MiCS is a culturally, musically and ethnically diverse enterprise, spanning the three Alp Adriatic countries Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.
MiCS is a cultural initiative dedicated to the development of cultural activities in the rural peripheries, creating and positioning synergies between the cultural sphere and nature, the environment, and climate change across borders in the Alp Adriatic region. The project raises awareness for culture and social responsibility through an artistic lens.
We are working across borders, reaching deep into the periphery. Geographically, we democratize the cultural process by shaping our artistic worlds outside major cities, bringing international artists to rural audiences and creating platforms for cultural dialogue, merging genres and practices ranging from traditional and experimental music and performance to applied research and publishing, utilizing media and technology to broaden our outreach. Central aspects include the creation and upholding of new synergies and platforms for young and lesser-known talents along with international musical actors, generating sustainable networks for the future. Good practices include fair pay and conditions for all involved, open access for people with disabilities and from all backgrounds, internal and external partner groups’ commitment to mutual support, collaboration and transparency.
MiCS is an initiative that is necessarily greater than the sum of its parts. Each partner will profit from and contribute to the “greater whole”. The project aims to foster connections between people through music and raise social and environmental awareness. Trans-national mobility, cultural exchange between ethnicities, genres and artistic approaches and the exchange between the rural sites and our diverse approaches to the topic can only happen across borders. The participating cultural organizations, reflect and transport border-crossing synergies at the heart of European culture and are already experienced in long term cooperation.
The conceptual focus on the need of art in the periphery and artistic means of approaching environmental and cultural issues resonates beyond the region crossing over into environmental awareness, history, cultural heritage and applied research.
MiCS fosters intercultural dialogue in a sustainable network in the Alp Adriatic region and EU.
MiCS is a role model for European culture in the periphery, is creating open-access to cultural activities, is democratizing the cultural landscape and is creating dialogue between three countries.
MiCS transports our commitment to art as a central tenet of EU culture and to musically, trans- national projects connecting cultures across genres and borders, including contemporary and traditional music, culture, society, minorities, ethnicity and environmental awareness.
Innovative models for eco-friendly touring/concert programming
Environmentally friendly/ quality travel (e.g. slow touring)
We are emphasizing the approach and the connection to local people, their cultures and food. The appreciation of local food and taste is essential.
Our festivals are supposed to leave an emotional impact and aim to remain sustainable for local communities and the environment.
We try to avoid flights and prefer travel overland. We are providing adequate waste management and clearly labelled recycling containers throughout the facility. In regard to the catering, we are using biodegradable / compostable products. As our festivals take place in the countryside, we are offering shuttle transport. Whenever possible we are encouraging the artists to travel by train, bus or bike or to share a car.
The activities involve invited artists, audience, participants to engage with the diverse rural landscapes in a creative response looking at personal trajectories and socio-cultural layers across the region, reflecting the diversity and common ground inherent in European cultural heritage. Each partner is responsible for a certain aspect of the project to which the partners are contributing. Enterprise Klanghaus – manages the project structure and administration / logistics and organizes and hosts musical performances, sound art as performance, one workshop and one musician residency, cultural training (for all partner groups in all locations) in regard to environmental issues. Mani doo – invites musicians / composers to engage with rural darkness and hosts organizational meetings, is responsible for the internal evaluation, a workshop and a residency; Sajeta Zveza Mink – musical performance, site-specific works, one workshop and one residency.
Each partner hosts a workshop where local inhabitants including children and teenagers, young artists, the elderly, ethnic minorities and disabled people can participate. Artists and cultural actors work together with participants to explore ways of creating better awareness of how we can preserve resources and postulate how we might use culture, and communicative exchange to change habits and improve our shared space All the residencies benefit Ukrainian artists. Associated partners like Radio AGORA and Usma Radio provide ongoing radio coverage radiophonic stage and are home-base for the MiCS consortium, broadcasts and podcasts, interviews, sonic archive and dissemination to free radios across Europe and internationally. Meetings & collaborative activities and the involvement of associate partnerships across the region are carried equally by all participant organizations.
Our project MiCS counteracts existential threats to the cultural sphere through peer-to-peer expertise development, fair practice, fair pay and the ongoing establishment of a network over the lasting period with a view to concrete sustainable futures for consortium members and future partners, as well as for all invited artists.
Enterprise Klanghaus Untergreith/ Austria
https://klang-haus.at
Zveza Mink Tolmin/ Slovenia
https://www.sajeta.org/
Mani DOO/ Croatia
https://cultureinistria.wordpress.com/
Video Klangzeit Spring 2022 / MiCS – Music in the Countryside
Video Klangzeit Summer 2022 / MiCS – Music in the Countryside
