MENTAL RURAL
Dialogues between sound and the mind in a rural context
15th anniversary of Binaural Nodar’s artist residency program in sound and media arts
Open call for projects from June 20th, 2020 until August 31st, 2020
Some elders in mountain villages of the Portuguese region of Viseu Dão Lafões tell us that back in the day people didn’t have time to be depressed, such was the intensity of the agricultural and pastoral work they had to accomplish on daily basis. Probably this apparently simple idea can be broken down into multiple aspects of what would be a life of work in communion with nature: walking, regular physical strain, the almost absence of existential anxieties, organic food, the sun on the face and body, close communitarian bonds, in short, a life of proximity whose cycles were in harmony with the landscape, the chronological time and the passing of seasons. Naturally, there was also a darker side to the equation: aspects such as inbreeding, alcohol abuse and limited medical care coincided with the existence of a large number of “peculiar” people whose psychological characteristics deviated from the so-called “norm”.
On the other hand, in contemporary times, natural landscapes are largely related to physical and psychological well-being and more individual and utilitarian dimensions. Some authors have in recent years shown the need to include experiential, social and cultural aspects in the relationships established with places. For instance, in the words of Laura Menatti and António Casado da Rocha in Landscape and Health: Connecting Psychology, Aesthetics, and Philosophy through the Concept of Affordance:
“Psychology and philosophy stress the importance of the relationship between health and landscape in different ways. Psychology, for instance, addresses this issue through psycho-evolutionary frameworks […], all of which focus on stress reduction. Philosophy, on the other hand, proposes a place-attachment approach which originates from phenomenology and human geography.”
Binaural Nodar’s artist residency program for 2021, which celebrates fifteen years of hosting sound & media arts and site-specific performance projects in rural contexts of the Portuguese region of Viseu Dão Lafões, proposes, as a theme for projects to host, creative dialogues between sound and the mind, either from direct contact with local landscapes and rural communities and/or emanating from personal reflections and experiences of the artists themselves.
Applications must be sent by email to info@binauralmedia.org and include the following elements:
- Full name, artistic name, postal address, phone / WhatsApp, email and website.
- A text describing an art project specifically conceived for this artist residency program, with a maximum of 7,500 characters with spaces.
- A CV or artistic biography and links to previous works that might be related to the proposal.
The artist residencies will be held in one of two possible three-week periods, one in the spring and the other in the fall of 2021.
The organization and the partner municipalities will ensure compliance with the health security measures that will be in force in the Portuguese territory at the time of the artist residencies, will support accommodation, food and production costs and will pay an artist fee per project of 500 euro (net amount).
Projects submitted by artists who are in a situation of psychological, social and/or economic fragility will be privileged, and in these cases we suggest sending a letter of motivation that contextualizes the interest in the artist residency.
All inquiries about this open call can be sent by email to Luís Costa: luis.costa@binauralmedia.org.