MOMO invited artists to apply for the category of Open Call Winner for this year’s MOMO Festival under the topic of identity, giving them the opportunity  to present their project during the last edition of the festival (13-15 April 2023).

The Call for Entries  brought in a large, diverse and talented pool of applications which has been narrowed down to a final list of 15, after careful consideration in relation to the affiliation to the theme, the festival’s identity, and the feasibility of each art-project.

After our community voted for their favourite we finally selected five projects who will be part of our program for MOMO Festival 2023

Clink on the images below to find out more about the selected projects and read our interviews with the artists!

The Open Call 2023 was focused on the topic of Identity.
How do we identify and how do others identify us? How may our identity adjust or evolve throughout our lifetime? Will it be due to social encounters or acculturations? Will we be privileged to have an awareness of the process and the choice?

Identity is what defines us and makes us unique. 
However, it is also what connects us with other people, the ones with the same characteristics and thus makes us a group, a collectivity. This way we feel we belong and this is all a person ever wants, right?
Identity though is fluid, it consists of our social and cultural interactions throughout life; a person is influenced by family, school, friends, work, ethnicity, class, generation and gender. The geographical area and the physical context have agency over our identity, as well as our digital environment and interaction. The online influence, combined with the need to belong, can even have a stronger impact than our own family or location for example. The digital persona and the possibilities these environments provide have changed enormously how we identify and behave, digitally or not.

The factors influencing us are countless as also their driving forces. The climate crisis, the increasing migration, worldwide digitalisation, even our diets, can introduce us to new identities that haven’t existed before. However, encountering such diversity also conflicts with assimilation, as one may not feel thoroughly accepted by either group or culture. 

Our society was initially created to distinguish one from another, in order to separate different groups and understand where we belong. But, can’t we tear down the tradition and create a new situation where being bicultural, for instance, expresses the culture one chooses to identify with? A culture that may differ from one’s origins or birthplace. Can we completely strip off stereotypes in identifying?