Respublika! is a one-week community media arts festival which will take place in Cyprus on 8–16 December 2017. The festival will be simultaneously translated into an exhibition, which will run from 8 December 2017 to 19 January 2018, and will feed into a series of seminars.

After the first call of applications–explicitly focused on community media affiliated artists–closed on 30 June 2017, we now open a second call for applications. The deadline for this second call is 15 September 2017. See also https://respublikafest.org/call-for-entries-application/

With this second call, Respublika! calls for art projects that relate to (at least) one of the following two objectives, which translate the principles of community media in creative practice:

  • to reflect on media, democracy and its participatory component, analysing the (de)centralisation of power in contemporary societies, and/or
  • to use participatory mechanisms to produce art projects, working with, and empowering members of one or more communities.

Respublika! is a multi-sited and multi-genre community media arts festival which aims to tap into the creative reservoirs of community media, civil society organisations and social collectives (and their members); but also of artists that are committed to the basic principles of participatory community communication. In doing so, Respublika! very much welcomes contributions by artists, but also wishes to include art projects from individuals and groups that do not explicitly define themselves as artists, but still use a language that is related to the arts in order to reflect and communicate about themes that are part of the festival’s remit.

This openness and inclusiveness also translates into Respublika!’s spatial politics, as the festival will combine site-specific art projects and non-site-specific art projects. Site-specific art projects (or the so-called platform 1) are art projects whose location is highly significant to the art project itself, and which interrogate the spatial specificity of the location (as part of the festival’s remit). Examples are art projects related to performance art, interventions, and site-specific visual and sound art. The non-site-specific art projects will be exhibited in platform 2, which is the main exhibition hub, the NeMe Arts Centre (NAC) in Limassol, Cyprus. Platform 1 projects will also be represented in the main exhibition hub, while the online hub (which is called platform 3) will act as a facilitator to connect the first two platforms, while simultaneously documenting the entire festival and exhibition.

Respublika!’s multi-sited approach implies that also international applications are welcome. We believe that Respublika! will be enriched by a dialogue that transgresses the Cypriot borders and moves beyond the shores of the island.

Applicants are requested to send the following documents, in pdf format, to the festival secretariat, at participate [aτ] respublikafest [doτ] org.

  • Your resume/CV including name, address, phone number, website and e-mail address;
  • Project statement (maximum 500 words);
  • Documentation on earlier relevant projects (if any);
  • Proposed location of the art project (in the festival hub, the NeMe Arts Centre, or in another location);
  • Requested in kind support and advice (from the festival organisers) and reasons for request;
  • A short note explaining your connection to Cypriot (community media) organisations (not obligatory);

The festival’s committee will select a number of art projects to be incorporated in the festival, in addition to those accepted after the evaluation of the first call applications. The Selection Committee will be comprised of the curator, Nico Carpentier (see nicocarpentier.net), together with one member delegated by each of the project partners. Decisions of the Selection Committee are final and cannot be contested.

The deadline for applications to the second call is 15 September 2017.

Venue: NeMe Arts Centre, and a series of additional locations.

Conference website and online hub: respublikafest.org