Mophradat & MaerzMusik: AiR 2023/24

Mophradat is collaborating with MaerzMusik in Berlin on a special new residency program open to musicians, composers, producers, sound, and interdisciplinary artists to work collaboratively with the Berlin-based Ensemble Adapter on new work to be presented at MaerzMusik festival in 2024.

The residency, which takes place in Berlin and remotely, offers the musician and Ensemble Adapter flexibility as they work together, encouraging innovative creation processes beyond the borders of notation and conventional presentation formats, as well as engagement with experimental and dialogical approaches to artistic work.

The invited resident will receive a monthly stipend for four-and-a-half months for the period in which they are in residence and conceiving a new work with Ensemble Adapter. Together with the DAAD, the festival will host the resident in Berlin for two working sessions with the ensemble from November 15 to December 15 in 2023 and February 1 to March 25 in 2024. The musician will be provided with a living and working space in Berlin during their on-site stays, access to various studios and sites, and be introduced to peers in the city. The residency will also cover the costs of return economy travel for both trips, visa, and travel insurance, and the festival will provide the composer with a fee for the commission and concert.

Based in Berlin, Ensemble Adapter is an experimental music group led by its founders Matthias Engler (percussion) and Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir (harp). Treating music as a contemporary art form, Ensemble Adapter creates, curates, produces, workshops, and performs – both onstage and online, and focuses on collaborative work with partners of various artistic backgrounds worldwide. You can read more about Ensemble Adapter here.

Founded in 2002 by Berliner Festspiele, MaerzMusik is a festival is interested in challenging the traditional dichotomy often found between “composer” and “implementer” to create a more deconstructed space of co-authoring processes of conceiving an artistic work. The festival’s programming encourages interdisciplinary approaches and cross-pollination of artistic practices that engage with and beyond the body, technology and form. It also focuses on developing new creative strategies that engage with participatory processes with the audience, questioning habitual listening and inviting new ways of experiencing music. You can read more about MaerzMusik here.

Residency dates: November 15 to December 15, 2023, and February 15 to March 25, 2024 (onsite in Berlin).

All applicants, whether selected or not, will receive a response to their applications by September 1, 2023.

Eligibility criteria:

• Applicants must be composers from or living in the Arab world.
• Applicants must have at least 5 years’ professional work experience in the field of music and/or composition locally and/or internationally.
• Applicants must primarily engage with artistic concerns and aim towards high artistic merit.
• Applicants must be interested in research into forms of compositional modality, including developing new notation systems, experimental dialogical music composition processes, and experimental participatory actions with the audience.
   

The resident will be selected by Mophradat in collaboration with MaerzMusik. All applicants, whether selected or not, will receive a response to their applications by September 1, 2023. Due to the high volume of applications received and the confidentiality of the selection process, Mophradat cannot provide individual feedback explaining the reason an application was not selected. Upon selection, the resident will sign separate contracts with Mophradat and MaerzMusik.
A narrative summary of what was achieved must be submitted to Mophradat within two weeks of the end of the residency.

In order to prepare your application, you may already check out the questions here. You can only apply by filling in an online form here. Any material sent by email will not be considered.

The residency is organized in collaboration with MaerzMusik, with the support of their partner DAAD. Art Time Residencies is partially supported by the Flemish Authorities.

Deadline to apply: July 23, 2023