The International Cultural Exchanges Scheme forms part of Arts Council Malta’s Internationalisation Strategy for the cultural and creative sectors. It focuses specifically on the outgoing mobility of Maltese and Malta based artists, as well as their art works and cultural productions.
The spread of Covid-19 has temporarily made travel more difficult. However, it has given digital cultural exchanges an enormous boost. This scheme also addresses this, and allows artists to exchange their art works not only physically, but also digitally.
ACM strongly encourages, but does not limit, cultural exchanges with the following: the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Africa.
The objectives of this scheme are to assist Maltese and Malta based artists with the following:
• To increase international accessibility and exposure, to tour their productions, to build networks and to experience the work of artists from around the world in its cultural context
• To showcase creative excellence to international cultural programmers, festival-makers, operators and audiences at large and to sustain and develop professional work
• To encourage international collaborations and exchanges, with the aim of building bridges with the rest of the world, to enable further understanding and to gain trust with other people through culture
• To promote cultural diversity and strengthen cultural relations worldwide.
This scheme supports:
• International collaborations
• Participation in international festivals, exhibitions, showcases, networking events, films, conferences, artist residencies and fairs. Participation can take place also in a digital format
• Marketing, including digital as well as printed adverts, in (for example) international art/ literature/ film magazines, train stations, subways, buses, bus stations, ferries, parks, websites, social media platforms, TV programmes etc. This is specifically for overseas collaborations/projects.
• The production of audio visuals of completed artworks and cultural productions, which are then presented to international programmers, producers and collaborators overseas. This could include, for example, the filming of a theatrical or a dance production, filming of art installations, poetry readings, exhibitions, fashion shows etc
• The production of websites and demos for international promotion purposes.
Creative professionals/individual artists over 18 years of age; Entities registered with the Malta Business Registry (including companies, partnerships, foundations and organisations/associations); Groups, Collectives and Consortia; Registered Cooperatives; Voluntary Organisations.
The deadline to apply is Thursday 10th June at noon. Late applications cannot be accepted.
Click here to download guidelines and click here to download application form template.
Applicants are required to register a new profile.
To apply for this scheme click here.
To access past applications submitted until December 2020 you need to login on https://www.artscouncilmalta.org/login.
Results
Applicant: Alexandra Alden
Reference Number: ICE15-21-387
Project title: Reaching New Audiences with 'Leads to Love' - The International Album Showcase Tour
Amount Awarded: €10000
Following the release of her second full-length album, ‘Leads to Love’ on November 4th 2021 on all digital platforms, on a limited edition vinyl pressing and accompanying promotional book, Alexandra Alden’s team decided that the next necessary step in promoting this album is to invest in marketing assistance in the Benelux and to present it to new audiences with the focus on the UK, Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and Italy. This will be done in the format of a full-band (6piece) tour, representing the final product of the album. The touring band is the same line-up as on the album. It consists of not only international musicians but also a fellow Maltese electric guitarist by the name of Jimmy Bartolo, active in the alternative music scene in Malta. Besides this, they will work with Gozitan couturier Luke Azzopardi, to style and dress the singer and the band to fit the occasion, showcasing and highlighting this project which is an export of Maltese talent and success.
Applicant: Euchar Gravina
Reference Number: ICE08-21-329
Project title: The Peter Reynolds Composer Studio (Cardiff, UK)
Amount Awarded: €989
Euchar Gravina shall be attending the very competitive week-long Peter Reynolds Composer Studio, run alongside the Vale of Glamorgan Festival and in partnership with the Cardiff University School of Music. The main objective of the course is the completion, performance and recording of two new compositions. The Peter Reynolds Academy offers composers the opportunity to join the Festival celebrations and tap into a rich resource of expertise which will offer participants: direct access to a range of composers, including one-to-one tutorials with Course Director and Cardiff University Senior Lecturer in Composition Robert Fokkens, group seminars with Artistic Director and leading Welsh composer, John Metcalf, tutorials and/or seminars from composers whose music will be presented at the festival (including Judith Weir, Master of the Queen's Music), the opportunity to write a wind quintet for one of the UK’s leading professional ensembles, the Magnard Ensemble, to have this work performed and recorded, additionally, to write a short piece for violin and viola, which will be played and recorded by specialist contemporary musicians, free access to Vale of Glamorgan Festival concerts and events, and excellent networking opportunities.
