Call 2021 | Festival des Bords de Vire 2022 – Usine Utopik (FR)

To develop the culture in Normandy territory, Usine Utopik organised in 2012, the first edition of Festival des Bords de Vire. This event allows the creation of ephemeral artworks, realised « in situ » and scattered in the green footpaths of the Vire’s banks. Since 2018, the chosen artists have been invited to produce sustainable artworks in order to propose an artistic journey to the many walkers on the path during the years and, on the long term, will widen to the Parc Naturel Régional des Marais du Cotentin.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT

The 6th edition of Festival des Bords de Vire will be inaugurated on June 18th, 2022. This contemporary art event takes his originality in the inscription of Visual artworks specially realised for the Normandy territory. Organised by the USINE UTOPIK, this project call carries the creation of artworks in the territory of Saint Lô agglomeration. This event is above all, a project in the territory that want to be sustainable and allows all the actors of the collectivities, actors of the cultural life and tourism locality to be associated together. From national influence, at first, to international influence, this Festival des bords de Vire talks to all the public, aware or not. The artworks will be implanted in places, encouraging the surrounding nature.

THE SPIRIT: The originality of the event come to the inscription of visual artworks produce for the path next to the river. The artist must be inspired by the place. This inspiration is more important that the final artwork.

THE GOAL: The ambition is to develop the contemporary creations inside Normandy territory and allow artists to put their sensibility and their look onto the territory. This project can strengthen the culture and the tourism development in the center of the Manche council.

PUBLIC TARGET: Public can be Art’s lovers, from cultural tourism, the locals (region, department).

The potential locations for works along the towpath are based on the following criteria:

• The places must be esthetic and natural like the forest, the river, open spaces…
• A place to welcome the public (parking…)

What you need to know:

• The towpath is a free site without any surveillance (every day, 24h/24h).
• Most of the sites are in nature, there is no possibility of an electrical connection.

DATES TO REMEMBER

Residence of in situ creation from June 1st to June 17th, 2022
Inauguration of the Festival on June 18th at 12pm, 2022
Guided tours and activities from June 19th to September 30th, 2022

THE GENERALS CONDITIONS

THE ARTISTS

The selection mode

• The sixth edition of the Festival des Bords de Vire 2022 is open to every person proposing a project answering to the yardstick and purpose of the event.
• The event is open to the young talents. The young talents can be students, alone or jointly, from Art School, Architect School, Landscape school, students in the penultimate or final year of school or graduated since one year maximum. At the end, the organizers will be free to judge the eligibility of the candidate.
• The artists will be chosen by a selection committee of the USINE UTOPIK
• This application call is open to national and international artists
• The decision of the committee is final and will be personally communicated to the candidate in November 2021 without arguing any decision. To facilitate the selection, the jury can ask further information to the artists.
• The selection committee pre-selects the artists and confirms their selection after all the artists have submitted their quotes of realization for the project.

Remuneration:

• The grant is 2500€ TTC and will be given to the artists or collective selected.
• The cost of production of the artworks created in 2022, will be taken in charge by the ADN association. The cost is 4000€ for the totality of the artworks (global budget includes granite, wood and corten steel.)
• The budget will be managed by the artist and validated by the organizer who have the right of inspection. Any other material proposal will have to be budgeted and presented in the project
• The budget must be used for all expenses generated by the creation of the artwork. The artist must be caring his project from the beginning to the end. The artist manages the project from A to Z: all the tasks related to the organization, supplier research, quote requests, logistics for delivery and material routing.

The amount of 2500 € are given for :

• Artwork production: the creation and the material work, logistics, transport and the installation with necessary tools and material.
  Artist’s displacement
• The presence of the artist during his installation
• The artist have to stay at the event opening on Saturday, June 18 2022 at 12h. (the schedule can change)
• The artist have to think on long-term consequences of the artwork staying in nature with walkers and visitors.
• The artist accepts to be photographed, and his work too, for the communication on media, social media…
• The artworks become de property of the ADN association (USINE UTOPIK) and we commit to highlight the work with the presentation cartel including the artist’s name, the creation date, the title and the materials

After the selection the selected candidate will receive the grant in two times :

• The 1 part: 1000 euros TTC given on the arrival day
• The 2 part: 1500 euros TTC given after the reception of the conform artwork and after the opening on June 18 2022.

The organizer takes the charge of:

• catering and accommodation of the artist (follower will not be taken in charge) in the territory during the creation time and the day of the opening.
• For those who work the stone, we can provide blue granite bloc of Vire de Saint Michel de Montjoie (maximum 3T) ; also a lifting gear to manipulate it.

THE ARTWORKS

The artworks are « in situ » installations, created in nature surrounding forest and river. They have to make a link with the place, with art and nature.

• Originals: artistic piece specially think for this event and the territory.
• Materials: The selected pieces must stay in long term life with materials like stone, metal, rotting wood (douglas, larch, oak, etc…)
• The visual: The artworks must be visual, they had to show the territory and be more like installations instead of sound artworks, paintings or murals.
• The landscape’s Scale: The creations « Monumentales » will be favored in the respect of the scale of the territory. A balance must be created between nature and the piece of art.
• Respectful of the environment: During all the creation process, the artwork must be respectful of the environment and must not ruined, or harm the natural place.
• Choice of the material: The artist is free to choose whatever materials he wants in respect of the environment.
• Strong: The climatic conditions can be extreme (strong wind, heavy rain, possible hail in the summer, flood of the Vire.) Artists must know the conditions of exhibit and undertake to do everything in their power to ensure that the works produced are resistant to bad weather.
• Artwork security: The artwork can’t be a danger for the walkers or visitors (risk of falling or cutting)
• The selected artists must specify the modalities (technical, logistic, planned stages) of the realization of their work.
• The time of realization: The artworks must be « in situ ». Creation schedule is between 1st June and 18th June 2020 (to confirm). During this period, the artist must be present on the territory for realization and installation of the artwork.
• Insurance: The artist must be insured to cover the consequences of the civil responsibility that can happened during the time of creation. He commits to give this insurance to the organizers.

THE PLACES

Usine Utopik suggests to the artists to choose a place among a list. The choice will be definitive and will be established on June 1st, 2022 during the visit of the place.

Those places are chosen because we have all the authorizations. In respect of this project, we give all the liberty of creation and expression to the artist in the utilization of the place, but we ask artist to care about agricultural activity.

We recommend you to take a look on our website; in “postuler” at the Festival des Bords de Vires to see artwork locations of the past edition.

THE PROJECT: Artists can propose up to three projects.