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 bring together these fundamental upheavals, the COAL 2024 Prize is calling on artists who are developing restorative practices, individually or in groups; approaches that reconnect us somatically, sensorially and spiritually; know-how of the hand and of the earth; often in atypical and non-institutional cultural venues, veritable open-air laboratories, fields in which to experiment with tangible and realistic 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 students enrolled in French schools in the field of arts and culture > Discover the COAL student Prize 2024 open call here

CALENDAR

Application deadline : 5th May 2024

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

Announcement of the winners: September 2024

Awards ceremony: November 2024, at Sans Réserve, the meeting place for creatives 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:

– The completed application form, downloadable 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 applications are to be submitted by 5th May 2024 at 11:59 pm at the latest via 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-Dory, Artist, Founder of Inland – Campo Adentro; Maria-Thalia Carras, Founder of Locus Athens; Gabriela Benish-Kalná, Director of ArtDialog; Olivier Darné, Artist, Founder of Parti Poétique; Luiz Oosterbeek, Founder of the Instituto Terra e Memoria; Nathalie Blanc, Research Director at the CNRS, Director of the Centre des politiques de la Terre; Patrick Degeorges, Philosopher, Member of the Institut Michel Serres (ENS Lyon), vice-president of IHEPAT; Clément Postec, Visual Arts Advisor in charge of exhibitions at Ateliers Médicis; Christopher Yggdre, Artistic Director of the Fondation Laccolade;A representative of the French Ministry of Culture; Lauranne Germond, Co-founder and Director of COAL and Sara Dufour, Director of programmes and curator, COAL.

AWARDS

– The winner of the COAL Prize will be awarded 12,000 euros and a creative residency at the heart of the Domaine de Belval, owned by the François Sommer Foundation, run 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 winner of the Jury’s Special Prize will be awarded 3,000 euros.

– The winner of the Ateliers Médicis award will benefit from a residency in Clichy-sous-Bois/Montfermeil, in association with the Bondy regional forest and 12,000 euros.

-The winning artist of the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles/ Paris mention will be awarded 2,000 euros and an invitation to exhibit their work at the Parisian institution.

–Transformative Territories mentions: 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 COAL Prize 2024 is funded by the European Union via the programme Transformative Territories, Performing transition through the arts, the French Ministry of Culture, the French Office for Biodiversity, the ADEME, the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, the Fondation François Sommer and the Fondation LAccolade, as well as a partnership with the Ateliers Médicis, the Centre Wallonie Bruxelles/Paris and the IHEPAT.

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

Le ministère de la 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.

The French Office for Biodiversity (OFB)
The French Office for Biodiversity 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 agency of ecological transition (ADEME)
The ADEME has been committed to fighting climate change and the deterioration of resources for 30 years, helping to shape national and local policies for ecological transition. As a French public body serving all stakeholders, ADEME’s mission is to accelerate the transition to a society that is more sober and inclusive, employment-creating, humane and harmonious.

The musée de la Chasse et de la Nature and the Fondation François Sommer
Recognized of public utility since its creation on 30th November 1966, the Foundation was created by François and Jacqueline Sommer, pioneers in the realization of a 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.

The LAccolade Foundation – Institut de France
The Fondation LAccolade promotes artistic creation aware of its environment. It encourages approaches, projects and actions by artists around the themes of water, the environment, the fragility of living beings 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.

The Ateliers Médicis
Committed to the emergence of new, diverse artistic voices, and to supporting unique and contemporary artists, the Ateliers Médicis welcomes artists from all disciplines to residencies, and supports the creation of works conceived in connection with the local area. 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.

The Centre Wallonie Bruxelles/Paris
Through its resolutely de-sanctuarizing and A-trans- disciplinary 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.

Institute for Advanced Studies in Transformation Arts and Practices (IHEPAT)

IHEPAT supports the emergence of the skills required to embark on transformative change. The principle of the approach is to start by sharing original experiences to learn how to allow ourselves to be collectively transformed by new perceptions and by the new questions they raise.