Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Festival DJART '14, 6th-15th November 2014 in Algiers


Dear followers,

We are proudly announcing multimedia festival DJART '14 which will take place in Algiers from 6th till 15th November.

Our Civil association ARTIKAL and About and around curating project are part of the organization, coordination and artistic program, as well of the Trans-Cultural Dialogues team. 

Press: https://www.mediafire.com/?x7bdf27z9hb98zw
...


DJART '14
Algiers, 6th-15th November

Trans-Cultural Dialogues is a platform composed by a group of young professionals from different cultural and artistic Euro-Mediterranean associations. This platform aims on examining various contemporary social issues through a multidisciplinary cultural approach to offer solutions and new sustainable models for mobility and exchange between cultural and artistic actors, and researchers in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

To serve this purpose, Trans-Cultural Dialogues is organizing a regional project with local importance taking the shape of a multidisciplinary cultural Biennale to be held in different Euro-Mediterranean cities. This year, and to welcome the first edition of this initiative, the city of Algiers was unanimously chosen given its rich history, cultural diversity and its place in the Mediterranean area. This first edition was titled: DJART (a contraction of the words Djazaïr and Art, a combination that sounds "Jar" meaning neighbor in Arabic).

DJART '14 encourages the democratization of culture and promotes art as a way to share knowledge, discourse and various practices. DJART '14 program was designed following a research path in Algiers by TCD team, meeting the needs and expectations of the public regarding the artistic and cultural initiatives. DJART '14 aims to bring art (often forgotten, disparage or put into the background) to the Algerian public by making it accessible, affordable and appealing to the audience. DJART also aims to raise public awareness among Algerians on themes that concern them as: identity, citizenship, North African and Mediterranean dimensions of Algeria or exchange and mobility among artists.
It is envisioned through participatory methods in the hope of creating social impact in an optical consistency and sustainability by integrating activities that are open to general public with the "Do It together" spirit, home-made or recycled creations and low to zero-budget productions.

DJART also encourages the public to reclaim urban spaces that have been left behind and long abandoned by giving them a new meaning and an alternative use while exploring their historical memory and considering their current state. In this perspective, a multifaceted approach is emerging combining visual arts, architecture, performances, and research that will lead to creative workshops, discussions, exhibitions, happenings and various artistic events.

The DJART '14 program offers various activities:
- Walid Bouchouchi - graphic artist will lead a workshop on the diversion of images providing the opportunity for participants to express themselves through stickers, they will paste around the streets of Algiers. Walid, who’s also the creator of AKAKIR collective and concept from Algiers, will set his visual creations in an outdoor exhibition squatting various stairwells and buses inside the city.
- eL Seed, French-Tunisian calli-graffiti virtuoso whose frescoes adorn the walls of many countries, will meet and exchange with his young local peers and leave a trace of color in the main street of the city center.
- Architect Salim Lamari, from Algeria, will conduct an open to public workshop to redesign the Ben-Boulaid square creating street furniture using recycled materials.
- Algerian photographer Youcef Krache proposes a series of portraits of Algerian women to be screened in a place in which many Algerians pass by every day.
- Also in the series of exhibitions programmed, Tunisian artist Nicene Kossentini through her urban sound installation that lets testify five Algerians on their daily life, will guide the audience on a journey through monuments and museums which lately lost attention from the public.
- The program also includes discussions on art in public space and artistic mobility bringing together artists and cultural actors from different nations and backgrounds, such as: curator and art critic Nadira Laggoune-Aklouche (Algeria), independent curator Yasmina Reggad (a.r.i.a. - artist residency in Algiers), artist Mohamed ben Soltan (BAC center, Tunis), writer and performer Mustapha Benfodil (Algeria), visual artist Annalisa Cannito (Teatro Valle Occupato, Italy), art historian and curator Xavier de Luca (Spain/Tunis), visual artists and performer Souad Douidi (Algeria), curator Djalila Kadi-Hanifi (Algeria), Karim Ouaras  Mostaganem university professor, CEMA, Algiers), Camille de Witt (Trans-Europe Halles, Sweden/France) and Lorena Cosimi (Teatro Valle Occupato, Italy).

These will be joined and coordinated by a multitude of international organizations and associations such as the Teatro Valle Occupato (Italy), JISER Reflection Mediterrànies (Spain), Algerian association Chrysalisde and Mains d'Oeuvres from France (part of Trans Europe Halles network).

Following the traditions of festivals, music & celebrations won’t be missing in DART ’14. Two open to the public concerts are scheduled with the group Yacine Belhacene & The Oriental Groove (Barcelona), Oranian new generation of reggae-rock band Democratoz, storyteller Faycal Belattar who will perform with oud musician Labib Benslama (Algiers), and musician Hamza El Fasiki (Fez, Maroko), as part of the celebration of first Cultural Innovation Day (Cultural Innovators Network).

DJART '14 has more surprises still to discover from 6th to 15th November 2014. 

For more info visit:

Trans-Cultural Dialogues is a platform and project developed with great support of Cultural Innovators Network and Mediterranean Goethe Institutes in 2012. The team consists of partner organizations and freelance professionals: Khaled Bouzidi (TEDxCasbah, Algiers), Xavier de Luca (JISER Reflection Mediterrànies, Barcelona/Tunis), Srđan Tunić (Civil association ARTIKAL, Belgrade), Annalisa Cannito (Teatro Valle Occupato, Roma), Khaoula Bessame (Algiers), Hichem Merouche (Annaba), Slavica Ilieska (Skopje-Amsterdam), Sonja A. Linke (Berlin), Chrysanthi Koumianaki (3 137, Athens), Victor de las Heras (Generación Espontánea, Madrid), Bouchra Saab (Beirut), Malik Chaoui (SAYKA, Constantine), Nassim Hadj-benali (Algiers) i Myriam Amroun (Algiers).

Support and cooperation: Andrej Bereta (Civil association ARTIKAL, Beograd), Muhamed Ben Soltane (BAC center, Tunis), Anass Heddan (Morocco-Belgium), Nesrine Merzougui (TEDxCasbah, Algiers), Ghanes Mohamed Walid (Algiers-Paris), CIN radio, and organizations Chrysalisde (Algiers), A.R.I.A. (Algiers) i AIESEC Benak (Algiers).

Financial support and sponsors: Goethe Institut (Alexandria i Rabat), Cultural Innovators Network, North-South Center / European Commission, AnnaLindh fondation, Instituto Cervantes in Algiers, Mairie d'Alger centre, Air Algerie, Avenir Déco, LVSC Méditerranée, Arts Collaboratory, Stichting DOEN, Hivos, Ministere de la culture de Algeria, Embassy of Netherlands in Algiers, Embassy of USA in Algiers, ONDA, Agence Algérienne pour la Rayonnement Culturel, ETUSA, IFAlgérie, European Institute of the Mediterranean.