STREET ARTISTS IN EUROPE - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Street Artists in Europe
• personal creative project: this is one of the selection criteria and it becomes an
increasingly important part of the training during the 18-month course. Students have to
choose a tutor and at the end of the course they present their creative project in four
different forms: documentary, physical presence in an exhibition space, oral presentation
to an audience, a practical demonstration (not a show) for which they receive funding.
Finally, a special feature of the FAI AR training is that the teaching staff are peripatetic and
work with different teams all the time, in different premises suitable for work on the
fundamentals, and going out to meet the creators. Thus the teachers are not permanent. At the
end of the course, a certificate of attendance is issued, not a diploma. That avoids the idea of a
professional qualification that would be required to work in the field.
Another course is the ‘Master 2’ course on cultural projects in the public space at Université
Paris I, for those wishing to become project designers and managers. There are also a number of
organisations in France that raise awareness of street arts and/or organise training, mainly for
culture professionals (mediators, administrators, technicians), local staff, etc. Notable examples
are Atelier 231 (Sotteville-lès-Rouen), Avant Scène (Cognac), le Fourneau (Brest), the Centre
national de la fonction publique territoriale (Paris and regional delegations), the École
supérieure des arts et techniques du théâtre (Lyon), and the Fédération nationale des collectivités
territoriales pour la culture. Lastly, Le temps des arts de la rue has a training and skills working
group that is, in particular, conducting a survey of existing street arts training.
4.4. Networks and collectives
In an attempt to promote exchanges, encourage mobility amongst artists, and assist in putting on
productions, several street arts festivals have grouped together or joined with production venues
in a synergetic approach. Examples are:
• In Situ: International Shows Innovants en Territoires Urbains: Lieux publics has set up a
platform of six leading European street arts practitioners. It is hoped that the project will
receive substantial support from the European Union. The scale of the project obviously
depends on receipt of the funding. But a strategic decision has clearly been made to
develop public spaces in Europe and elsewhere in the world, and other partnerships are
currently being considered (Shanghai, Beirut, Algiers). Members of In Situ are: in
Austria, La Strada, a major festival in Graz; in Belgium, Antwerpen Open, a summer
festival in the Antwerp region; in Spain, Fusic, organisers of major events in Barcelona,
in the United Kingdom, UZ Production, which puts on several large street festivals,
including in Brighton and Bradford; in France, Atelier 231 in Sotteville-lès-Rouen, one
of the main French production centres, which organises the Vivacité festival. Around
that platform is a network of partners involved in promotion and pre-purchasing (Beirut,
Poznan, etc). What they have in common is the European dimension as a creative source.
The idea is that the interaction between artists in different countries, the encounters with
the public in the towns visited and the exploration of social issues common to European
countries open up new and stimulating creative possibilities. This three-year project is
deliberately restricted to one area, the development of creativity, and one artistic field,
text and its context.
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