Since 2009 the artist collective Medea Electronique has organized an annual 10-day experimental artist residency, Koumaria, near Sparta in Greece (the village of Sellasia), focusing on improvisation and new media practices.  New-media artists from all over the world, inspired by the Greek natural landscape, come together to create a multicultural and cross-media ‘dialogue’ culminating in a collective presentation both locally and in Athens at the end of the residency. Past residents have formed lasting friendships and new artistic partnerships.  For us the residency serves as a model for future creative collaborations.

This Years Theme.

Improvising the Archive/Archiving the Improvisatory

In partnership with the pan-European EU funded Interfaces Project, this year’s residency is on the theme of Improvising the Archive/Archiving the Improvisatory. Medea Electronique has collected documentation (audio, video, photos, text, image) of its past ten residencies, in and about Sellasia, approx. 10 km north of Sparta.  Focusing on site-specific mixed media performance, this material not only traces the history and development of Koumaria, but also that of the village of Sellasia—stories told, histories revealed, places explored, narratives uncovered.  What are the potentials of an archive that is simultaneously a collection of cutting-edge site specific new media art, and a repository of village life and change?  How can the improvisatory impulse behind the art created at Koumaria interact creatively, faithfully and responsibly with the highly improvisatory ways in which communities evolve and grow?  What might an archive be like which can reveal both, and allow the archive visitor to themselves be an active improvising creative agent—an archivist of the archive?

Medea Electronique, being an eclectic art collective, is interested in people from diverse cultural and artistic backgrounds.  Past residents have come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, and from numerous countries.  While assorted nationalities and ethnicities have been represented, the common language of the residency is English (athough fluency is not necessary, an ability to interact with other artists in English is necessary).

INTERFACES

The 2019 Koumaria residency is organised in partnership with the Onassis Cultural Centre Athens (OCC) in the framework of the INTERFACES project, an international, interdisciplinary project focusing on bringing new music to an extensive range of new audiences. With the support of the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Interfaces unites nine diverse partners from the UK, Germany, France, Cyprus, Belgium, Romania, Austria and Greece with main objective to explore innovative ways of introducing audiences to the work of cutting-edge musicians and sound artists and engage new audiences of all ages to the music of our time.

DEADLINE: 01/04/2019.
FROM MAY 29th to JUNE 10th

Learn more about this residence and how to apply here.