COAL PRIZE 2024 CALL FOR PROJECTS: BEING TRANSFORMATIVE

Everything transforms, as the saying goes: chrysalis into butterfly, carbon into oil, solar energy into organic matter, seed into plant, dead matter into compost, winter into spring. Everything is transformed so that everything remains. However, by inventing ourselves as “masters and possessors”, the human race has set about this transformation to the point of distorting its principles. It has broken the natural cycles and cut into the fabric of life to the rhythm of a hyper-transformation inscribed indefinitely into the geological strata. Today, the consequences of these disruptions are prompting us to embark on another transformation, this time no longer outside us but within us, as close as possible to our ways of acting and living, of living and thinking, in order to make peace with the Earth.

In this quest, the artist once again appears as the pathfinder of these peaceful transformations, the one who gives form to matter and materiality to forms, the one who does not conform but informs and transforms with respect. These Transformative Artistic Practices exist and are emerging like swarms. Stemming from collective and participatory processes, but experienced in an intimate and situational way, they instigate changes that are inseparably individual and communal, with others both human and non-human, by trusting in the potential of experience in all its dimensions. Transdisciplinary by nature, they bring together and reinvent uses that know no age or frontiers, whether they be artisanal, culinary, gardening, ritual, spiritual, poetic, dreamlike, somatic, festive, militant, performative, subversive or legal, organisational, relational, administrative, logistical…

Through their exploratory approaches, these Practices embrace the radical uncertainty of a changing world, the better to distance themselves from the principles laid down by a tendency towards techno-solutionism. They invite situated knowledge rather than expert knowledge, and provide experiential support for evolving capacities rather than imposing changes in behaviour. They transform in the literal sense, by creating forms that can be appropriated by others to give everyone back the desire and the power to act.

To federate these fundamental upheavals, the COAL 2024 Prize is calling on artists who deploy restorative practices, individually or in groups; approaches to reconnection that are at once somatic, sensory and spiritual; know-how of the hand and the earth; often in atypical, non-institutional cultural venues, veritable open-air laboratories, fields in which to experiment with ecotopias for better living together. By cultivating resistance and resilience in the face of the Great Transformation of the world, artists are not only agents of change but are giving us the power to embody it, and thus respond to Gandhi’s call: “Be the change you want to see in the world”.

DISCOVER THE CALL FOR PROJECTS

In parallel, a call for projects is open for the COAL Student Prize for studentsof arts and culture schools > Click here to discover the call for projects for the Prix COAL étudiant 2024

CALENDAR

Application deadline : 5th May 2024

Announcement of nominated artists and promotion within the Transformative Territories program: July 2024

Announcement of the winners: September 2024

Awards ceremony November 2024, on the occasion of Sans Réserve, the meeting place for creative artists committed to ecology.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Every year, ten projects are shortlisted by a committee of professionals following the entries received from the international open call. The COAL Prize and its special mentions are awarded among these ten projects by a jury composed of representatives of the partner organisations and professionals from the fields of art and ecology. In addition, all applications considered by COAL and the selection committee become part of a network of artists and projects which may be solicited or promoted for opportunities and actions carried out by COAL and its partners.

The composition of the jury will be revealed this spring.

CRITERIA

Applicants will be judged on the following criteria: artistic value, relevance (understanding of the theme – Being Transformative), originality (the ability to introduce new approaches, themes, and points of view), pedagogy (ability to get a message across and raise awareness), social and participative approaches (engagement, testimony, efficiency, societal dynamics), eco-design and feasibility. The COAL Prize supports artistic projects in progress. The award is not intended to cover all production costs of the project but should be considered as an aid to its development.

APPLICATION

The application should by submitted as a single PDF saved as SURNAME_Name_2024_Project-title, not exceeding 30 Mb, and must include the following documents:

– Download the application form HERE

– A detailed description of the proposed project, describing its artistic dimension, its relevance to the theme ‘Being Transformative’, including a note on the technical feasibility of the project and a budget estimation

– At least two visuals illustrating the project

– A CV and a portfolio

All proposals must be submitted by May 5, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. on the COAL server: upload.projetcoal.org

By taking part in this call, applicants expressly authorize the COAL association and its partners to publish, reproduce and display in public all or part of the elements of their entry for any purpose linked to the promotion and communication of COAL and its partners, via all platforms and media, in all countries, for the legal duration of the copyright if they are nominated. Entries submitted but not selected will remain in the archives of the COAL association. They will, however, remain the property of their authors. Participation in this open call entails the full acceptance of these conditions.