Applicant: Jon Mallia
Reference Number: ICE28-21-423
Project title: Series Mania Exhibition and Pitching
Amount Awarded: €7566
Jon Mallia (producer & writer) and Lee Farrugia (writer) will be attending the International TV Series Festival "Series Mania" in Lille, France. They will be presenting their project "the Jenny Wilder Tapes" TV mini-series - a 6 part blue sky thriller set on the island of Gozo. Series Mania has become the biggest event dedicated uniquely to television series in Europe. Its festival offers exclusive world premieres of the greatest international series on the big screen, giving its audience – up to 72,000 spectators – 9 days of discoveries, parties and masterclasses with some of the most renowned personalities in the series world. Series Mania has taken its place as the gold standard of international series festivals. It brings creators, producers and broadcasters together from all over the world to collaborate on international co-production projects that leave a tremendous impact on the industry and culture at large. Jon Mallia and Lee Farrugia will also be holding several meetings with all those interested in the project to secure international collaboration.
Applicant: Vince Briffa
Reference Number: ICE02-21-297
Project title: Participation in Maritima2
Amount Awarded: €8000
Vince Briffa shall be creating a video documentary and a publication to document and support the research and production processes of a FINAL VIDEOART FILM focusing on Maritime Noise Pollution for the Marítima 02 Biennale of Art. Briffa has been invited by the Marítima project to participate as co-commissioner, co-curator, and artist/researcher representing Malta in Marítima 02. In this project, Briffa aims to create an installation on the theme of Marine Noise Pollution. Through these funds, Briffa will cover the production of a documentary video and the essay writing, design and printing of a 64-page publication to document the research and production processes, locally and at the international partner sites, that lead to the creation of the videoart film. The documentary video and publication will help unpack and explore the cause further, as well as act as dissemination tools at the different venues where the work will be shown: Palma de Mallorca, Corsica, Malta, Sicily, Valencia, Paris, Barcelona, and Huesca
Applicant: Solid Eye Ltd
Reference Number: ICE25-21-416
Project title: Kitchen Maps at City Telling Festival (Kaunas)
Amount Awarded: €8000
Solid Eye Ltd. have successfully pitched the 'Kitchen Maps' project to the City Telling Festival 2021 run within the Kaunas European Capital of Culture 2022 programme. This initiative invited artists 'to tell unheard, forgotten stories of the city and the district, to try new ways of telling stories and to do it in unexpected, forgotten places.' Solid Eye Ltd.'s project, 'Kitchen Maps', unfolds in these three distinct phases: mapping workshops, 3D modelling, launch of maps and virtual tours to public. This project focuses on themes of solastalgia and refuge within domestic kitchen spaces belonging to poets and other artists. The project kicks off with a three-day subjective mapping workshop held in Kaunas during which, with the support of the host organisation and the participation of local collaborators, they will survey and map a number of kitchens (maximum of four). Following this, they will return to their studio to model those maps in a 3D environment and build virtual tours based on all the data collected during the workshops. Once these are created, they will then go to the City Telling Festival in Kaunas and launch the virtual tours over there (October 7-9).
