Picture ©Nikiema Florent.
The programme ECMS Africalia's aim is to encourage people to better understanding, analysing and criticising their environment of in an artistic and creative way. In order to encourage citizens to become agents of change, Africalia is calling on artists from all disciplines to get involved in this process. The artistic proposals selected will be designed to raise awareness of the role of the arts and culture in tackling global issues, particularly the question of decolonisation, in a creative and artistic way. Here, as everywhere else, creativity is fertile ground for imagination, liberation and the reinvention of our societies.
Theme of the 2022 call for proposals - Transmission as heritage
No society can survive without ensuring its cultural transmission, because human beings are essentially culture and culture exists "only through the will to transmit it from one generation to the next"(1). This relativistic and plural vision of culture is reflected in UNESCO's notion of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)(2).
An important component of the ICH is that their recognition is based on communities, thus emphasising the role of social actors: "intangible cultural heritage can only be heritage when it is recognised as such by the communities, groups and individuals who create, maintain and transmit it; without their opinion, no one can decide for them whether a given expression or practice is part of their heritage". (3)
While for a long time cultural heritage was thought of as a form of respect for our ancestors, the notion of ICH invites us to also think about preserving this heritage for our successors.
Inheritance is therefore a gift from the previous generation to the next, but also a debt to the generation that will follow. This debt includes not only what has been received, but also what has been transformed and acquired over time. This work of transformation can result in a shift in both the content consumed and the methods of consumption(4).
While the risk of heritage protection, such as UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, is to make works of the past sacrosanct and thus to freeze them, we want to think of the act of transmitting and creating heritage as an act of mutation parallel to the changes that our societies are undergoing.
Our societies are undergoing a twofold change which is having an impact on this transmission:
A changing relationship with time and space - digital technology has created a global village
A changing relationship with cultural objects linked to changes in social identities and the way they are constructed, thanks to the possibility of (re)defining oneself ad infinitum.
We therefore invite artists not only to question modes of transmission and cultural heritage in the context of contemporary societies, but also to rethink the very notions of transmission and heritage in the light of a society experiencing a crisis of memory and identity.
Objectives of the call for proposals
- The artistic proposals selected are designed to encourage reflection on transmission as a legacy.
- Proposals must be the result of collaboration between one or more artists and a project organisation, and must bring together different artistic disciplines. The aim is to support and/or develop bridges between cultural operators and artists from different disciplines.
- Proposals initiated in a spirit of partnership and co-creation will be encouraged.
- The proposals will highlight the current expressions of artists from the following countries sub-Saharan Africa.
Submitting applications
Your complete application (application form and all enclosures) must be sent in one go by email to africalia@africalia.be before 11 December 2022 at 11:59pm. If the e-mail exceeds 10 MB, please use a Wetransfer or Dropbox link.
Application form : download document
Guidelines for the 2022 call for proposals
If you have any questions about the call for proposals and/or the co-financing application questionnaire, please send them by email only to africalia@africalia.be between the 1 November 2022 and 9 December 2022.
Only projects run by organisations and activities based in Belgium are eligible.
Amount of subsidy
Africalia's contribution will be between 5.000€ à 15.000€ per proposal, up to a maximum of 80% of the total proposal budget. Only one request for co-financing may be submitted per call and per applicant.
Discover the winners of the 2020 call for proposals to give you an idea of the projects selected.
FAQS
The call is limited to projects that take place in Belgium. It concerns the production of cultural and artistic works directly linked to education for global citizenship and solidarity, paying specific attention to cultural cross-fertilisation and aiming to highlight contemporary creations by artists from Black Africa / the sub-Saharan African diasporas / Afro-descendants.
The following proposals are not eligible:
- Projects involving construction costs and the restoration of equipment.
- Costs already covered by another grant.
- Proposals for the purchase of materials or equipment only.
- Proposals aimed at the self-promotion of their authors.
- Actions of a political, discriminatory or proselytising nature.
- Tourist trips and school trips.
- Proposals for information on ECMS actions.
- Proposals with an academic and/or research focus.
- Internships as part of your studies.
- A commercial activity.
- Proposals for purely academic training.
- Proposals for fund-raising activities.
- Funding for project-related salaries.
- Rents.
- Proposals with a start date before 1 February 2022.
Proposals that have not identified another source of funding, financial or in kind, covering the estimated value of at least 20% of the total provisional budget.
All expenditure included in the list of ineligible development cooperation expenditure (see Annex 1).
An artistic ECMS project is defined as: "a project whose primary objective is to use artistic and creative means to encourage citizens to better understand, analyse and criticise their environment by becoming more aware of human rights, the realities experienced by people in the South, and the interdependence between people in the North and South, with the aim of finding ways of reinventing our societies".
- Legal entities under Belgian law (not-for-profit organisations, artists' collectives or other cultural structures, private companies such as production companies) with their head office in Belgium, and who carry out regular activities in the cultural, artistic and creative sector.
- Projects by individual artists may be submitted, provided that they work in partnership with a cultural association (legal entities under Belgian law (asbl, artists' collectives or other cultural structures, private companies such as production companies) established in Belgium which assumes legal responsibility for the project. De facto associations are not eligible.
Africalia's contribution will range from a minimum of €5,000 to a maximum of €15,000 per proposal.
All applications must be completed in Dutch or French, the working languages of the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation. Applications may be completed in English provided that a summary of the proposal is submitted in French or Dutch. Applications for co-financing submitted in other languages will not be considered.
Complete applications (application form and all enclosures) must be sent in one go by email to africalia@africalia.be before 11 December 2022. If the e-mail exceeds 10 MB, please use a Wetransfer or Dropbox link.
Only one request for co-financing may be submitted per call. Multiple applications for co-financing submitted by the same applicant will not be considered.
If you have any questions about the call for proposals and/or the application form, please send them by email only to africalia@africalia.be before 8 December 2022. The FAQs will be updated regularly.
12 December 2022 - 15 January 2023: Analysis of proposals (verification of admissibility by Africalia and content analysis by the selection committee)
16 January 2023: Publication of results on the Africalia website www.africalia.be
Winners will be informed of their selection by e-mail. Please note: only the winners will be contacted!
Please note: Africalia will not provide individual information on the status of applications received.
The schedule of payments to be made will be defined at the time of contracting on the basis of the activities planned in the proposal and according to the terms of the report to be drawn up during and at the end of the implementation of the proposal.
- The promoter is required to submit a narrative annual report and a financial report including supporting documents (numbered list of expenses + certified copies of supporting documents).
- The proposer will also provide documentation on the process of developing and implementing the proposal (photos, videos, etc.).
The selection criteria are established shortly before the call is launched by a Selection Committee made up of specialists or people from the field and/or by the members of the jury.