SELECTION COMMITTEE 2024

Fernando García-DoryArtist, Founder of Inland – Campo Adentro ; Maria-Thalia CarrasFounder of Locus Athens ; Gabriela Benish-KalnáDirector of ArtDialog ; Olivier DarnéArtist, Founder of Parti Poétique;
Luiz OosterbeekPresident of Instituto Terra e Memoria de Maçao ;
Nathalie BlancCNRS Research Director, Director of the Centre des politiques de la Terre ;
Patrick DegeorgesPhilosopher, Member of the Institut Michel Serres (ENS Lyon), Vice-President of IHEPAT; Clément PostecVisual Arts and Futures Advisor in charge of exhibitions at Ateliers Médicis ; Christopher YggdreArtistic Director of the Fondation Laccolade; A representative of the French Ministry of Culture; Lauranne GermondCo-founder and Director of COAL and Sara DufourProgram Director and Curator, COAL.

AWARDS

– The winning artist of the COAL Prize will receive an endowment of 12,000 euros and a creative residency at the heart of the Domaine de Belval, owned by the François Sommer Foundation, led by the scientific and educational teams of the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the Domaine de Belval. Located in the commune of Belval-Bois-des-Dames, in the French Ardennes, the Domaine de Belval is a veritable observatory of rurality and wildlife, welcoming artists each year selected for their contribution to renewing the vision of the relationship between humans and their natural environment.

– The winning artist of the Jury’s Special Prize receives a prize of 3,000 euros.

– The winning artist of the Ateliers Médicis receives a residency in Clichy-sous-Bois/Montfermeil, in association with the Bondy regional forest, worth 12,000 euros.

– The winning artist of the mention Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles/Paris will receive 2,000 euros and will be invited to exhibit at the Paris institution.

– Mentions Transformative Territories Transformative Territories: five artists will be invited to the five partner venues of the European Transformative Territories program, and 100 projects revealed through the call for projects will be promoted on its platform and within its network.

PARTNERS 2024

The Prix COAL 2024 is supported by the European Union via the Transformative Territories program , Performing transition through the arts ; by the French Ministry of Culture, the French Biodiversity Office, ADEME, the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, the Fondation François Sommer and the Fondation LAccolade, as well as in partnership with the Ateliers Médicis, the Centre Wallonie Bruxelles/Paris and the Institut des Hautes Études pour les Pratiques et les Arts de la Transformation (IHEPAT).

Transformative Territories This Creative Europe 2024-2026 program, led by COAL with five European partners, explores the role of transformative arts and artistic practices on a territorial scale through transnational research-creation, collective events, support for a scientific committee, the creation of methodological tools and their dissemination.

The Ministry of Culture Its mission is to promote artistic creation in all its forms, and to enable the democratization and dissemination of cultural works. It has supported the COAL Prize since its creation in 2010.

Office Français de la Biodiversité (OFB) The OFB is responsible for protecting and restoring biodiversity in France and its overseas territories. It works to preserve life in aquatic, terrestrial and marine environments, thanks to the expertise of its 2,800 agents, including 1,700 environmental inspectors. This public establishment also works to mobilize a whole range of players, decision-makers and citizens around biodiversity: the State, local authorities, associations, businesses, scientists, farmers, fishermen, hunters, nature sports enthusiasts, players from the world of art and culture…

The French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) ADEME has been involved in the fight against climate change and resource degradation for 30 years, helping to shape national and local policies for ecological transition. As a public institution serving all stakeholders, its mission is to accelerate the transition to a more sober and supportive society, one that creates jobs and is more humane and harmonious.

The Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the François Sommer Foundation Recognized as a public utility since its creation on November 30, 1966, the Foundation was the brainchild of François and Jacqueline Sommer, pioneers of humanist ecology. Faithful to the commitments of its founders, the Foundation works for the protection of a biodiversity in which mankind finds its rightful place, for the respectful use of nature’s resources, and for the sharing of the riches of our natural, artistic and cultural heritage.

Fondation LAccolade – Institut de France The Fondation promotes artistic creation that is conscious of its environment, and encourages approaches, projects and actions that are carried out by artists in connection with the themes of water, the environment, the fragility of the living and the feminine, through research and creation residencies, and exhibitions in France and the United States. It also looks after the “matrimoine”, the legacy of women of historical or artistic importance.

Les Ateliers Médicis Committed to helping new and diverse artistic voices emerge, and to supporting artists with singular and contemporary languages, Les Ateliers Médicis welcomes artists from all disciplines for residencies, and supports the creation of works conceived in conjunction with local communities. They encourage or organize encounters between artists and local residents. Located in Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil, in the outskirts of Paris (Seine-Saint-Denis), they occupy a building in construction. A large-scale facility with national ambitions will be built by 2025, reaffirming the place of artistic creation in the suburbs.

Le Centre Wallonie Bruxelles/Paris Through its resolutely de-anctuarizing and A-transdisciplinary programming, the Centre is mandated to disseminate and promote the work of artists based in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. It thus promotes emerging and established approaches, from the peripheral to the established.

Institut des Hautes Études pour les Pratiques et les Arts de la Transformation (IHEPAT) IHEPAT supports the emergence of the skills required to engage in transformative change. The principle of the approach is to start by sharing original experiences, to learn to let ourselves be collectively transformed by new perceptions and the unprecedented questions they raise.