RAWABET: Open call for Performing Artists-in-Residence [Malmö/Sweden]
RESIDENCY PERIOD: 18-28 JUNE 2025
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 20 JANUARY 2025
An invitation to performing artists (theater, dance, new circus, and other forms) originally from the Arab region (regardless of ethnicity), who arrived to European territories after 2015, to develop and create works in collaboration with European and non-European counterparts and audiences, in order to create a more diverse cultural scene and combat stereotypes and discrimination.
The residency will select 5 artists based in Sweden, 5 artists based in Norway, and 5 artists based in other Creative Europe countries and cover travel, accommodation, and artist fees to prepare a project to be showcased locally or shown at Masahat Festival 2025 in Oslo.
Join a 10-day artistic residency, including peer-learning activities, personal creation time, collective workshops, and work-in-progress showcasing to support artistic projects which rekindle the curiosity for new relationships between cultural ambassadors from SWANA and Europe, and to explore questions about the meaning of ‘Europeanness’ in the contexts of contemporary political discourse, cultural production, and migration.
WHY APPLY?
A stipend of €2.500 (incl. all taxes and social costs)
Up to €2.000 in production costs support
Travel, accommodation, working space in downtown Malmö
Networking opportunities with actors from the Swedish theatre industry
Rehearse and showcase a project for Masahat Festival 2025 in Oslo
CONTEXT & CHALLENGE
Northern Europe was once seen as a safe haven for people, fleeing persecution. Since the 2015 Mediterranean refugee crisis, the journey to Europe often led to disappointment upon arrival, as the rise of xenophobic discourse has since then turned migration into a polarizing political topic impacting the course of European societies. In Europe, solidarity coexists with racism. Migrant communities who often carry a rich cultural heritage navigate a landscape where cultural hybridization must come to terms with a xenophobic cultural clash within societal majorities. This residency asks what does Europeanness mean in 2025, 10 years after the so-called European migrant crisis. How do diasporic communities inhabit their new homes and cultures and how does their cultural heritage feature as an enriching feature of their cultural expression as new European citizens and cultural producers? How do they live in Europe today as they witness their host countries contribute to global inequalities that contributed to causing their migration in the first place? What political and ethical issues arise when migration is understood within its historical, political, and economic entanglements, including imperialism, racism, and authoritarianism?
FOR WHOM?
Rawabet seeks a group of 15 performing artists to develop, rehearse, and showcase small-scale individual artistic projects in a 10-day period. The projects may be multidisciplinary with an anchoring in performance arts, particularly in dance, theatre, spoken word, puppetry, new circus arts, or interdisciplinary formats. Artists originally from the Arab region, of all ethnicities, and who have moved to Europe since 2015, are eligible to apply, with priority given to artists who moved from Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya. Applicants who moved to Europe prior to 2015 will also be considered on individual cases.
Download the long version of the call for more information, as well as the application questions, in the download buttons below:
WATCH THE RECORDING OF AN INFO WEBINAR
PRODUCED BY
A part of RAWABET: Participation | Connectivity | Diversity: Rawabet (Arabic for ‘links’) is a consortium of entities united by the belief that empowering the presence of artists moving from the Arab region enriches public life in Europe, and add to its dynamic, vast, and rich cultural scene. The consortium’s work includes production grants, residencies and exchange programs, artistic festivals and knowledge production.
Organized by Transversal Project: A cultural strategy agency in Malmö, working across borders to set up innovative, culture-driven, g/local development projects. Their portfolio includes international artistic residencies, trainings on sustainable cultural productions, a sunlight art festival, and a floating design market.
Co-organized by:
Ettijahat- Independent Culture: Ettijahat is a cultural organisation working to promote independent culture across the mashriq region and beyond. Its main goal is to activate the role of independent artists in enabling cultural, and social change.
Masahat: Masahat is a non-profit organization established in 2015 in Norway with the purpose of curating and presenting knowledge, history, art and culture from the Middle East and North Africa with a special focus on the Arab world.
FINANCIALLY SUPPORTED BY
The Rawabet programme is supported by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) within the framework of CREATIVE EUROPE. The views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
QUESTIONS?
CONTACT US
Abduljabbar [@] transversal.eu
zeina [@] masahat.no
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