Francophonie and French culture in focus at Vaba Lava, with two French curators

The Interdisciplinary Performing Arts Centre Vaba Lava (“Open Space”) in Tallinn is looking forward to receiving original and adventurous artistic project proposals from emerging international theatre makers, performative artists and independent theatre companies. They invite projects of contemporary theatre and dance, drama, visual, object, and music, theatre, etc. The performances will be either Vaba Lava productions or international co-productions.

There are two categories of application:

• The Vaba Lava Curated Programme 2017/2018
• Eesti Vabariik 100 (Estonian Republic 100)

Applications can be submitted in both categories.

1. CURATED PROGRAMME 2017/2018 : Big Data and Post-Truth

To know more about the two French Curators : José Alfarroba and Tristan Barani

With the Open Call, Vaba Lava is inviting performative artists to offer an artistic response or a subjective take on the most burning issues of today: the information overload and ethical relativity in the increasingly fragmented world, where objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotions and personal beliefs.

Know more about this programme : https://www.vabalava.ee/en/submit-your-application/

Selection criteria : 
Priority will be given to emerging performative artists who come up with original artistically challenging project proposals which are most in dialogue with the curators´ vision expressed in the Open Call :

• The topics of the curated programme are Big Data and Post-Truth.
• Open Call invites new productions and not guest performances or productions that already exist.
• The expected budget range for the selected projects is 5000-25 000 EUR. In case of co- productions, the budget can be larger. Vaba Lava, the producer or co-producer of the curated programme, will offer the following services: administrative and technical support, communication and marketing on top of the budget.

Out of the five performances selected, one will be a performance created by artists at the beginning of their artistic career, which will be presented on the Vaba Lava experimental stage (Studio hall). The selected projects are expected to involve both Estonian and international performative artists. The performances of the selected projects can take place at the Vaba Lava venue (Blackbox, Studio hall) or in other locations in Tallinn.

A team of curators from France, José Alfarroba and Tristan Barani (Théâtre de Vanves, Paris) are going to select five most remarkable projects (performances) to be presented in the Vaba Lava Curated Programme of the 2017/ 2018 season. The curators will be assisted by Kristiina Reidolv, Member of the Board of Vaba Lava.

2. EESTI VABARIIK 100 (REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA 100)

The Performing Arts Centre Vaba Lava and the Visual and Puppet Theatre NUKU in Tallinn, Estonia are looking for partners for an international collaboration project created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. The Open Call is aimed at international theatre makers of the visual, object and puppet theatre who are inspired by the topic the 1980s in Estonia and in the world.
The centenary of the Republic of Estonia is in 2018. All Estonian theatres in pairs will have to create theatre performances, each dedicated to a decade in the history of Estonia from 1910 onwards. Vaba Lava and NUKU are expected to create a performance dedicated to the 1980s. The performance should focus on not only what happened in Estonia, but on what happened in the world in general to create a broader context.

Context: eighties coming back

Selection criteria : 

• The topic of Eesti Vabariik 100 is the 1980s in Estonia and in the world.
• Open Call invites new productions and not guest performances or productions that already exist.
• The budget for the visual theatre performance is 40 000 – 60 000 EUR. In case of co- productions, the budget can be larger. Vaba Lava and NUKU will offer the following services: administrative and technical support, communication and marketing on top of the budget. Involvement of the NUKU theatre actors and artists is recommended.
• The performance selected should premier in March 2018.

The selected projects are expected to involve both Estonian and international performative artists.
The show can be presented either at the Vaba Lava venue (Blackbox, Studio hall), the venue of the Visual and Puppet Theatre NUKU or at another location.
The projects will be selected by a team of experts:  José Alfarroba and Tristan Barani (Théâtre de Vanves, Paris), Kristiina Reidolv (Vaba Lava, Tallinn, Estonia) and representatives of the Visual and Puppet Theatre NUKU (Tallinn, Estonia).

HOW TO APPLY TO THE CURATED PROGRAMME AND EESTI VABARIIK 100 ?
Application deadline: 31 January 2017, midnight (Eastern European Time)
Applications can be submitted either in Estonian or in English.
Documents to be provided online:

• Project description together with technical requirements;
• Budget;
• Information about the applicant and artists involved (CV, examples of recent work with web links etc.);
• Examples of video recordings of previous works (vimeo etc.);
• Information about co-producers and co-financing.

The application form (Word) and  the budget form ( Excel) are available on Vabalava website : 

• Project Application Form
• Budget Form

After preselection, the applicants in the short list will be invited to a Skype interview with the curators and experts to discuss the projects in detail. The time of the interview is February 2017.
The winning projects of the Vaba Lava Curated Programme for the 2017/2018 season and Eesti Vabariik 100 will be announced in June 2017.

MORE INFORMATION :

• check out the Vaba Lava website (technical information, etc).
• Read the interview of the curators on Postimees (in Estonian) : “Vaba Lava programmi panevad kokku hinnatud prantslased“