MagiC Carpets Platform Cooperation 2023/2024

We are pleased to collaborate also in 2023/2024 in cooperation with Unfinished Art Space Malta with the MagiC Carpets platform.

Unfinished Art Space is an independent, artist-run, nomadic space, showing experimental and contemporary art in Malta. Unfinished Art Space is run by Unfinished Foundation, registered in Malta.  Over two years, Unfinished Art Space in cooperation with Diyalog will host international emerging artists in a number of residencies to work with communities in Malta. Artists embark on journeys to unknown lands and together with local artists and local communities, create new works highlighting local specificities and compensating for the shortage of story-telling in modern society, by enhancing cultural accessibility, cultural activism and participation.

MagiC Carpets is a platform, co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme, uniting 16 European partners, with the Kaunas Biennial as leading partner.

MagiC Carpets platform aims to support small-scale initiatives in the NGO sector, including cultural organizations, artists and cultural professionals, in order to help build their resilienc.

All of the platform members have an interest in developing activities that involve emerging talents (curators and artists) through a program of residencies with the inclusion of local communities and working in public spaces.

In November 2023 Unfinished Art Space and Diyalog will organize these residencies as part of the MagiC  Carpets activities with common events of cultural mobility in the frame of the Mahalla Festival under the title Memento – Beyond What Drifts Us Apart. Emerging curator Elyse Tonna, guided by Sabine Küper-Büsch of Diyalog, will curate the site- & context- specific project, commissioning and working alongside the Maltese artists whose works relate to the themes being explored.

Contextually, the focus of the upcoming project in Malta moves away from typical locations for artistic interventions, and shifts attention towards the peripheries, seeing opportunities in making use of sites of historic importance, with the aim of transmitting non-linear narratives.

Moments of exchange and interaction are sought. In the first weeks, the artists explore the locations and collect ideas, get in touch with colleagues, craftsmen, local residents and people who are related to their themes.

Parallel to the events of the residencies and the site specific presentation, the one-week Partners and Curators Meeting of all 16 MagiC Carpets members will take place in Malta in November 2023.

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