Biennale of Western Balkans (BoWB) presents Art Pluriverse: A Community Science Series

BoWB, is announcing its upcoming digital programme, entitled Art Pluriverse: A Community Science Series. As the second edition of the Biennale, that was going to take place in Ioannina, Greece in October 2020, had to be postponed, the organisation sets a month of digital events, as part of its year-round programme. Art Pluriverse is the title of a community science series about intangible cultural heritage, starting in December 2020. The official website will be launched on September 17th and the programme will be open to the public on December 3rd.

Embracing digital cultural heritage and our current reality, the Biennale will present a community-driven digital programme, following a series of open calls, which will be running until October 25. The shortlisted communities, artists and participants will be announced in early November.

The 1st Art Pluriverse edition will be focusing on textiles and their communities of practice. The planned activities involve communities-artists synergies that combine local knowledge with contemporary art, a 3D art space as a virtual textile experience, distance learning courses about community archives and open cultural data, as well as a writing jam. The programme is inspired by three concepts: Art Pluriverse, Community Science and Open Knowledge. Art Pluriverse is conceived as a field in the making, a confluence for ‘pluriversal’ ways of worlding and being, reached through art and culture.

The programme aims to uplift local knowledge and intangible heritage practices, promoting their documentation, access and appreciation through digital cultural heritage. Communities that cherish intangible heritage with focus on the Balkan region will be coming together with artists, creatives and researchers, inspiring the creation of open knowledge through research-based art creation and collaborative learning. BoWB envisions a boundary-spanning approach to ‘pluriversality’ through art and culture, including concepts as intangible heritage, local history, contemporary art and cultural ecology. Art Pluriverse aims to cooperatively explore transformative, inclusive and sustainable ways of being, shared as open knowledge.

About BoWB

The Biennale of Western Balkans (BoWB) draws connections between intangible cultural heritage, art and technology, with the vision to inspire people experiencing tradition anew. BoWB is a biennial festival and year-round project that was initiated in 2018 in Ioannina, Region of Epirus, Northwestern Greece. BoWB’s mission is to present interdisciplinary art and research that engage intangible cultural practices in transformative, collective and educative ways, advocating for open knowledge, open source technologies and the commons. BoWB aims to develop inclusive participation in a wide range of social groups and foster a network of transnational and intersectional mobility in Greece and the Western Balkans. We envision a boundary spanning approach to intangible heritage that brings together past and contemporary cultural practices, encouraging collective action, art creation and well-being.

BoWB is an initiative of the History of Art Laboratory of the School of Fine Arts in the University of Ioannina.

For more information

Website: https://bowb.org

Open Calls: https://bowb.org/open-calls-2020

BoWB catalogue (2018): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4019939

For Images and Press enquiries:

Christina Ioannou, CCIcomms, [email protected]

Follow along for our growing list of partners for this event, supported and organised by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, University of Ioannina, its School of Fine Arts and the Biennale of Western Balkans.