Grants 2020 for initiatives that connect with the European Pavilion

Through its 2020 Culture of Solidarity Fund, the European Cultural Foundation granted a number of cultural initiatives whose work resonates with the ambitions and visions of the European Pavilion and gave us much food for thoughts. On this page, you will find updates on these initiatives.

Rizoma – Palermo

Rizoma is a new international that works at the crossroad between culture and politics and do so from the heart of the Mediterranean. In 2020, with the support of the European Cultural Foundation, they organised an emergency production room taking the title of Pandemos to respond to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis and its impact on the cultural sector. Rizoma is also organizing the Biennale Arcipelago Mediterraneo which was established in 2019, and which is engaged in a cross-border reflection on the Mediterranean context.
#mediterranean #trans-national collaboration #beyond the EU borders #new models for biennales
Interview? Online exhibition? Click here

Studio Wild – Amsterdam/Venice

As part of the side program of the 2021 Dutch contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale, Studio Wild will present ‘The Forbidden Garden of Europe’: a garden of ‘invasive alien plant species’, which have been listed for their ethnic and biological characteristics and pose a threat to European native species. Their aim is to create a parallel between the fate of these species and the fate of many of our neighbours who struggle to find common ground in Europe just because they are different.
#EU migration policies #beyond the EU borders
Read more

The EUPavilion – Venice

EUPavilion is an exhibition dedicated to the imagination of a new architecture for Europe. The design of a European pavilion inside the Giardini della Biennale provides the opportunity for a collective reflection on fundamental questions of language and form for a building representing a non-national – yet not generically international – identity. EUPavilion is part of the broader debate about Europe as a cultural entity and not just as a defined geographic area or a political and economic organization.
#beyond the nation-state #architecture & design #research platform
Read an interview

Autostrada Biennale – Pristina – Kosovo

Established in 2017, the Autostrada Biennale is an innovative highway between Istanbul Biennale, Venice Biennial and Kosovo. Inspired by today’s changing world and it is initiated in order to take advantage and expand upon the increased artistic exchange and practice. For the upcoming 2021 Biennale (mid-July to Sept), the concept is to bring together an artist and an activist to develop a project together. In the run-up to the Biennale an educational program conceived as a capacity-building program will bring together 60 aged between 20-25.

#education #local & European #art & activism #new models for biennales
Read an interview

WHW – “Communities of Learning, Bridging the Gap of Isolation”

The project stems from the experiences of WHW Akademija, a tuition-free and experimental study program for emerging international artists, that WHW started in Zagreb in 2018. In the social environment diminished by pandemic and economic crises, this new project reclaims the inclusive role of education and art while rethinking the future of cross-border European collaborations.
#education #cross-border
Read an interview