22-12-2022 14:13
The Music Art Tabor project is an initiative of the association IME, Bulgaria, in partnership with the Norwegian Society of Composers and Lyricists (NOPA) – to include Roma communities in the dynamics of contemporary artistic life and open the borders between professionals and amateurs in experimental art spaces.
The project is implemented in 2022-2024 with the support under the EEA Financial Mechanism and will contribute to improving access to arts and culture for disadvantaged and ethnic minority youth, a key priority of the Program for cultural entrepreneurship, heritage and collaboration.
Since 2006, the Association IME has been organizing the popular international art fest Water Tower Art Fest, with the mission to recognize and create spaces for contemporary art from abandoned and unpopular places in the urban environment.
The Music Art Tabor project aims to present and share the ideas of the festival in a synthesis of music, artistic visions and new technologies with young people from ethnic minorities inhabiting peripheral areas of the capital and small settlements in Northern Bulgaria.
A series of micro-events will be organized in four suburbs of Sofia - performances combining musical improvisations, visual arts and 3D mapping of the urban environment, in which professional performers from Norway and Bulgaria and amateur musicians from the local ethnic communities will perform together live creative interpretations on traditional themes from Roma culture.
Another highlight of the initiative is the three-day festival Music Art Tabor – a travelling event that will take place in four small settlements - the villages of Osikovska Lakavitsa, Varbitsa, Vinograd and Kamenar. The concert program, dedicated to the production of jazz and ethnic rhythm, inherent in Roma self-expression and folklore, will include professional Norwegian and Bulgarian performers - percussionists and jazz musicians, as well as amateur musical ensembles. The live performances will be recorded with video and sound into a common musical product, which can then be presented in the country of the partner organization, Norway. Music will be the unifying energy of the festival, but it will also include other forms of interaction with local communities – screenings of educational films, a three-day course for local youth in 3D animation and 3D mapping, accompanied by a demonstration of the result, an art installation for the revitalization of neglected spaces and buildings - with the participation of local residents, a techno music performance for the interpretation of ethnic motifs with different instruments and voice, a workshop for children "How to make instruments from vegetables" led by Norwegian musicians, a drawing workshop for children on the subject of "My neighbourhood/my village" with prizes and an exhibition of children's works on the last day of the festival.
To achieve the sustainability of the experience in holding these innovative festival events and interactive practices in experimental spaces, the project envisages the parallel development of a Strategy-Plan for attracting new audiences, with a focus on reaching audiences in peripheral urban areas and small settlements inhabited by disadvantaged people and ethnic minorities with limited access to culture.
The planned online training course for the expert staff of the IME Association, which will be led by specialists from the partner organization NOPA, has a similar thematic orientation. The sharing of the Norwegian society's considerable experience in attracting new audiences and art scenes will create a good basis for lasting international cooperation between the two organizations further on.
Within the framework of the project, a series of measures for publicity and visualization of the initiative, pursuing a high modern standard of presentation with digital and other means, are foreseen.