Radar Sofia is announcing an open call for artists for three fully-funded residencies in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2022 under its year-long programme Distance and Resistance.

Radar Sofia is a small artist-run organization that functions as a residency space, a production house and a platform for development of new dramaturgy.Every year Radar Sofia proposes a curatorial line with a main theme and a series of guest artists – invited or selected through an international open call – who give a lecture or workshop sharing their methods and practices, and/or create a performance involving local participants in the work process. One of the aims of these curatorial lines is to develop the local artistic field through critical discourse, free non-formal education and new experimental formats, as well as to create opportunities for Bulgarian artists to form partnerships and collaborate with international professionals.

Radar Sofia as an international place for experimental artistic practice has so far created and supported numerous spin-off projects coming up as a result of the residencies. You can look at the website for the full list of previous residents and projects (sections ‘news’ and ‘our residents’). Social distancing, border closures, postponement of plans and projects, cancellation of festivals and residencies as well as a general sense of growing isolationism made us choose the theme of Distance and Resistance. If the situation with the pandemic only intensifies and makes visible what we’ve already been living through for a long time – a migration from the physical to the digital world, increasing work insecurity, social and physical distancing – then how does our artistic practice respond to these processes, how does it resist them, how does it offer alternatives and how does it distance itself from the ready-made solutions? Radar Sofia is the first and only residency in the Bulgarian context, focused on dramaturgy understood in a very broad sense. We ask you and ourselves: what can dramaturgy contribute to the world of today, how can it bring people together and how can it help re-imagine our contexts?

We believe the digital cannot be the only alternative during health and climate catastrophes, especially for artistic practices rooted in the live body and the meeting between people, that’s why we insist on offering physical residencies, live in Sofia.

There are three deadlines for the three different time slots as follows:

• Feb 1 for a residency starting in May, response by Feb 15
• March 1 for a residency starting in June, response by March 15
• May 31 for a residency starting in September/October, response by June 15

The residencies last for a minimum of one month with a possibility for extension.

Radar Sofia will provide for each resident:

• One-time stipend of 800 EUR
• Up to 400 EUR for production/presentation (to be spent locally)
• Up to 200 EUR for travel costs

We invite artists who are interested in the local situation in Sofia, want to show and share their previous work, interact with local communities, research and develop new ideas, as well as form long-lasting partnerships in Bulgaria.

Production is not a must but if you have an idea our team will support you in getting in touch with local institutions, finding the most suitable working and presentation space. Radar Sofia has a small studio but doesn’t have its own stage or bigger rehearsal room. However, it collaborates with a number of local institutions that can provide various options. A potential final presentation can take the form of a lecture, talk, performance, workshop, installation, exhibition, work-in-progress, etc. A return to Sofia at a later stage to finalize an idea with additional funding is also an option.

We accept applicants from all performative fields, with a special focus on dramaturgical thinking (understood as wide as possible), which is at the core of our practice at Radar Sofia, spanning across disciplines. We welcome performing arts makers, playwrights, dramaturges, directors, performers, choreographers, as well as visual artists and curators working with live art, performance art, relational aesthetics, interactivity, community engagement and other old and new performative practices.

For the selected artists we can provide invitation letters for additional external funding applications in case the project needs it.

In order to apply for the fully-funded residency slots, fill in the Google form that includes:

https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSf3qPaqHZHPb…/viewform

1. a short narrative bio;
2. a presentation of up to three previous projects you’re particularly proud of – with links and short statements;
3. a presentation of your idea for workshop/lecture/performance/installation (etc.) in Sofia that you can make happen within the given budget;
4. a short video message of up to 3 minutes for the team in Sofia, informally addressing the following five questions:
   
   - Who are you?
   - What interests you about Sofia?
   - Who do you want to meet?
   - What do you imagine/dream of doing?
   - How do you think we can help?
   
   
5.  information about how you heard about us and the open call.We are looking forward to reading your applications!

We aim to not send rejection letters and only selected artists will be contacted.

Radar Sofia is funded by Bulgaria’s National Culture Fund under its one-year grant scheme in 2022