Sultry Days & Flavoured Nights
Trans Artists at the BJCEM Biennial, Puglia
Bari, Italy. Weather forecast: 39 degrees Celsius. I push away the wobbly curtains and look out of the window; The sun trembles at the end of the sky. Olive trees spontaneously set fire and create sculptural clouds of smoke along the highway. On the other side I see nothing but turqoise coloured water. The Mediterrean waves and welcomes us.
The bus driver slows down; final destination: Fiera del Levante. This is the exhibition venue of the XIII edition of the international biennial of young artists from Europe and the Mediterrean World www.bjcem.org. Not only does the BJCEM association strive for opportunities for young artists of various disciplines to have promising venues to present their work, they also organise several side activities like workshops, discussions, lectures and a lively cultural evening program which functions as a fruitful playground to meet and inspire each other.
Since its first edition in 1985 in Barcelona the BJCEM has spread the message that cultural differences are not a thread but represent an important resource to be exploited; cultural diversity plays a fundamental role and shall foster initiatives to open the dialogue within the Mediterranean, since comprehension is based on ' dialogues'. And dialogue it was! The participating artists and the audience could wander around the venue for free and enjoy the wide range of different activities. Even after opening hours late at night the dialogue prolonged; numerous artistic and amicable encounters took place between musicians from all around the Mediterrean Sea. Once they started playing their instruments the sultry flavoured air trembled again; the audience set fire too.
"One of the most valuable workshops during BJCEM was 'BECOMING AN ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE' hold by Dutch artist Yeb Wiersma who works for the Trans Artists foundation.The workshop was meant to assist young artists in searching, choosing and applying for the proper residence. The presentation was like a guide for the world of 'artist-in-residence', which was very helpful because the offer for residence programme is wide and this can become a problem for an unexperienced young artist, who can lose a lot of time applying for unsuited residence. A real insipation and very important was the personal experience of Dutch artist Yeb Wiersma who shared with us what it meant for her working in different residence programmes. It was very exciting to attend the presentation because the Trans Artists website is a great resource for me in finding opportunities for artists, in fact Trans Artists web site informed me about the call for artists for Bjcem!"
Amsterdam, May 2008