Daniel Brunet (US/DE), The Berlin Circle Audio Walk, B_Tour Berlin 2014, Photo: Sebastian Gösche, courtesy of B_Tour
For the past two years, B_Tour has been organizing and curating activities, tours, and festivals in Berlin in an effort to familiarize locals with their urban environment in artistically innovative ways. In collaboration with artists and institutions, B_Tour creates alternatives to the conventional ‘guided tour’ by redefining the way certain neighborhoods are viewed and explored in an urban context. From June 26-28, B_Tour will be hosting the third edition of its festival in Berlin and the program is accepting submissions from now until March 15, 2015.
B_Tour Festival is an international art festival of guided tours that welcomes artists and participants from all over the world to tour their cities in immersive and experimental ways. Last year’s festivals in Berlin and Belgrade were a huge success, providing attendees with unique, interactive experiences that go far beyond your average guided city tour.
For example, Daniel Brunet, Producing Artistic Director of English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center, led last year’s festival goers on an audio walk to various locations described in playwright/historian Charles Mee‘s Berlin Circle. The group listened along to performed and recorded dialogue from the text as it was strikingly juxtaposed against the present reality of the locations mentioned.
Artists are free to design and personalize their tours however they please, some choosing to lead the tours themselves and others choosing to narrate the tours with audio sets, signs, etc. This year’s festivals will be held in Berlin and Leipzig and, though B_Tour does not offer financial support to applicants (production/travel expenses), the festivals provide a great platform for networking, promotion, and a chance to explore public art/spaces through the lens of two very distinct cities.
Prospective artists are welcome to apply to both locations and should take a look at the festival’s guidelines for more details on how the process works.
The deadline for applications is March 15, 2015.
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For more information about B_Tour Festival and how to apply:
www.b-tour.org/b_call-2015.html
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Blog entry by Nora Kovacs in Berlin; Tuesday, Mar. 03, 2015.