Applicant: Clint Spiteri
Reference Number: ICE26-21-421
Project title: KNTRL Tour and EP release
Amount Awarded: €8185
Clint Spiteri, a.k.a. KNTRL, will be travelling his way through Europe, playing live gigs and promoting his music. He will be: exporting local music, taking the opportunity to renew already existing and make new contacts with like-minded individuals and exploring possibilities for future collaborations and exchanges through these contacts. Live performances and marketing of the EP locally is crucial, nonetheless, KNTRL’s local brand of music would highly benefit from being exported to other countries. Through this fund, KNTRL would have to possibility to increase his audience and benefit from several artistic opportunities.
Applicant: Herman Grech
Reference Number: ICE11-21-353
Project title: They Blew Her Up
Amount Awarded: €8200
The play They Blew Her Up goes straight into the heart of Daphne Caruana Galizia's murder. Gleaned from a series of interviews carried out with a number of protagonists involved in the saga, the critically-acclaimed play was performed at Spazju Kreattiv and streamed online in early 2021. The production, partly verbatim, features five of Malta's finest actors. This is the first play written about Caruana Galizia’s murder. The proposal is to stage a revised version of the script with the same cast at the KVS, Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels and at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, the world's biggest journalism festival. The production of the play overseas is now being officially endorsed by the main European journalism associations.
Applicant: Laura Bescanon
Reference Number: ICE29-21-426
Project title: Residency at ZK/U Berlin - Center for Art and Urbanistics
Amount Awarded: €6500
Artist Laura Besancon was invited to participate in a residency at ZK/U Berlin - Center of Art and Urbanistics. ZK/U seeks to develop projects, co-produce knowledge and share values created through exchanges. The ZK/U sees itself as a laboratory for inter- and trans-disciplinary, activities centred on the phenomenon of “the city”. Working with local and international partners, ZK/U residencies brings together critical minds at the cutting-edge of artistic production and urban research, where they can meet and work together to realize the common creative aims. The residency will allow for the time and space for the artist to carry out an existing and ongoing participatory project with diverse communities in Berlin. The artist will also present the project to the ZK/U, its international residents and the public through organised events. The residency period will also provide the framework to develop new work and continue building upon artistic research that centres around participatory art as a social practice of “commoning". In addition, the residency will be a place where new connections will be formed with international artists and researchers, who also concern themselves with the phenomenon of the city.
Applicant: Mighty Boards Ltd.
Reference Number: ICE13-21-374
Project title: Essen SPIEL 2021
Amount Awarded: €10000
In 2017 two Maltese game designers got together to show their respective games at "Essen Spiel" in Germany, the largest board game fair in the world. Gordon and David’s games on one stand drew the attention of several major publishers including the worlds’ largest hobby boardgame publisher, Asmodee, that not only published their titles but translated them into several languages. Following this successful outing, David and Gordon decided to join forces with local veteran artist and graphic designer, Mark Casha to form Mighty Boards, the only Maltese board game publisher currently present. Mighty Boards has since worked to deliver the games it had launched at Essen Spiel and developed another project, Vengeance: Roll & Fight that was a major success on Kickstarter. Mighty Boards is looking at showing it off at Essen Spiel with the intention of finding co-publishing and localization partners, as well as to spread the word about its existence. In other words, Mighty Boards wants to have another substantial presence at Essen Spiel with a sizeable stand to launch and demo Vengeance: Roll & Fight as well as to demo and strike deals with co-publishers for its new titles: a new expansion to Excavation Earth, Hamlet and a brand new game Cloud Island. Mighty Boards will also sell and show off its earlier games: Posthuman Saga, Vengeance, Petrichor and Nights of Fire.
