring together.

Altofest is a systemic live performance by Teatringestazione, extended in time and space, shared in the form of a festival with a heterogeneous collectivity, made up of artists, citizens and residents, researchers, scholars and experts in the cultural sphere, conscious and occasional spectators.



Teatringestazione composes the dramaturgy of Altofest by combining the proposals received through the call for proposals with the domestic spaces and its inhabitants, giving rise to a collective action spread across different parts of the city.

Altofest moves away from the function of mere "production" or "programming" of performances and artistic works, usually attributed to festivals, to become a space for experimental sociality. Citizens welcome international artists and authors from different disciplines, invited to question their completed works, in a public and collective way, through a translation process for the domestic space.

Through Altofest, we want to radically question ourselves on the need to generate new values constantly, to redesign the relationship with places, to subvert the use of spaces and the established attribution of roles, to dare to cross borders (of gender, discipline, of competence, of action) that have never been attempted before.

This is why, when choosing proposals to send us, we invite artists to avoid being swayed by the thought of the work's easy adaptability. On the contrary, the opportunity Altofest offers is precisely that of reworking the performance’s structure, essence and direction with the domestic place and the relationships that pass through and define it.

The artists are invited for an artistic residency to process the selected work. The work will then be open to the public during the programming days following the residency.

The artist's stay is required for the entire Altofest period, for two weeks.

Altofest guarantees accommodation with the use of a kitchen, a production fee, and additional technical and human resources under the terms specified in the regulations in the attachment to this call.

Application may include one or more original and finished works conceived for a formal space, already performed in front of an audience. Repertory or archived works that are to be reactivated are also eligible. The theme, content and duration are free. Proposals must belong to contemporary live art (theatre, dance, performance, experimental and interdisciplinary formats). Incomplete performance projects or those still in the study or creation phase are excluded.



How the selection process works:

A composition process derived from the careful observation of each proposal received, the aesthetic elements that compose it and the poetics that generated it. We attempt to exercise a gaze that does not dominate but welcomes the interrogative power of the individual proposals, as this is translated into the signs that recur in each one, allowing a unique composition of works to emerge that form the body of the 2023 edition’s question.



A question that imposes itself on our gaze, overcoming the distances and differences that distinguish the artists who respond to our call.

We then summarise this question in the dramaturgy that we complete by combining the chosen works with the residents who welcome the artists into the heart of their daily lives.



Finally, we hand over to this emerging community the task of cohabiting in the space of risk, a neutral and uncomfortable zone, which becomes the site of an unprecedented and shared language, which forms the basis of the dialogue between the inhabitants of the community of the 'hovering city' of Altofest, built on the principle of poetic citizenship.



How to apply:



Professional artists can apply worldwide without distinction among nationality, country of residence, language or age. Unfortunately, amateur groups cannot apply.

To apply, please read the regulations and send proposals by filling out the online form. The online application is the only way to send artistic proposals for Altofest 2023.

By filling in the form, you have read and unconditionally accepted the regulations attached to the call for proposals.

For more information and questions:

• info@altofest.net
• +39 320 0304861 (Whatsapp/telegram)
• www.altofest.net

Altofest is a project by Teatringestazione.

Altofest was born in Naples in 2011, conceived and curated by TeatrInGestAzione, directed by Gesualdi | Trono, in dialogue with Loretta Mesiti as dramaturg.

It was awarded by the EFA (European Festival Association) with the EFFE AWARD 2017-18 (Europe for Festivals Festivals for Europe), resulting in the six best European festivals among more than 715 candidates. In 2018 it was included as a best practice in the annual report “Io Sono Cultura 2018” (t/n, I am culture), edited by Symbola Foundation. Also, in 2018, the Italian Ministry of Culture awarded it with the “European Year of Heritage” label. Winner of the calls: Funder35 (2016); SIAE-Sillumina (2017); Allianz Kulturstiftung (2019). In 2018 Altofest left the borders of Naples for the first time, inaugurating a series of special editions commissioned by different European Capitals of Culture and international Institutions: Altofest Malta 2018 for Valletta 2018 ECoC; Altofest Matera-Basilicata 2019 for Matera 2019 ECoC; and on 2022 a re-edition for Valletta, commissioned by the Valletta Cultural Agency. It is also included in the Kaunas 2022 nomination dossier and Trenčín 2026’s bid book as Every Part Counts’ key project, acting as a de facto connector of a “spontaneous” network among the cities sharing this title. Furthermore, Altofest is an indicator of the cultural interest in the town of Naples in the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor tool of the European Commission.