In partnership with the Arab World Institute and France Médias Monde, the Friends of the AWI launch, for the first time, the SAIMA Award for Contemporary Arab Creation.
The aim of this Award is to reward artists in the states of the Arab League whose work and oeuvre are still relatively unknown.
The Award also aims to contribute to the development and dissemination of the AWI’s cultural activities: it will be organised each year in conjunction with a specific event in the AWI’s programme.
The ‘SAIMA Award’ may be awarded for any form of artistic expression that features in the AWI’s programme of events.
The winner will be selected as part of a call for projects and will be offered a grant for the creation of a work, which will then be presented at the AWI.
The first edition is dedicated to ecology and sustainable development in Arab cities. It is organized in conjunction with the exhibition “Les jardins orientaux” (“Oriental gardens”), inaugurated at the AWI in April 2016.
The participants will present, before Tuesday, December 15, 2015, an art project that addresses a very topical subject: The role of gardens and sustainable environment in urban planning in Arab cities.
The projects will be judged by a prestigious jury:
· Soumia Belaidi, President of the Friends of the AWi and president of the jury
· Roxana Azimi, journalist for Le Quotidien de l’art
· Guy Boyer, Editor in Chief of Connaissance des arts
· Aurélie Clemente- Ruiz, Exhibitions Director of the Arab World Institute
· Abdelkader Damani, Curator of the Contemporay Art Biennale of Dakar
· Souad El Tayeb, Director of radio Monte Carlo Doualiya
· Pierre Leroy, Co-Managing Partner and Secretary General at Lagardère SCA
· Jean-Hubert Martin, Curator of the Museum of France, former Director of Centre Pompidou and Curator of major international exhibitions such as « Magicians of the world» or recently « Le Maroc contemporain » at the AWI
· Yves Michaud, philosopher, art critic and former Director of the National School of fine arts
The winner will receive an activity grant of 5 000 € to create work that was presented to the panel. The artwork will then feature in the ‘Oriental gardens’ exhibition.
PARTICIPATION CONDITIONS
Participation in the competition is exclusively reserved for candidates who fulfil the following conditions:
– They must be nationals of one the following countries: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, or Yemen; – they must have less than ten years’ experience as a practising artist; – and their artwork must never have featured in a monograph. The candidates will be required to submit to the panel an art project associated with one of the following disciplines: painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, video, or an installation.
APPLICATION DOSSIER
Candidates will be required to complete an application form written in French or English, comprising the following elements:
– The completed registration form
– A CV
– A copy of their ID card
– A presentation of the project that includes a detailed statement of intent, visual content, and any other elements that support the candidate’s application
– A detailed breakdown of the budget required to produce the work of art in question
– A schedule for the production of the work
The application dossiers must be sent to the address below and must arrive no later than Tuesday 15 December 2015:
The Society of the Friends of the AWI (SAIMA)
1, rue des fossés Saint Bernard – Place Mohamed V
75236 Paris Cedex 5, FRANCE
The Society of the Friends of the AWI reserves the right to refuse application dossiers that are incomplete or that arrive after the above-mentioned application deadline.
The Society of the Friends of the AWI will inform each candidate by e-mail if their application has been retained and it will be presented to the panel within 15 days of the expiry of the application deadline.
SELECTION PROCESS AND ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
The dossiers will be submitted to a panel comprising nine members, consisting of experts and figures from civil society.
The panel will be responsible for selecting—based on the quality of the applications—the project that wins the Award.
The panel will judge each of the projects presented according to the following criteria:
– The project’s quality;
– creativity;
– its conformity with and pertinence to the selected theme: the role of the Arab garden in the urban environment and its significance in sustainable development and urban planning policies;
– and budget feasibility.
THE PRESENTATION OF THE AWARD
The Award will be presented during a ceremony that will be held at the Arab World Institute. The Award winner will be invited to travel from their place of residence (flight and accommodation costs will be covered) and stay in Paris for two days.
The Award winner will receive an activity grant that will be used exclusively to create the work that was presented as a project to the panel.
This grant will be a maximum of €5,000. It will be allotted in accordance with the detailed breakdown of the budget presented by the candidate.Half of the sum shall be given to the Award winner within fifteen (15) days of the Award presentation ceremony and the remainder upon completion of the project. The organisers reserve the right to ask the artist to provide them with detailed proof of their expenses.
The work in question will feature in the exhibition—for the duration of the event—entitled ‘Les Jardins orientaux’, which will be organised by the Arab World Institute from April to October 2016.This provision is deemed to have been accepted by the candidate/artist, who hereby accepts that the AWI will present the work in question in this framework, and without hindrance or claim. In this regard, the candidate/artiste shall transfer to the AWI the public representation and reproduction rights relating to the work created for the entire period of the event.
The resulting work must faithfully reflect the project presented to and selected by the panel; the AWI, as the initiator and creator of the exhibition ‘Les Jardins orientaux’, will verify that the work is in compliance with the above-mentioned exhibition, with which it is closely connected.
CONTACT – Emilie FONTAINE
The Society of the Friends of the AWI(SAIMA)
Tel.: +33 (0)1 40 51 38 93
E-mail: efontaine@imarabe.org
For more information :
http://www.imarabe.org/amis-ima/agenda
http://www.imarabe.org/amis-ima/missions-saima
More information on the exhibition “Les jardins orientaux” : http://www.imarabe.org/exposition/les-jardins-arabo-musulmans
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