This International Cultural Exchanges Scheme forms part of Arts Council Malta’s Internationalisation Strategy for the cultural and creative sectors. It addresses international cultural exchanges, focusing specifically on the outgoing mobility of Maltese and Malta based artists over 18 years of age as well as their art works and cultural productions.
The objective of this scheme is to assist Malta based artists with the following:
• To encourage international collaborations and exchanges with the aim of building bridges with the rest of the world so as to enable further understanding and gain trust with other people through culture
• 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 promote cultural diversity and strengthen cultural relations worldwide
• To showcase creative excellence to international cultural programmers, festival-makers, operators and audiences at large and to sustain and develop professional work.
This scheme supports:
• International collaborations
• 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 intended for overseas collaborations/projects
• Participation in international festivals, exhibitions, showcases, networking events, films, conferences, artist residencies and fairs. Participation can also take place in a digital format
• 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.
Who can apply?
Creative professionals/individual artists; Entities registered with the Malta Business Registry (including companies, partnerships, foundations and organisations/associations); Groups, Collectives and Consortia; Registered Cooperatives; Voluntary Organisations enrolled with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations.
The deadline to apply is Thursday 22nd June 2023 at noon. Late application cannot be accepted.
Guidelines
Click here to download guidelines and download application template.
Click here to download Access Support Top-up guidelines.
Applicants are required to register a new profile as from January 2021.
Apply here.
Results
Application Deadline: 22nd June 2023
Applicant: Vince Briffa
Reference number: ICE34-23-2650
Project title: Solo Exhibition at the Heritage Gallery, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London
Amount awarded: €8,236
This project consists of a solo exhibition of Prof. Briffa’s recent work at the Heritage Gallery in the Greenwich UNESCO World Heritage Site, London in 2024. The exhibition will feature a collection of new paintings and sculptures specifically prepared for the exhibition and will also be accompanied by a catalogue of works.
Applicant: Electronic Music Malta
Reference number: ICE36-23-2654
Project title: Electronic Music Malta – Local Artists at Fanzine Festival
Amount awarded: €8,729
Electronic Music Malta (EMM) is proposing an international collaboration with Fanzine Project, a renowned music festival based in Galicia, Spain. The project aims to showcase Maltese electronic music talent on an international platform, with performances by local electronic artists. In addition to the performances, EMM will present a detailed overview of its work and contribution to the Maltese electronic music scene. The project also includes an educational component, with EMM conducting a workshop to share knowledge and skills with the Galician music community. This collaboration will foster cultural exchange, promote Maltese music abroad, and strengthen ties between the Maltese and Galician music scenes. The project is an opportunity for EMM to expand its reach and impact, contributing to the growth and development of electronic music both locally and internationally.
Applicant: Moveo Dance Foundation
Reference number: ICE48-23-2669
Project title: From Malta with Love Tour
Amount awarded: €6,091
Following Moveo's national launch of its touring programme From Malta with Love to international producers, four producers have invited the company to present work in festivals or theatres across Europe. Derida Dance Centre in Sofia, DanceLines Festival in Sardegna, Teatro Bixio in Vicenza and Casa Tineretuli in Timisoara, Romania have all officially invited Moveo to present From Malta with Love for their 2023-2024 season. This could be the perfect Springboard for Moveo to implement its internationalisation strategy.
Applicant: Ryan Falzon
Reference number: ICE51-23-2676
Project title: Rituals of Passage (Antwerp)
Amount awarded: €10,000
This international exchange project is intended for local artists Aaron Bezzina and Ryan Falzon to participate in an exchange opportunity in Antwerp, Belgium, between the 27th August and 8th September 2023. The exchange consists of three parts: i) exhibition; ii) workshops, artist talk and self-led practice; iii) artist studio and communities visits. The exhibition Rituals of Passage as exhibited at Valletta Contemporary, Malta, will be exported to Antwerp, Belgium and exhibited at Sint Lucas Antwerpen. The exchange entails networking visits to targeted galleries, artist-run communities and studio spaces which form part of the vibrant scene in Antwerp. The exchange includes a practical self-led residency for Bezzina and Falzon, as well as delivery of workshops, guided tours and artist talks.
Applicant: Take 2
Reference number: ICE25-23-2614
Project title: The Internationalisation of Castillo
Amount awarded: €10,000
Castillo is possibly Take//Two's strongest project to date. Based on Clare Azzopardi's novel, it has been adapted to a play that was performed at Spazju Kreattiv, and then produced as a film. Set across various timelines (1980s and 2006) as well as different worlds (the real/ the fictional), it explores how the sense of 'lack' travels from one generation to the next through mother/ daughter relationships. Told through the lens of a female director and supported by a talented local cast and crew, Take//Two are striving for the film to become Malta's official nominee in the International Best Film category at the Academy Awards in 2024. To achieve this goal, the next stage for Castillo involves thorough preparations to enter the international market. The team behind Castillo is determined to bring the film's compelling narrative and distinct Maltese identity to a global audience, cementing its place as an international cinematic gem.
