The Nomadic Village is a two-week settlement set up on a vacant lot close to an existing village. The nomadic artists’ mobile homes/ateliers form the structure of the Village around an old Steyr-Ikarus bus, which acts as its Town Hall. In this autonomous enviroment artists can freely experiment with new ways of working; it stimulates creativity and exchange and attracts local people to observe and participate in the process. At the end of the Village there is a public exhibition/show that invites a wider audience to appreciate the works produced during the Village.

The Traveling Exhibition
After the public presentation in the Village, a selection of the artists’ work will be curated into a group exhibition. The 'Town Hall' bus will then hit the road, serving as a mobile gallery across Europe. It will travel to remote areas such as small villages and rural locations, as well as to cities and art centres.

Ethos
The digital age has seen the emergence of a new kind of nomadic artists; using production and communication tools like computers, mobile internet, gps, digital video and more, they can stay connected and follow through their works from beginning to end while being on the road. It has become possible to take the contemporary and conceptual approach out of the galleries and institutions, that used to serve as the only platforms. In contrast to the widely spread dicsourse, in which art theory, history and the urban-social context are the main inspirations, the nomadic discourse is one of very closely dealing with people, nature, reality and oneself, while still being in context with the world through the virtual commnunity, the world wide web. The vehicles are ateliers and homes, facilitating the constant movement that brings never ending experience and inspiration, and the artistic discourse is transported to include audiences previously too remote to profit from it.

Whilst Nomadism is as old as mankind itself, modern nomadism is built upon recent movements like the New Age Travelers, techno nomads and the sound systems, the perpetual travelers and people like Ken Kesey. But in contrast to the widely spread anti-society 'get-away' idea, those modern nomads want to emancipate from these ties for the better of a professional on the road, that keeps in touch with the world through modern communication medias. For sure, they want to venture out there to find new things, because curiosity makes them being bored by the old; but they are eager to communicate and integrate their findings, feeding them back into society through exhibitions and reviving the contemporary cultural and artistic discourse.

The project is the brainchild of Captain Klaus, Lead Artist and founder, from Austria.

Timeline

Bringing together nomadic artists from around the world and creating a village from scratch takes time and money, as you would expect. As with previous gatherings, we have applied for 'traditional' funding which we hope to cover most of the costs. But as all artists know, sources of funding for the arts are limited and becoming less available with current governments.

With this campaign we are of course asking for your help in contributing valuable funds to enable the project to take place. But we also are driven by the importance of sharing the nomadic story, which is one of bus-love, of making a home on the move and of the rich community of like-minded individuals connected in spirit and through the digital age.

We warmly invite you to become part of our community, even if you cannot physically attend.

The ways we invite you to help us support our artists are as follows:
* The Dizel Grant
The Dizel Grant is an uncomplicated small grant to enable nomadic artists’ travel to the Village with diesel (or petrol)-hungry mobile ateliers. Where possible we also try to contribute towards international travel costs and alternative mobile homes for nomadic artists who live overseas and cannot bring their own vehicles to the settlement.
Your contributions would help us to assist more artists from longer-range distances to join us.


* The Communal Kitchen
Mealtimes are at the heart of any community, even - perhaps especially - a temporary one. In our Village we provide a Head Chef, Karim Blanc, whose Flying Kitchen is supported by the artists to create delicious meals every day. The communal experience of cooking and eating together creates a valuable bond between the artists and often provides a great opportunity to visitors (be they locals from the neighbouring villages or YOU as supporters!) to gain first-hand experience of this temporary community.
Your contributions would help us provide more ingredients and resources so we can invite more artists and external guests to attend the Village in 2014.

Flying Kitchen 2013

* The Artwork
We invite artists to produce new work that responds to the location and context of the Village. It is important to be able to provide additional resources such as technical presentation equipment and materials or skills to help realise this.
Your contributions would help us to make the artist's opportunities even greater than the wonderful skills they bring with them.

* The Travelling Exhibition
Showing artworks to a wide audience is one of Nomadic Village's main focus. The travelling exhibition will tour Europe during August and September, setting up the artshow in and around the Bus in small villages as well as in cities and art centres.

Travelling Exhibition, France 2012

Nomads often sit outside of mainstream culture, so don't always receive the traditional funding support of other creative endeavours. We have, as every year, applied for arts grants and will know during this campaign if we are successful or not. If they don't come through we will still make the gathering happen, just with less artists and less resources. Your support would help us become more independent from the government's decision!