Health, protection, hospitality, are just some of the many branches of well-being, a harmonious condition of health, both physical and mental but also collective, shared, with its social, ethical, civil, environmental, cultural, economic and political implications. The fourth edition of BAW – Bolzano Art Weeks develops around this concept, which will return from 27 to 6 October 2024 to animate the streets of the South Tyrolean capital with its initiatives dedicated to art in its various expressive and media forms: it therefore also returns the call for artists which, every year, selects and finances new artistic projects consistent with the aims of the festival.
WELLbeing WELfare WELcome
This year’s theme will therefore be the concept of “wellbeing”, expressed in the motto WELLbeing WELfare WELcome. The holistic approach with which BAW addresses this concept will invite artists to deal with an ideal of good which concerns actions, sensations and conditions and which invites those who create art and culture to reflect on their role and their ” beneficial mission”.
«Western culture – of which contemporary art is nothing other than a figurative expression – is permeated by an attention towards “external”, measurable, sterilely productive objectives to be achieved in an eternal race towards a realization postponed to a subsequent phase which does not never comes and without having time to truly live”, we read in the text describing the theme of BAW – Bolzano Art Weeks 2024. “Deprived as a species, for the first time in human history, even of the horizon of the future, living fully in the now it is misunderstood as the search for pleasure (physical, material, mental, etc.) as an end in itself which ends at the exact moment in which exposure to the stimulus ends, without leaving lasting gratifications and taking the form of an exaltation of selfishness” . «To contribute to the WELL-BEING of the world, art must start again from the WHAT and the WHY rather than from the HOW and regardless of the WHO (to be replaced with a FOR WHOM?) to have, restore and arouse SENSE (of wonder, beauty, belonging… etc. .) which awakens consciences, stopping time and opening a passage towards the infinite potential and resources that reside in each of us.”
BAW 2024: the call for artists
You have until June 30, 2024 to respond to the call. Candidates will be able to choose from the five proposed locations, which will be the focus of the activities in the five areas of the city on which BAW intends to work. As with the last edition, in fact, the aim is to spread the activities throughout the territory. In particular, the location planned for Bolzano West involves an action/project/performance that is activated at least once and in an outdoor space. BAW will provide each selected artist* with a budget (fee + project implementation costs) of 2 thousand euros, as well as general support in the implementation of the project, the setup and the inauguration or presentation event.
The various proposals will be examined with the help of the consultancy of the BAW 2024 curatorial committee composed of Chiara Caliceti (general director of DOC-COM), Nitzan Cohen (dean of the Faculty of Design and Arts at the Free University of Bolzano), Valerio Dehò (independent curator), Rudolf Frey (artistic director Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen -VBB), Daniele Lupo (Founder and Artistic Director of Lungomare), Kathrin Oberrauch (independent curator), Leono Radine (MUSEION curator), Thomas Tisot (collector), Lisa Trockner (president of the Südtiroler Künstlerbund – SKB).
For all information on the BAW 2024 call for artists, you can click here.
