Calls for Papers

GR 13 Hiking Trail project


Call for projects
IMéRA / Marseille-Provence ECOC 2013

www.imera.fr

In a partnership Marseille Provence 2013 and IMéRA will welcome an artist in residence in 2011/12 to work on a project specifically conceived to complete the «GR 13 Hiking Trail project».
The «Hiking Trail project» will be a key project in the Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013, which aims to promote awareness of its large territory – from Arles to Toulon, Aix to Marseille, a large, contrasted territory, between seashore and industry, the delta of the Rhône river and dramatic hills in a largely urbanized land.

The Hiking Trail Project consists in the creation of a trail between Arles and Toulon for a 12-day travel on foot, crossing natural and urbanized, preserved and industrialized places. The trail will be co-drawn by several artists-walkers, the path marking, the guidebooks (and hopefully smartphone applications) will be objects of artistic commissions.

The first aim of this project is to invite people to discover physically the places where they live, to “travel here”; while offering new esthetics of “place” (beyond wilderness romanticism); to explore the meaning of this contemporary art practice of walking, in relationship with contemporary social, political and environmental issues.

Crossing all the Bouches-du-Rhône department, this trail will also allow inhabitants and visitors to to experiment the highly contrasted places of varied ecosystems, most transformed by man – and to become more aware of the interaction of land use and the changing natural environment.

The proposed artistic project must:

• Be centered on the Territory Issue, in a «Sense of Place» approach (aiming to a better awareness of inhabitants and visitors about the places they are or live in).

• Deal with the art/science general issues (the sciences dealing with places can be for example: geology, oceanology, ecology, forestry, microbiology, climatology, but also engineering sciences, etc.) The art project must involve collaboration with local scientists ( social or physical sciences or research engineers).

We expect from the artist a short concept note (2 pages maximum), with no calendar, no budget. Proposers must complete the IMERA application available at:

http://www.imera.fr/index.php/en/becoming-a-fellow.html

The artist will work with local researchers in order to complete the conception and realization of his project. IMERA will help identify interested local scientists and establish required collaborations.

All forms of artistic expression can be considered as long as walkers on the trail can in some way have access to the artwork.

We will be particularly interested in projects dealing with such themes as:

●    Water Issues (Marseilles will host in 2012 the Word Water Forum),
●    Sustainable Cities.
●    Internet projects and Locative Media Projects (linked with eg GPS technology),
●    «Open Observatory» issues like how to develop public access to, understanding, and even production of new scientific data. People’s Science Projects are encouraged.
●    Other topics that relate to the region and the visible and invisible processes, social and physical, that shape it.

Calendar

●    Deadline for Concept notes: 30 January 2011
●    Decision of the IméRA and MRS 2013 : Juin 2011
●    Residence period: 1st September 2011 – 2012
●    Realization of the project by MRS 2013: 2011 -2012

DETAILED INFORMATION

The Hiking Trail project, a key project in the Marseille Provence European Capital of Culture 2013

In 2013, Marseilles Provence will be the European Capital of Culture: a great number of cultural events will happen in the city, for an international audience that is expected to gather several millions of
people. One of the specificities of this Marseilles Provence ECOC is its territory – from Arles to Toulon, a large, contrasted territory, between seashore and industry, the delta of the Rhône river and dramatic hills in a largely urbanized land.

The Hiking Trail project answers an important aim of MP2013 to “put the territory of Marseilles Provence ECOC 2013 at the heart of the artistic programming”. The Hiking Trail Project consists in the creation of a trail between Arles and Toulon for a 6-day travel on foot crossing natural and urbanized, preserved and industrialized places. Crossing all the Bouches-du-Rhône department, this trail will allow inhabitants and visitors to experiment the highly contrasted places of varied ecosystems, most transformed by man – and to meditate on land uses.

Historical ground

Hiking as a social practice was born with the development of train and car, at the beginning of the 20th century. Marseilles was one of the leading places of that hiking movement, since one of the first European societies of hikers was founded in Marseilles in 1896 (“Société des excursionnistes de Marseille”). These people organized in 1906 the first French environmental protest to save a wild calanque (Port-Miou) against the quarry project of the chemical industrial Solvay.

Sociological ground

The aim of this project is to invite people to discover physically the places where they live, to go for a “travel here”; while offering new esthetics of “natural spaces” (beyond the wilderness romanticism) ; to explore the meaning of this contemporary art practice of walking, in relationship with contemporary social, political and environmental issues.

The trail will be co-drawn by several artists-walkers, the path marking, the guidebooks and the smartphone applications will be objects of artistic commissions.

The Hiking Trail Project aims to be at the crossroad of several important issues:

• put the territory at the heart of the artistic programming of Marseilles ECOC 2013
• promote and export the specific Marseilles stage of “artists walkers”
• have an impact on social practices of the place
• draw important contemporary issues on land uses
• reinforce a sense of the “natural infrastructure” of our cities and urban dwelling
• promote new representations of the places around (photography)

Calendar

• 2010 : drawing of the trail
• 2011-2012 : realization of the trail and of the guidebooks, path marking (artistic commisions), website and eg Smartphone applications etc.
• 2013 : Opening of the 2013 Hiking Trail and events during the year

more details at www.imera.fr

 

Posted by:  Ozden Sahin (LEA Co-editor and Curator)