“To-gather” International Collaboration supported projects

Here’s a look at how the To-Gather supported projects are shaping up in Phase I.

Rotational Rider: WHERE DO THE ANTS GO?

Under its collaborative framework, the To-Gather project Rotational Rider has selected the artwork WHERE DO THE ANTS GO?  by Afrah Shafiq. WHERE DO THE ANTS GO? is an interactive sculpture of an ant hill where the behaviors and outcomes of the colony are determined by those present within it. It is imagined as a multi-lingual, interactive experience that is shaped in response to pre-programmed algorithms and real time inputs.

«with the fields»

«with the fields» collective cultivates a myriad of activities and encounters, reflecting on sustaining practices across contexts. Over the past six months, they have shared stories and observations from the field; reflected on environmental and community realities in relation to a specific kind of neo-agro-colonialism facing their regions; shared rituals, books and recipes; discussed histories and politics of food; practiced decolonising pedagogies; and joined performance rehearsals

Awaken the Sleeping Giants

Who or what is a Giant? What is a state of sleep? What kind of co-existence is possible among species? How can we alter the way we see things? With these questions a motley group comprising artists from Switzerland and India explore what inter species co-existence means for the arts in our ever-changing world.

Swiss Indian Network of Experimental Music and Sound (SINEMS)

Swiss Indian Network of Experimental Music and Sound (SINEMS) is a residency and exchange program for Indian and Swiss artists and researchers who specialise in scientific and artistic research in sound technology, sound studies, experimental music and sound art. Through residencies, projects and partnerships, SINEMS will nurture experimental sound and music practice between India and Switzerland.

How To Live Together?

How can we build spaces in which one recognizes and respects the individual rhythms of the other? How can we use our existing work and archives and build on from, instead of being pressured to produce anew?Under the “To-Gather” umbrella, “How To Live Together?” is a project that seeks to conjure tender frameworks of living together, producing responsibly and learning from each other, through forms of distance and intimacy.

Environmental Art Exchange (EAE)

Environmental Art Exchange (EAE) brings together an interdisciplinary global community of people, partners, and projects, who are actively deepening their relationship with land and environment. By creating opportunities of exchange, learning, and creation, between the network and the general public, EAE serves as an ecosystem for ecological discovery, engagement, and action.

Wet Land: a group that experiments, dabbles and plays

Inspired by a collaboration between Abdul Halik Azeez and Jacqueline Poloni during 2021, the project convenes artists in Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Pakistan to explore physical/digital hybrid forms of collaborating. Strengthening already existing bonds between pockets of collaborators working in different contexts, “WET LAND”, references the fluid, amorphous environment and spirit of urban water bodies, a commonly held archive.

We’re pleased to announce the projects selected from the «To-gather» International Collaboration open call. «To-gather» supports the development and testing of new long-term frameworks and methodologies for working internationally.

We take this opportunity to congratulate the grantees of the selected projects:

AWAKE THE SLEEPING GIANTS

Partners: Trickster-P (Switzerland), Sandbox Collective (India)

“Awake the Sleeping Giants” brings together artists and experts from India and Switzerland to explore interspecies entanglements and hybridization as a possible key to read future relations between Humans and Nature.

ENVIRONMENTAL ART EXCHANGE

Partners: Shazeb Shaikh (India), Institute of Land and Environmental Art (ILEA) (Switzerland)

As part of the Decade of Action’s aims to deliver the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, Environment Art Exchange will set up a series of interdisciplinary physical and virtual interactions / learning through 2022-2025 between Switzerland and India.

HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER?

Partners: HH Art Spaces (India) Britto Arts Trust (Bangladesh) Theertha (Sri Lanka), Galerie 3000 (Switzerland)

Through this two-year project, artist-led, independent and ‘small-scale’ establishments focus on the possibilities of performance/live practices through a range of slow, consistent actions and collaborative conversations, adopting frugality and tenderness as modes. The project aims to collectively develop models to host ideas, in each participating region while building a global solidarity of co- (un)learning and remaking. The project stages a virtual year followed by an in-person gathering and a ‘recipe book’.

ROTATIONAL RIDER

Partners: Samdani Art Foundation (Bangladesh), Pivo (Brazil), Kunsthalle Zurich (Switzerland), FHNW (Switzerland), Garage Museum (Russia)

Inspired by concerts that circulate with digital technical riders rather than crates, the project aims to produce a traveling living exhibition based on principles and values that respect the environment and show new languages of displaying/presenting art and artistic practice. Through this project, partners across 5 institutions and 4 countries host and provide the care and the context where artists can present their work to other artists/the public and collaborate across disciplines like art, architecture, music, etc,

SWISS INDIAN NETWORK OF EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC AND SOUND (SINEMS)

Partners: The Indian Sonic Research Organisation (ISRO) (India), The International Media Music and Sound Arts Network in Education (IMMSANE) (Switzerland), and Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) (Switzerland).

