The aim of the Artistic Exchange Platform (AEP) is to support EJN members and other promoters in Europe to exchange ideas and information about their bookings and to create new projects and commissions to be programmed in their venues and festivals across Europe to support the mobility of exceptional artists and their presentation to new audiences. AEP ambition is to create different medium-small size platforms for creative collaborations where presenters - with strong affinities in terms of music preferences, organisation size, geographical areas and same period of activities (festivals and/or series of concerts) - share artistic projects, build together new ones, share suggestions and experiences and discuss. The AEP is a “safe” environment where artistic directors from festivals, venues and clubs speak freely and confidentially about bookings and common projects, both ongoing and future ones.
This is done at an annual meeting of two days (one afternoon and one morning) organised by EJN in collaboration with one EJN member in the period between February and April of each year since 2018. A first AEP meeting took place in March 2018 at Stadtgarten in Cologne, Germany, with 35 artistic directors and included as well a keynote speech on the “art of curating” between visual arts and music and a showcase festival of Cologne-based artists in the evenings. The second AEP meeting was held in Ghent, Belgium, at Handelsbeurs in April 2019 in collaboration and coinciding with the Belgian Jazz Meeting (BJM) and involved 50 programmers of festivals and venues from Europe and a keynote speech by Philippe Van Cauteren, Director of SMAK- Contemporary Art Museum in Ghent. The BJM showcases took place in the afternoon and evening of the second day and continued for the following day.
So far, 5 informal groups has been created, in order to establish connections and a common field of working in these areas:
- April/May festivals & club
The existing informal working group of EJN Festivals taking place in spring time, with some clubs as well, that is sharing information and ideas with in order to do some block-bookings with the agencies and to develop and circulate new projects
- Festival and concerts reviews/reports
The idea that came out from previous AEP meetings in which a group of programmers commit to write very short report in a closed space (only available to who is contributing) with feedbacks and personal judgments about the bands heard at festivals/events.
- Melting Pot laboratories
A multidisciplinary project developed between promoters in Europe that engages some young musicians from different countries and representatives from other artistic disciplines (dance, puppet theatre, live drawings, etc...) in short artistic residencies and public performances at Festivals and events around Europe all centred around the idea of free improvisation.
- Sound out / mentoring emerging musicians
A new project involving different European partners devised as professional development platform for creative musicians of any age working in jazz and improvised music. It is designed to enable artists to explore the sector and to take a significant move forward in their practice, to exercise their imagination to plan new projects, to establish mature working relationships with other artists as well as producers and presenters of live music and to present that work in international contexts. Sound Out is managed by Arts & Parts.
- Unstable touring network
A new informal platform involving clubs and festivals in Europe, born with the idea to circulate “The Stone in Europe” concerts curated by John Zorn but now expanding it as well to European productions.
A summary of the keynote address by Philippe van Cauteren, artistic director of S.M.A.K (Contemporary Art musem in Ghent) during the second Artistic Exchange Platform meeting, is avalable here.
