For its second edition, Mittelyoung – part of Mittelfest – has issued an open call for Italian, Central-European and Balkan makers of theatre, music, dance, circus and multidisciplinary arts.
These will be selected by a group of curators under 30, appointed by Mittelfest in cooperation with arts organisations across Italy. For the 2022, they will also include international organisations: the Carinthischer Sommer Music Festival in Austria and SNG Nova Gorica in Slovenia.
In 2022, 27 countries are involved: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine.
The proposed projects must be in line with the Mittelfest 2022 theme of Imprevisti (The Unexpected):
Mittelfest was founded in 1991, at a time of renewed dialogue between East and West as part of the Pentagonale initiative, which then included the governments of Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Over the years this has extended to encompass 19 central and eastern Europe countries, creating the Central European Initiative (CEI).
Today, Mittelfest promotes dialogue between 27 European countries: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine and Hungary.
For the next 30 years Mittelfest and its festival have offered a meeting place and space for cooperation and dialogue between the different languages and cultures of Central Europe and the Balkans.
From the submitted applications, under the coordination of Mittelfest artistic direction, the group of curators will select nine projects to be showcased from 12th to 14th May in Cividale del Friuli and on 15th May 2022 in Gorizia.
Following this, three shows will be chosen to re-scheduled during Mittelfest Imprevisti (The Unexpected), which takes place between 22nd – 31st July 2022.
In 2022, there will further collaboration with SC Young, the under-30s section of the Carinthischer Sommer Music Festival, which takes place in July-August 2022, a music show selected by Mittelyoung will be hosted by the Austrian festival, while a CS Young show will be held in Mittelfest.
For more details on the open call and how to apply, visit the Mittelfest website.
Natasha Tripney is a writer, editor and critic based in London and Belgrade. She is the international editor for The Stage, the newspaper of the UK theatre industry. In 2011, she co-founded Exeunt, an online theatre magazine, which she edited until 2016. She is a contributor to the Guardian, Evening Standard, the BBC, Tortoise and Kosovo 2.0