By establishing the Swiss Indian Network of Experimental Music and Sound (SINEMS), the Indian Sonic Research Organisation (ISRO) will set up residencies and exchange programs for artists and researchers, collaborating with Swiss institutions and networks of practitioners specialising in scientific and artistic research in sound technology and studies, experimental music and sound art. SINEMS will nurture experimental sound and music practice between India and Switzerland.

WET LAND: NEW TERRAINS FOR COLLABORATION, SPACES OF SHARING

Partners: Abdul Halik Azeez (Sri Lanka) & Jackie Poloni (Switzerland)

Inspired by a collaboration between Abdul Halik Azeez and Jacqueline Poloni during 2021, the project convenes artists in Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Pakistan to explore physical/digital hybrid forms of collaborating. Strengthening already existing bonds between pockets of collaborators working in different contexts, “WET LAND”, references the fluid, amorphous environment and spirit of urban water bodies, a commonly held archive.

WITH THE FIELD

Partners: Anga Art Collective (India), Gidree Bawlee Foundation of the Arts (Bangladesh), Arte & Escola Na Floresta (Brasil), Paloma Ayala (Mexico/Switzerland) and Tara Lasrado (Switzerland).

‘With the Field’ is a collective of land- and community-based artists and practitioners across India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland. Over 2022-2023 the collective aims to cultivate a myriad of activities and encounters, reflecting on sustaining and sustainable practices. ‘With the Field’ is an interlocal exchange, support structure and network to share practices, experiences, resources and strategies for artistic practices embedded within eco-rural contexts.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to ripple across the international art sector, limiting mobility and opportunities for international collaboration as well as revealing the very precarious realities of many arts practitioners, cultural organisations and institutions. The pandemic has also brought into stark relief the prevailing structural inequalities that continue to shape much of the arts and culture landscape across the globe. The next few years will be a time to regroup and rebuild, and with this, an opportunity to reflect on ways to reconnect across national borders to exchange and collaborate in ways that are more equal and sustainable.

The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia is launching a new call to support the development and testing of new frameworks and methodologies for working internationally. The «To-gather» International Collaboration call supports 2–3-year collaborations between arts practitioners, cultural organisations and institutions in Switzerland and their counterparts in the regions of the Pro Helvetia liaison offices. The call looks to support time for critical reflection on the current situation, for sharing ideas towards more equal forms of exchange between cultures and across contexts, and for experimenting with new formats for collaborating.

Funding is aimed at projects with the following goals:

• To encourage artistic collaborations with long-term visions between Switzerland and one or more region of the liaison offices.
• To maintain existing AND develop new professional networks during and beyond the pandemic.
• To reflect on and develop new models of collaboration between artists, and between artists and organisations, towards a more equal and sustainable practice – both on the local and global level.

This call for projects is deliberately broad in scope, mindful of the unique challenges of different regions and disciplines. «To-gather» aims to support either new or ongoing long-term international collaborative projects and encompasses all disciplines that are supported by Pro Helvetia: design, interactive media, literature, music, performing arts, visual arts and architecture as well as projects which combine multiple disciplines both within and beyond the arts. Digital formats are just as welcome as analogue ones. Projects can include both small or large groups of partners.

Criteria:

• Applications should be for activities spanning a period of 2-3 years, and which must take place between 2022 and 2024, or until 2025 for three-year projects.
• Proposals must be complete at the time of submission and define all partners.
• All projects must include partners (artists, organisations, collectives, platforms, etc.) in Switzerland and at least one liaison office context.
• Applications including multiple partners in liaison office regions are possible and encouraged. Countries in Southern Asia associated with Pro Helvetia New Delhi include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam. (Please refer to the list for all liaison office regions and associated countries).
• All partners must demonstrate several years of experience in their field, and should illustrate in their application a genuine interest in testing new ground for future ways of collaborating internationally.
• Projects which are part of a school or university curriculum/basic training, or continuing education programme closed to the public are not eligible.

Funding conditions:

• All partners should invest according to their capability (financial, spaces, programming, accommodation, meals, network, visibility, advice, ) These investments should be declared and explained.
• Applicants can charge reasonable administrative, management and overhead costs to a project.
• Cost for the construction of new physical infrastructures will not be supported.

Applications:

• «To-gather» is open until 3 October 2021. Applications must be in English and submitted via the questionnaire in the myprohelvetia.ch portal. Any of the partners can submit the application.

Applications must contain the following elements:

• A concept outlining the aims, form, content and implementation of the project, specifying multiple steps during the 2-3 years, the intended impact during the project period as well as long-term impact beyond the project
• Information about all participating partners: CV, role in the project, investment in the project.
• A budget and financing plan (with detailed information about the financial contributions of the partners)  specification of the amount requested from Pro Helvetia. The maximum grant per project is CHF 50,000.
• Additional relevant documents (e.g. documentation of past projects, media reports, etc.)

Applications will be communicated with before the end of December 2021.

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