Matera 2019

The results of the Call for Matera 2019 artistic residencies are available online. Many people participated in the call, with half of the 115 forwarded applications being submitted by associations working all over the region. 9 out of 35 eligible projects, which were selected by the board, will be funded.

Many of the submitted projects stand out for their high quality and final decisions were made based on the slight difference between projects intending to create cultural productions and projects seeking to exploit the opportunities offered by an artist-in-residence programme.

The winning projects deal with very different topics. "La radio da quaggiù" by the Association Al Parco Onlus of Satriano di Lucania deals with radio, a medium that Matera 2019 has chosen over the years as its favourite means of communication because of its intangible characteristic and wide reach.

"InsideSouth", by the collective PLUS APS of Pisticci, is a photography residency aimed at taking pictures on what is not apparently visible as well as building a collective reflection on the fragility of the territory and on the potential re-use of abandoned or underused historic building heritage.

"Comics storytelling" by the Association Supertramp of Viggiano aims at regenerating the mountainous suburbs through the gaze of cartoonists.

“Torre Stormita” is a residency organised by the Association “Terre Joniche Magna Grecia” which gives artists the opportunity to be hosted in Medieval towers overlooking the sea.

The “Centro Carlo Levi” of Matera submitted an urban regeneration project called “Icone per il futuro” that will involve important street artists. “Qualcuno che ne carpisca il segreto” is a project by the cooperative Synchronos, which will bring together Basilicata and Sardinia in sewing workshops held by internationally-renowned artists and fashion designers. The association Basilicata Link suggests activities on the almost abandoned rural suburb of Borgo Taccone and aims to re-write its history and future with the project “Esto También pasarà”.

The Regional Committee of Arci Basilicata will create “Un atlante del paesaggio rupestre” (An Atlas of the Rock-Hewn Landscape), which is a map of stories, stones and legends hidden between Matera and Montescaglioso, within the mysterious area of the Murgia and the Calanchi. The association Lucania Documenta will implement the “Gens - Mutazioni” project, which will tell the story of the past, the present and the future of Rivello through the voices of its inhabitants.

This link shows the list of all eligible projects that will be funded, the eligible projects that cannot be funded due to lack of resources, non-eligible projects as well as the projects that could not have been evaluated.

On 30 March the institutions that submitted the 35 eligible projects, which obtained a minimum score of 50, were invited to submit their project ideas to the community and to take part in a co-creation day in collaboration with European partners. The meeting focused on cross-border mobility and sustainability.

Matera 2019 commits itself to continuing the work started on 30th March so that further funding and participation opportunities may be highlighted to build up a community of residence curators. The opportunity of allocating mobility microvouchers ("go&see") to all the holders of eligible projects is currently being examined. It was already done with the Project Leaders and it proved successful in setting up international networks of European partnerships.