Biennale College Teatro 2021

The Biennale Teatro intends to promote a new call for site-specific performances.

Consistently with the new calls for Italian directors under 35 and authors under 40, Biennale Teatro pursues its intention to give a voice and visibility to those who work in Theatre, remaining faithful to its educational mission.
Driven by this need to bring the Theatre back to audiences, who are fearful of infection and unaccustomed to the ritual of the stage, this need to build a performative gesture within the social perimeters of daily life, we will attempt to reconstruct the atmosphere of Renaissance Venice, in which the theatre will occupy its vital spaces, revitalizing the sense of collective togetherness that art must learn to bring to its citizens.

A call will be launched for an original outdoor work of performance art, identifying places that are significant in the daily life of the lagoon.
Considering the great interest around the world in original works of performance art, so deeply linked to the Visual Arts, to Music and Dance, La Biennale di Venezia believes it is important and necessary to invite international artists to try their hand at writing for the stage, in such site-specific performance works that can focus on the issues of the Contemporary age.

The call is addressed to Italian and international performers under the age of 40. Those who intend to participate must not have reached their 41st birthday on or before the call deadline (20 February 2021). The Call is for performers presenting their own creation (in any language/or without language) which has never premiered either in study form or complete form. The theme, in keeping with the concept of the 2021 Festival, will be Blue understood as acceptance/infinite distance from what is other than Us: the resurgence of the Pandemic and the interpretation of a new grammar of communication will constitute the investigative tracks.

Phase 1
Following an initial selection process – based on the projects and materials presented by the applicants – the Artistic Directors Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte will narrow the group to a small number of artists (up to a maximum of 15) in March 2021.

Phase 2
The selected artists will meet with the Artistic Directors in Venice (April 2021) to illustrate the tools, materials and dynamics of the creative process and present the first (max. five) minutes of the performance.

The locations in the city (and the modes of performance) indicated by the applicants in their projects will, in case of selection, be analysed and refined with the Artistic Directors and the production staff of La Biennale to identify critical issues and adaptability.

The Artistic Directors, at their discretion, will select two winning projects.

The two selected projects will be asked, following the announcement of their acceptance, to pay a registration fee of 80,00 euro (VAT included, no refunds allowed) exclusively by credit card.

Participation in phase 2 is at the expense of the participants.

Phase 3
The two artistic projects that win the call will be presented in their complete form directly in the site-specific location in Venice during the 2021 edition of the Biennale Teatro. The performance, which must be no longer than 25-30 minutes, will become a city event during the festival.

For this purpose, La Biennale di Venezia will offer:
• Rehearsal space in Venice for two weeks;
• Support and assistance to develop the technical specifications;
• Tutoring by the artistic directors while rehearsing in Venice;
• Coverage of production costs.

Applicants who wish to participate in the call must send the following documentation on or before 20 February 2021:

• curriculum vitae
• photo
• a performance video of previous work
• a report on the artistic project for Venice 2021 (concept, materials, technique, other)

In the case of co-creation, a lead person for the group of artists must fill out the application form with his/her personal data plus: CVs of all the artists (one word/pdf file only), an artistic description of the project and a performance video of previous work.

Incomplete applications will be automatically excluded.

college-teatro@labiennale.org