[caption id="attachment_7122" align="alignright" width="450" caption="UNIDEE 2010. Photo: Edoardo Delille"][/caption]

UNIDEE in Residence at Citadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto explores the rapport between art and society and investigates methodologies of creative interventions able to activate projects for a socially responsible change in society.

UNIDEE – University of Ideas is the international pole of formation and exchange between knowledge and diverse problematics, open to a varied and multidisciplined group of creatives, professional people and students. Here art abandons the conventional cannons and places instead to integrate itself with society and with other disciplines: communication, production, economics, politic, architecture, design, literature, music, spirituality, ecology and nourishment.

Unidee in residence forms a new professional skill: that of “activator” of projects for a Responsible Transformation of Society, which reunites the characteristics and skills of the artist, curator, business people and managers of cultural projects. At Cittadellarte the residents’ acquire a professional creative dimension that is productive and socially relevant, capable of responsibly confronting the problematics of real society and that offers innovative proposals to companies and administrations in different contexts.

The major points of the programme are:

• Conceptualization, development, and discussion for the activation of a project of Responsible Social Transformation. During UNIDEE the residents will have the possibility to concentrate on their idea, discuss their projects, receive feedback, establish contacts, and meet experts and artists who work in similar ways.
• The Collective Experience of elaboration, development, and realization of projects in the midst of the events in Biella. This involves direct and constant engagement between residents, collaboration on projects, or simply less formal encounters that are decisive for experimentation in communal projects.

At the end of the four months there will be a public presentation entitled UNIDEE in Progress, displaying the development of the projects.
The residents will have the possibility to work together for the preparation and realization of an experimental event and share their conceptual and operational capacity.

Dates: 15 June - 15 October 2011

Place: Citadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, Italy

Eligibility: A maximum of 14 places are available each year.
Artists, designers, cultural actors, architects and researchers who fit the profile are welcome to apply. The basic prerequisite is a degree at university level, or to be in the process of graduating. If the applicant does not have a university degree, proof of equivalent ability must be provided through his or her artistic career.
The average participant age ranges from 24 to 40. The official language of the residency is English, and a good level of proficiency in the language is required.

Grants: see website for details.  Some partial and total grants are available, several are reserved for particular countries.