Applicant: Lucien Houtkamp
Reference number: ICE46-23-2666
Project title: Music melts all the separate part of our bodies together
Amount awarded: €3,105
Storytelling is part of the cultural/societal heritage in Southern Africa and Malta alike. From folktales, like the endless number of stories about ‘Ġaħan’, the wise fool, to the spontaneous storytelling in għana singing, they have a valuable function in Maltese society. The same counts for Southern Africa. Music for the umakhweyana (a Nguni bowed instrument) and the mbira is often used as accompaniment for narratives. This project intends to reflect on and bring together elements from storytelling from Southern Africa and Malta to create a new, contemporary narrative, bridging both cultures. The project is developed and performed by Luc Houtkamp (clarinet, live electronics), Sazi Dlamini (South African Nguni instruments, voice), Glare Ghigo (mezzo soprano, keyboards). NewMusicSA has invited Houtkamp, Ghigo and Dlamini to present the project during the ISCM World New Music Days 2023 in South Africa. Houtkamp will give a workshop on composing electronic music.
Applicant: Ġulja Holland
Reference number: ICE58-23-2684
Project title: London Debut Solo Show
Amount awarded: €7,740
Local contemporary artist Ġulja Holland recently showcased her fourth solo exhibition, 'A NEW GOTHIC', at Spazju Kreattiv, Malta's National Centre for Creativity. Supported by Arts Council Malta, the exhibition displayed fifty of Holland's latest works exploring themes of the Anthropocene, developed in Malta, London, and Barreiro. Building on this success, an exciting opportunity has arisen for Holland to present 'A New Gothic' at the Old Crypt in St John's Waterloo, London, in January 2024. Once again curated by Andrew Borg, the capsule show shall further solidify her artistic ties in London as it presents the artist's first opportunity to debut a solo show in the United Kingdom. St John’s Waterloo is a well-known London music and arts venue. It runs the annual Waterloo Festival of Arts, Heritage and Community every summer. Its recently restored 19th-century church crypt would make for a most endearing and intimate environment in which to hang Holland’s monumental, personal works.
Applicant: Anna Galea
Reference number: ICE15-23-2451
Project title: Participation in the Firenze Biennale 2023
Amount awarded: €6,445
The theme of this year’s Biennale is “I AM YOU - Individual and Collective Identities in Contemporary Art and Design.” As an artist from Malta, Galea will be exhibiting, discussing her art, and delivering her message to the thousands of visitors and other international artists and curators that attend this prestigious Biennale. Her artwork will feature a large, abstracted watercolour triptych in a 3 x 2.5 metre space. The subject of her artwork is particularly pertinent in today's global context wherein peoples from different races, religions, cultures and traditions have to live in one world.
Applicant: Unfinished Foundation
Reference number: ICE41-23-2660
Project title: Joining International Networks
Amount awarded: €4,380
The project consists of a strategy to establish the international presence of Unfinished Art Space, increasing the organisation’s capacity to operate on an international level, to participate in Creative Europe projects, and to collaborate with partners worldwide. The proposal intends to allow Unfinished Art Space to become a member of 6 international arts organisations, and to travel to each of their annual meetings during 2024. The selected networks are the most appropriate and offer the most access in terms of networking and support. In addition to joining these networks, an update of the website and social media is needed to showcase the organisation’s work professionally and cleanly, with a contemporary feel that reflects its vision and includes all relevant information and documentation.
Applicant: Shawn Mizzi
Reference number: ICE52-23-2677
Project title: Angelcrypt European & Western Asia Tour
Amount awarded: €10,000
‘Angelcrypt’ are a melodic death metal band hailing from the island of Malta. Since its inception in 1997, the band has managed to issue 10 studio releases. ‘The Black Hand’ was chosen to be the official theme song of Banger TV’s Global Overkill series which had a global streaming of more than 1 million times. The band has participated in several important festivals in Malta and across Europe, while supporting many big international bands. As testament to the band’s work ethic and international achievements, the band was nominated for the prestigious ‘Best International Achievement’ award in 2019. The band is now embarking on a European and Western Asia Tour, whilst performing in Germany, Armenia, Georgia, Portugal, Romania and Bulgaria consecutively.
