OPEN CALL: Not (Just) Another Pitching Session – Berlin Performing Arts Market 2024

National and international distribution calls for continuous networking as well as spaces in which artists, curators, producers and presenters can enter into conversation with each other. Alongside the smaller and larger festivals (like with the Berlin Performing Arts Festival, for example), these are primarily trade fair and networking platforms. It is here that initial contacts are made and the seeds for future collaborations planted, not to mention also being the place where the deals for tours and guest performances are hammered out.

This year, the Berlin Performing Arts Program is presenting its very own trade fair format for the very first time: the first Berlin Performing Arts Market will be held on May 13, 2024, and offers Berlin-based artists and producers with production and touring experience the opportunity to enter into contact with curators and presenters in order to, amongst other possibilities, arrange for one or the other guest performances. The networks FESTIVALFRIENDS and Bridging The Scenes are invited as well as other national and international curators and presenters.

With its pilot edition this year, the Market is dedicating itself as a field of experimentation committed to the question: how can artistic work be presented to a professional audience in an original and creative way without presenting the art itself? We are looking for answers to this question through the Open Call, which is explicitly intended at Berlin artists/groups with production and touring experience and a work focus in Berlin. In doing so, there are no boundaries placed on the imagination – the main point to take into consideration is that the answers can be realized with minimal technological requirements and that they are able to incite curiosity in potential project partners. Over the further course of the event, there will be sufficient opportunity to conduct more in-depth conversations at information tables or during the informal closing reception.

Presentation at the Berlin Performing Arts Market

For the pilot edition of the Berlin Performing Arts Market on May 13, 2024, the Berlin Performing Arts Program is looking for creative and original ideas and formats that Berlin-based artists and groups working in the independent performing arts can use to present themselves and their work to a national and international audience of industry professionals.

What Are We Looking For?

• Original ideas for the presentation of one’s own work. Regardless of whether this is realized as five-minute presentations on stage, scenic interventions distributed throughout the day, an installation in space or something completely different – the main thing is that it makes potential partners or presenters as curious as possible.
• The presentation should be able to be realized with very simple technical requirements. Basic equipment for lighting, sound and projections will be available. The preparation time should not exceed a length of three minutes for the actual presentations.
• Language: English (insofar as language is used)
• All kinds of short presentations on stage should not exceed a length of five minutes

Prerequisites for Participation / Who Can Apply?

• Artists or groups working in the independent performing arts whose work is based in Berlin.
• The participating artists or groups must have a portfolio of at least two current productions that can go on tour at the time of the Berlin Performing Arts Market and these productions must have already been presented in Berlin, at least one of them must have been premiered in Berlin within the last two years and the least recent productions must not be older than two years.
• The participating artists or groups must have already made guest performances in their previous work in at least three different locations outside of Berlin.
• Productions that have been created as part of one’s course of study cannot be taken into consideration.
• In order to take part in the Berlin Performing Arts Market, it is necessary to submit video material of tourable production(s), the internet presence of the artist or group, promotional material, et cetera as described in What Has To Be Submitted?. This material must be submitted together with the application.
• Please send your complete applications and materials in a timely manner by April 14, 2024, at the latest, to: messe [at] pap-berlin.de
  (If you are unable to comply with the submission deadline due to disability, chronic illness or other important reason, a brief statement of interest is sufficient. In these cases, the application can be submitted at a later date).

What Has To Be Submitted?

• Information about the artist or group submitting:
   
  • Name of the artist or group
  • A brief description of the artist or group (max. 600 characters)
  • A brief description of artist’s or group’s work (points of focus/aesthetics/et cetera, max. 600 characters)
  • A contact person with an email address and telephone number
  • A link to the website of the artist or group

• A concept for a presentation at the 2024 Berlin Performing Arts Market (maximum 1 DIN A4 page). The following information should be included in the concept:
   
  • A precise description of the form of presentation
  • Duration
  • Technical requirements
  • If applicable, space needed
  • Other needs
     
• Promotional material about the artist’s or group’s work
   
  • Flyer / posters in digital form
  • Links to video (shorter formats such as trailers are preferred / also video documentation if applicable)
     
• Formalities
   
  • Please send all documents together as a single PDF file
  • Please do not send any emails that are larger than 5 MB in size

Basic Conditions / What We Can Offer:

• Submitting applications and participation are free of charge.
• A preparation workshop will be held for all selected artists or groups before the Berlin Performing Arts Market where the strategies for self-presentation will be discussed directly.
• Basic technical equipment (light, sound, projector) will be available for the presentations. What’s more, information tables will be made available to all selected artists or groups in addition to the presentation upon which they can exhibit their own work and have conversations with potential partners.
• The Berlin Performing Arts Program will design the space, the discourse programming in the morning, the Market in the afternoon as well as the cooperations with a variety of networks and will also be responsible for the general coordination of the event. No fee will be provided for the presentations.

Additional Information

• The goal of the Open Call is to be able to present as many different presentation forms as possible. In doing so, we sincerely hope to be able to take as many applications into consideration as possible will not be able to decide until after looking at the applications that we receive what will be possible in terms of the chronological and spatial parameters of the Market. For everyone that is not selected, we will do our best within the scope of our possibilities to offer additional forms of exchange.
• Before the deadline, we are offering a digital information session on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at 11:00 am for all interested parties who have questions about the application.
• The selected artists or groups will receive a notification regarding their selection by the end of April.