FASADA Festival 2024

FASADA Festival 2024 will be the fourth edition of this one-of-a-kind street art festival, which transforms one particular neighbourhood using Street Art and Public Art. Organised by the association Obojena Klapa, the festival aims to advocate for environmental protection, and gender equality by educating pupils, creating socially engaged art in public spaces, and promoting ideas behind produced public artworks. FASADA seeks to be a platform for networking, knowledge and experience transfer, and grassroot collaborations between local and international artists. The cultural and creative power gained by gathering dozens of well-known artists and cultural workers from European Union is used to influence decision-makers, and initiate changes in the current art-obstructing legal framework, as well as to empower local politics of European integrations. We are stepping out into the streets, sparking the discussions on burning social and ecological issues, we are creating and educating to build the local street art scene and democratise public space by example of European metropolis. Therefore, our motto is: we educate, we paint, we change, we collaborate! The Festival is planned to take place between 7th and 14th September 2024.

OBJECTIVES: Our main objective is to create a safe space for activist street art production and education about the importance and power of public art. The presence of international artists in Sarajevo is a great opportunity for cultural exchange and experience sharing on the road to European Union. This improves the possibilities for local youth to take part in building joint cultural European citizenship. Our 2nd objective is to develop a discursive programme in public space, which would be used as a platform for initiating a wider public dialogue on burning social and ecological issues. By sharing positive experiences of artivism from abroad, we want to establish a conversation and inspire the local community. The 3rd objective is to initiate changes in law regulations regarding the use of public space for art production, by examples and good practice of European cities. Through a series of round tables in public space, we want to bring together local and international artists, and local decision-makers to think about ways to improve the current legal framework of street art production.

ACTIVITIES: The main activities are developed around three different programmes:

- Artistic programme (contributes to the local street art production): painting of 6 murals (in nearby sites of one Sarajevo neighborhood), international street art exhibition, Western Balkans street art awards, two graffiti jams.

- Discursive programme (contributes to initiating a wider public dialogue on artivism, and burning social and ecological issues; as well as initiating the changes of law regulations regarding the use of public space for art production): Street art city walks,“Let's meet halfway” round table “The change was made”, a series of presentations “Street art corner”, info desk.

- Educational programme (contributes to the education of youth about the importance and power of public art): workshop, Artists talk “This is how I do it” (cultural and local context)

These activities will be carried out in the period between 7th and 14h of September, while the pre-production activities will last from 1st of June until 5th of September.