Finestrat outdoor art contest
FINESTRAT town hall has announced an art competition which, according to the councillor for culture Héctor Baldó, has two objectives – to provide the municipality’s public spaces with ‘perfectly integrated artistic displays’ at the same time as ‘helping to promote the work of artists’, especially students of fine art at Elche’s Miguel Hernández university.
Finestrat Arte Público (public art) is a collaboration between the town hall and Miguel Hernández university, and aims to ‘support the work of artists while bringing contemporary art closer to all sectors of the population’.
The works will be displayed in specific areas within the town – the recreation area at Font del Molí, Plaza de la Unión Europea, La Placeta, the Mirador del Calle Sant Josep, Calle Hostal, and Plaza del Ánfora de la Cala
The works required to populate these spaces need to take account of ‘Finestrat’s singularities, its cultural and natural heritage and landscape, and also showcase the importance of social relations in the community, by using these areas for displaying contemporary art’.
The rules of the contest also provide artists with the possibility of choosing which of the spaces they would like to use for their project.
Competition coordinator Miguel Alejos said: “The first Finestrat public art contest is aimed at artists interested in developing a site-specific artistic work, which is urban and ephemeral in nature that reflects on bringing contemporary art to public spaces and in the context of Finestrat, something which is very much the order of the day in recent times.
“In this way, the town becomes an exhibition space and also a work and experimentation space, where artists can explore endless possibilities.”
People interested in participating in the contest have until June 30 to present their proposals. There are two categories – general, and, with the aim of promoting young artists, a category aimed specifically at students of the degree or masters course at Miguel Hernández university’s faculty of fine art in Altea.
Entries can be in any media, ranging from painting to sculpture, contemporary video-art, installations, performance, etc, but must take into account their durability as they are expected to be on display for two years.
The general category has a prize fund of €4,000 and the student category €3,000. From this the participants must account for the production and presentation costs, and forego the rights to the work, amongst other expenses.
People can participate either individually or collectively.
The complete rules are available from the Finestrat town hall website at www.ayto-finestrat.es, and further information can be obtained via email to fines tratartepublico@gmail.com