Applicant: Take 2
Reference Number: ICE09-21-335
Project title: Triq is-Sebgha
Amount Awarded: €7000
Triq is-Sebgha is a film project made up of an anthology of seven short films produced by Take//Two and supported by Kultura TV. Through the International Cultural Exchanges funds, Take 2 will be taking this project onto an international platform, following their success with Merjen, another Kultura TV project. Each of the seven films deals with a different set of protagonists who live in the same street and are interacting with one of the seven deadly sins. What weaves the stories together is the statue of the Legion of Mary which is carried from one home to another. Together with the statue, one enters each of the different worlds, as characters from the different films cross paths and interact in each other’s lives, to explore life in a Maltese hamlet. The style of each film is unique and completely different from the rest. The aesthetic choices were made depending on the emotions the story aimed to convey. Triq is-Sebgha’s exploration of universal themes and its original concept has the ability to draw international audiences. For this reason, the anthology is also being remade into a full feature film by the name of 7 Doors. Take 2 would also like to approach the market by participating in Film Festivals. The fund will cover its subtitling, as well as packaging in preparation for international distribution.
Applicant: Mariella Cassar-Cordina
Reference Number: ICE30-21-428
Project title: Sonos Civitatem MMXX
Amount Awarded: €9795
Sonos Civitatem MMXX, is a collaboration between Austrian Visual Artist Nicola Ginzel's works on paper (red carbon paper frottages of site specific and stitched ephemera) and Mariella Cassar Cordina's composition for solo piano and prerecorded manipulated sounds. Nicola and Mariella are both process–based EU Artists. Preliminary zoom sessions brought them together and enabled them to have a continuous dialogue through their visual and audible ‘marks.’ As the world struggles to end the pandemic, they attempt to offer their countries' joint perspectives to another international city with entirely different values. By using the Maltese soundscape and Vienna as a catalyst, this projet shall focus on merging their work into a 9 minute 4K quality video, which will be projected on a 3X4 metre white wall in stereo. Re-imaging New York City post March 2020 through the lens of the EU became their subject matter. In this second stage of the project they will have the opportunity to present their work physically to a wider audience through a planned exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York this fall.
Applicant: Francesca Balzan
Reference Number: ICE12-21-371
Project title: Participation in international course
Amount Awarded: €2556
During Autumn 2021, Francesca Balzan shall be participating in the international course titled 'The Norfolk Country House’ in the UK. The course is organised by the highly prestigious and long established Attingham Trust which promotes the study of English country houses and their art collections. The 5 day course will have participants coming from a professional background in the arts including artists, art historians, curators, conservators and architects. Balzan believes this course will assist her in her research, as well as being able to observe and study sculpted portraits and painted images which will be present in abundance in the collections of the country houses which will be visited and studied.
Applicant: Wioletta Kulewska
Reference Number: ICE07-21-328
Project title: The Artist in Residence at the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts
Amount Awarded: €3239
The Skopelos Foundation, Artist in Residence programme is guided by the Hellenic history and culture, and promote artistic dialogue between the Greek, American and International communities of artists. Wioletta Kulewska will use a Studio facility as a dynamic space for individual and collaborative practice, and a method for research to formulate questions through contemporary painting, a process that will manoeuvre her practice in relation to her work. The Skopelos Foundation Artist in Residence programme will highlight how the expressive tools and concepts of painting processes can provide endless possibilities for exploring new ways of thinking, imagining, communicating and mark making. Kulewska will be carrying out studio practice during her residency at The Skopelos Foundation of the Arts to achieve a better understanding of contemporary painting and to explore new strategies in art-making through practice.
Applicant: Aidan Somers
Reference Number: ICE18-21-404
Project title: International Exchange - Collaboration
Amount Awarded: €9970
The aim of Aidan Somers’s project is to connect various individuals from different cultural backgrounds through an audio-visual production and performance which will be used as the music video for the upcoming single 'Ararara' by African artists Forty-Two Ways & SDB Music. Somers also collaborated with Kyle Drakard, the recent guitarist of Tribali, to create the instrument for the single, influenced by traditional African guitar and afrobeat sounds. The single will be produced by Aidan Somers himself and will continue to be mixed and mastered by Andrej Ljatkovski, an established sound engineer from Macedonia. The video will be video-graphed by The Insynk Collective and will include a collaboration with The Movement, a local dance school that recently participated in 'Malta's Got Talent.
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