Applicant: Lawrence Buttigieg
Reference number: ICE50-23-2673
Project title: Undermining patriarchy through the sense and sexuality of the female body
Amount awarded: €1,103
Since the 1960’s the feminist art movement has effectively challenged the ‘entitlement’ of male artists over the female body, upsetting the centuries-old surmise that a woman’s role in the art studio is that of muse. Suzanne Santoro (b. 1946) thwarts the idealisation of the female form by self-reflexively directing attention onto herself. Through moulds taken straight off her skin, she produces simulacra of her body’s prurient parts; she then presents such fragments as actual representations of womanhood and herself. Mira Schor (b. 1950) appropriates paint, the medium par excellence through which the female body is given a delectable form, and operates it to express what it means to be a woman. Through her sense and nonconformism, Schor, uses paint’s viscousness as a metaphor of the ‘goo’ associated with women’s bodies. In doing so she exerts the ultimate challenge against the privileged function of paint, as raw material in patriarchal representations of women. Endorsing the principles underlying the feminist art movement, and those upheld by Santoro and Schor, Buttigieg’s studio work strives to ensure that any vulnerability to which the female subject may be exposed, is also shared by him. In his presentation he shows how the female subject and himself produce high precision casts of parts of our bodies which we then paint and place inside aptly-designed box structures. He demonstrates that, rather than idealising our bodies, we eroticise and fetishise them through fragmentation and display, in the process dispelling the traditional dichotomy between male artist and female model.
Applicant: Christian Galea
Reference number: ICE37-23-2655
Project title: LEAR – Let your daughters rule!
Amount awarded: €7,515
King Lear turns 417. Goneril, Regan and Cordelia plan Daddy’s birthday, but who deserves the biggest piece of the cake, and when is it time to leave the patriarchy behind? Based on Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear and in a choreographic hybrid of contemporary dance, Lecoq-based physical theatre and new circus, ‘Lear – Let Your Daughters Rule’ is an international collaboration exploring the feminist issues of Shakespeare’s great work.
Applicant: Martina Buhagiar
Reference number: ICE59-23-2685
Project title: Malleus Malleficarum
Amount awarded: €2,525
“PAUS ISTU MINE" (Standstill) focuses on creating, experiencing, defining and analysing a pause as a concept. This project is born out of the need to address awe in a culture that is becoming increasingly individualistic, narcissistic, and materialistic, and moving away from strangeness and splendour. We devote our time mainly to work and immersing ourselves in the digital sphere. How can pause be created and activated, magnified and experienced, and thus used to ground us in the present? To answer this, a dance and visual art performance will be created and performed in Tallinn, Estonia during August-September 2023. The performance is produced by Sõltumatu Tantsu Lava (STL), a work by an Estonian choreographer Keithy Kuuspu, in collaboration with an international team. Buhagiar will be a collaborative performer together with Agnes Ihoma, Jana Jacuka, Anumai Raska, Liisa Saaremäel, Johanna Vaiksoo.
Applicant: Malta Interior Design Association (MIDA)
Reference number: ICE30-23-2632
Project title: European Council for Interior Architects (ECIA) GA 2023
Amount awarded: €2,375
Attendance to the European Council of Interior Architects (ECIA) annual general assembly is essential for the Malta Interior Design Association (MIDA). This event is attended by 16 other European countries. MIDA is a full member of the ECIA since 2021. At this event each country gives an overview of the current state of Interior Architecture and Design in their country and there is a strong exchange of ideas, collaboration and networking for future projects. This is then followed by a design workshop whereby each country is assigned a topic and a working group. Being a small country, this yearly exchange is essential to the future of the profession linked to a European platform. The ECIA national organisation member Sveriges Arkitekter will host this year’s GA 2023. Year 2023 marks their 20 years anniversary. The event will take place in Stockholm, Sweden between Friday 8th - Sunday 10th September 2023.
Applicant: AP Valletta
Reference number: ICE10-23-2394
Project title: Valletta – Accra: a dialogue between mercantile cities
Amount awarded: €10,000
This project aims to analyse and re-assess the monumental values of the built heritage of two coastal cities that present several similarities in terms of development of their built heritage: Accra, the capital of Ghana on the Guinea Coast of West Africa, and Valletta, in Malta. The key question guiding the exchange is how the mercantile nature of both Accra and Valletta shaped these harbour cities throughout centuries of colonial rule, and how it is still affecting the resulting built heritage now. By re-evaluating the monumental and therefore symbolic, representative, and memorial values of the built heritage of these two case studies, this body of work will allow for a meaningful exchange between creative professionals into how the regeneration of built heritage has and can still continue to impact communities and the built environment at large, strengthening existing relations between the two countries.
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