What has a washing machine to do with the Art Day? A legitimate question after watching the video of the festival on YouTube (see below this paragraph). The answer is in the concept of the video: art, represented by the performance by Giovanni Miglietti, breaks the daily routine, symbolized by the washing machine. Starting from the video of this particular performance, the curtain is drawn on the search for artists for the next GDA, in programme for Friday 8th June 2018. This year too, in fact, we will host the event that has now marked the end of the scholastic years in Biella for quite a while: the end of the lessons for high school students is somehow “formalized” by the recurring celebration of the Art Day. The locations have varied throughout the years, but an artistic fil rouge has linked all the occasions. At the centre of the event is always art, in all its declinations, from music to theatre, from dance to visual arts. This year, the creative process started in the past years continues, more and more showcasing as protagonists the people who generate art.
(Video by Loris Bellan, performance by Giovanni Miglietti)
GDA’s staff have therefore issued an “Artists Wanted” call with free submission, divided in four macro-sections, each including sub-categories: visual arts (painting, sculpture, photography, illustration, live painting, street art, tattoos, comics and graphic novels); music (live bands, soloists and DJs); performance (theatre, dance, poetry reading, short story reading and circus acts); cinema and multimedia (films, musical videos and shorts). Behind the scenes of the enrolment and the day itself are about 30 volunteer students, who for months have been preparing and considering how to organize the event in the best of ways, thinking of an innovative “artist-oriented” formula. To define artistic, economical and logistical details, the organizers are assisted by Cittadellarte and by the association Better Places, with the support of other partners, among which Fondazione Pistoletto itself, the Province Student Council and the City of Biella. The event is sponsored by the Ministry of Education in coordination with Regione Piemonte and Provincia di Biella.
Going back to the contents of the GDA, let’s find out the programme of this edition: the day will start with the traditional opening parade along the streets of Biella’s city centre, finishing at Cittadellarte. The spaces of Fondazione Pistoletto will in fact host the events in the course of the afternoon, when the festival will really get going. In the evening, the big finale will be a live concert featuring a special guest (whose name will be revealed in the next months) and, after that, a DJ set in Piazza Duomo in Biella. Moving on to the details of the initiative, its motto will be “Energy at the centre”, as a testimony to the vitality and the metaphorical colour invading Cittadellarte on 8th June; the reference is also to the location of the late evening performance – Piazza Duomo – which, according to the organizers, will be the ideal venue for the closing event, being at the heart of Biella. One of the objectives of the kermesse is in fact making the Art Day an occasion involving the whole city, not only the students. The non-profit event – as in the past years all the activities will be free for both participants and public – also aims at launching the territory and the emerging artists living in it, giving them adequate space to express their artistic creativity in a suitable context.
“The Art Day – write the organizers in the press – is the research for a space of free expression. We believe in our territory and we want this research to start from Biella, to make it a lively centre of propagation of energy and creativity.”
Please see the announcement clicking here for all the info about how to register your proposal and the selection criteria.
Please write an email to info@giornatadellarte.it for further info on the “Artists Wanted” call.
