Reunited all the parts that conform the European project Contested Desires, D6: Culture in Transit (UK) La Bonne (Spain), LAC (Portugal), Xarkis (Cyprus), Fresh Milk (Barbados) and ECCOM (Italy), it was decided to choose by the last international open call the Spanish artists resident in Catalonia Monica Rikić and Anna Carreras Sales. Congratulations!
CONTESTED DESIRES is a transnational capacity building program for artists and producers engaging with communities and heritage spaces. With a focus on exchange and learning, the program will offer unique opportunities for artists and communities to explore our shared heritage through research, workshops, residencies, and exhibitions. At a time of increasing right-wing populism, CONTESTED DESIRES aims to challenge the de-stabilizing and divisive impact of political landscapes of Europe and beyond, where the response to the complexities, diversity, and expansion of our communities, continues to be met with the power play of fear-mongering, discrimination, and exclusion; where our borders become our protectors and our heritage our place of sanctuary.
Through a new and dynamic partnership, CONTESTED DESIRES connects six innovative arts and cultural organizations across the global north and south. Led by D6: Culture in Transit (UK) they include La Bonne (Spain), LAC (Portugal), Xarkis (Cyprus) and Fresh Milk (Barbados). ECCOM (Italy), cultural experts in the field of interdisciplinary practice, will develop a unique capacity building and evaluation strand to the project, in association with the writer and researcher, François Matarasso.
Mónica Rikić
New media artist from Barcelona. She focuses her practice on code, electronics, and analog objects to create interactive works framed as experimental games. Her interest lies in the social impact of technology, human-machine coexistence and the reappropriation of technological systems and devices, to manipulate and rethink them through art. From educational to sociological approaches, she proposes new ways of thinking and interacting with the digital environment. She has participated in different international festivals such as Ars Electronica, Japan Media Arts Festival, FILE Brazil and Sónar, among others, and made residencies at TAG in Montreal, within the EMARE program at QUT Brisbane and Medialab Prado.
Anna Carreras Sales
She is a creative coder and digital artist based in Barcelona. She focuses her practice and research on code, generative systems, and interaction. She’s interested in complexity that emerges from small simple behaviors or from the balance between order and chaos. She tries to capture the diversity and richness of complexity working with generative algorithms and visuals.
Her interest lies in using generative graphics and interaction as a
communicative instrument. They are a mean of creating new experiences and narrative proposals. Merging art and technology she creates installations and pieces that invite participation, exploration and some reflection.
