ewaBAMIJO now bi-annual, goes international

July 09, 2009 
ewaBAMIJO now bi-annual, goes international
By Chuks Nwanne. The Guardian.

INITIATED in 2005 with the aim of expanding the dance frontiers in the country, ewaBAMIJO (EBJ) was then organised as a one-day event that assembled artists of different genres such as dancers, musicians, comedians, poets, actors and journalists to enforce their collective impact on the society.

A brainchild of Yk Projects, an organisation, legally registered and operates between Nigeria and France as an artistic entity, EBJ made efforts to re-unite new generation artists from different sectors of the art, with the intent of promoting creative enterprise especially at the grassroots.

With this year's edition of the event billed to open October 27 through 31, YK Projects has unveiled plans to make the event a bi-annual international festival. In line with the latest change in the nature of the programme, the oragnisers are presently calling for proposals and submission of works of arts from interested members of the public. The submission, according to the team, could be on new/existing or a commissioned work.

Explaining the rational behind the call, the artistic director of the project, Qudus Onikeku informed that the call was geared towards the plan to make the event an international feast.

"With this edition, we call for the renovation of the practices and theoretical interface of contemporary art around the world. The idea is to depart from all pervasive socio-political discourse and fantasies and work together with other kind of artists, scholars, students, critics and our audience. With this, we plan to discover new modes of thinking and develop new analytical tools for dealing with the arts world under our circumstances, and bring attention to the 'limits of globalisation'."

The emphasis on the new and existing works, Onikelu explained, "we wish to present original boundary-breaking, cutting edge, socially-engaged performance works to people from all walks of life. We are particularly, though not exclusively, interested in collaborative interdisciplinary works that reunite two or more artistic expressions. We will not accept works less than 15 minutes or more than 30 minutes."

For commissioned works, interested applicants are expected to focus on specific works that could be performed in public and non-conventional spaces.

"Not plays or specific dance pieces in this context, but performance art pieces and performance installations. However, public space acts, improvisations, road shows etc, made by interesting collaborative teams or individuals will attract our interest."

Proposals from interested Nigerians should be "submitted online through proposals@ewabamijo.com, indicating which component you wish to apply for, outlining the form and the content of the piece, the creative team, the type of venue and size of performance, latest by August 10, 2009. An audio or video sample of your work would be advantageous.

"Selected participants should be ready to collaborate with other disciplines. The creative team of ewaBAMIJO might find different proposals from two or more distinct artists, prepositional to merge ideas, but no decision shall be taken without their consent," Qudus pledged.

Within its few years of existence, Yk Projects has left its imprint on the subconscious of dance community globally as the outfit gets more involved in the contemporary dance and circus art discourse in Africa, Europe and America at large, through stage performances, street happenings, archives of dance related materials, documentary films, articles, blogging, workshops and participation in big festivals and conferences.

Its activities include creations and performances (mainly dance, new circus art and street arts with the fusion of other media), coverage and documentation of art related profiles for media and archival purposes, event organizations such as ewaBAMIJO, public jams, workshops and conferences.