Landscape design festival MAGENTA and its’ partner “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022” are happy to announce an open call for participation in the 2022 edition of the festival and are inviting creators from various fields to propose their ideas for projects to be implemented in Kaunas City in 2022.

Concept

Landscape design festival MAGENTA aims at actualizing landscape design and environmental art, enhancing the role of green spaces in shaping our urban environment, and promoting interdisciplinary public art. The 2022 edition of the festival is dedicated to tactical urbanism.

Tactical urbanism means short-term green interventions into urban life and environment that invite us to consider long-term effects and a need for complex and socially significant actions. Tactical urbanism interventions can creatively and playfully enliven urban spaces, while actively involving citizens in various activities related to environment, plants and urban elements. It’s one of the most effective ways to accommodate new and revitalize old public spaces, to regenerate them or to reveal their potential. This is even more relevant in current COVID-19 situation as the viral pandemic and mobility restrictions made global urban population strive for more fresh air and open, spacious and healthy public zones in densely urbanized areas.

Announcing tactical urbanism as the topic of the festival, we expect to attract creators who promote socially sensitive and sustainable creativity through various community-based and artistical forms, including visual arts, design, installations, music and different interdisciplinary connections.

Aimed at forgotten, “dead” or problematic places, tactical urbanism reveals a need for creativity in our everyday environment: streets, squares, yards of apartment buildings, alleys, parking lots, slopes, parks, riversides and other places in Kaunas City.

Therefore, we invite creators from various fields to present their proposals for projects to be implemented in Kaunas City in 2022.

Open call

We are looking for creators or groups of creators from various fields that have creative ideas how to mobilize groups of citizens, individual residents, authorities, businesses and non-profit organizations ant to reach any of the following targets:

– raising awareness of the value and importance of green urban fabric;
– properly spotlighting shortcomings in urban design of the city and revealing potential of public spaces;
– increasing active engagement of the public in urban planning;
– establishing connections between inhabitants and decision makers or creating a model for their collaboration;
– contributing to better understanding of the needs of people living in a neighbourhood, a block or a street;
– testing changes in public spaces by applying short-time solutions, before resorting to long-term ones.

We are interested in landscape design, plant and small-scale architectural installations, sustainable urban solutions, design elements for public spaces, temporary urban games, artistical and community-based solutions for friendly and healthy environment.

We invite you to share your creative ideas with the team of the landscape design festival MAGENTA by submitting the following information: the name of an applicant; a brief description of the project, including:

• project title;
• brief description of the idea, target audience of the proposed project, other important information;
• 1 to 3 visualisations [sketches, montages, associative photos, etc.] to supplement the idea [in PDF, A4 paper size];
• location for presenting the outcomes of the project [or a description of a necessary location];
• budget of the project, including remuneration for the creator;
• a CV,
• references to the creative works and a brief motivation letter [up to 500 words];
• a concise reference in an email to the source from which the applicant learnt about the festival.

Applications are to be sent to the director of the festival Mrs. Ingrida Vainauskienė at: [email protected]

Main selection criteria:

– meeting targets of tactical urbanism;
– novelty of the project [a new project that has not been publicly demonstrated or implemented in Lithuania];
– sustainability of the project [chosen materials, sustainable use of natural resources, etc.];
– quality of the content and impactfulness of the project [a complete project that clearly reveals its’ topic];
– accessibility of the project;
– rational budget planning [the budget has to be reasonable and well-grounded].

Other important information

Costs of smaller-scale projects should not exceed the amount of € 5000 [including remuneration for the creator].

Costs of bigger-scale projects must not exceed the amount of € 15000 [including remuneration for the creator].

MAGENTA team provides:

– administrating and curating the project;
– communication and promoting the project;
– reimbursement of the project expenditures;
– search for necessary partners and proposing collaborations.

Deadlines

Deadline for submission of proposals: 18/04/2021.

Announcement of the creators invited to participate in the festival: 25/04/2021.

Preparation, negotiations and drafting contracts for the 2022 edition of the festival: May 2021 to February 2022.

Expected start of preparatory works: May 2022.

Presentations of the outcomes of the projects: 09/09/2022 to 25/09/2022.

We note that MAGENTA reserves the right not to comment on the selection results. The author of each selected proposal will be informed personally.

Landscape design festival MAGENTA is a part of the programme “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022“.