Yara Mekawei is an Egyptian sound artist and scholar based in Berlin since 2021. Yara draws inspiration from the dynamic flow of urban centres and the key infrastructure of cities to create her sonic bricolages. Her research-based artistic practice raises questions about how to intimately connect ideologies of the mythic past with the developed technology of the eternal present.
With the idea of sound being an essential tool of “vision” – an idea central in her recently published in the Arabic language first book, There Are Sounds of the Moving Images (production of Saudi-Arabia society for culture and arts) – Yara Mekawei explores ways to implement optical transactions from musical conversations, by transferring sound waves to visual forms. She approaches the composition process inspired and informed by ideas from the domains of philosophy, architecture, and social science to shape conceptual messages for the audience. Using such ideas, Yara builds her body of work in a way that generates a continuity, where each art piece is linked to and follows the next. Moreover, her work is informed by her identity and investigate her position of being a woman in an East African society.
Artist Pilots invites newly arrived in Berlin artists, as well as media and culture workers of all ages and from all disciplines to apply for a ten-month mentorship. The project is intended to support creative professionals who have left their countries of origin because they could not pursue their professional activities on account of current political situations in their home countries.
In 2022, each of the 4 (four) selected mentees will be matched to a Berlin-based professional from the same artistic field. The selected mentees will benefit from the expertise and the network of their mentors who will also assist them in their first orientation in Berlin’s arts and culture sector.
Each mentoring process is different, and each mentee-mentor duo decides on a direction, based on the mentee’s goals. A first, get-acquainted meeting will be held for each duo, at the beginning of March, with the presence of the project’s coordinator. Mentors and mentees will meet, online or in person, at least ten times over the ten-month period. Meeting times and durations are flexible, and each mentee-mentor duo decides independently on the meeting schedule.
The project’s coordinator will follow up each of the mentoring processes and will be available for answering questions. Moreover, both mentees and mentors can benefit from the support of the whole Artist Pilots team.
In December 2022, there will be a compulsory feedback meeting, for both mentors and mentees, where everyone would be able to share their experiences and critiques.
The mentorship is free of charge. Artist Pilots do not provide funds for materials, production, and travel. However, we will assist mentees in their search for funding.
If you are interested to become an Artist Pilots mentee, please apply until 09 March 2022 (midnight) by sending an email to contact(at)artist-pilots.com that includes a CV (max. 2pp.) and a portfolio and/or links to your creative practice.
Artist Pilots 2022: to new shores
In 2021, through the Artist Pilots project, we built a bridge between artists, media and cultural workers with different cultural and artistic backgrounds and established professionals from Berlin’s creative sector. Seven selected mentees were brought together with seven mentors from the same artistic field. The mentee-mentor duos then met several times, online and in person, to work together towards pre-determined goals. These mentoring processes have been an important experience for both mentees and mentors and most of the duos remained connected after the project’s end. We were also able to build a small but loyal community of transnational artists, media and cultural practitioners through our regular and free of charge online information sessions. These thematic events, led by invited experts from different areas of the Berlin arts and culture sector, but also by a coach from Förderband e.V., served as information, orientation, and networking platforms for our audience. Furthermore, the visits to local cultural venues provided an opportunity for the selected mentees and other participants to network with local cultural professionals and institutions.
Thus, in 2021, a community of transnational artists and cultural and media practitioners has been created. We hope that this community continues to grow and we are looking forward to the next months of Artist Pilots activities.
In 2022, we will continue with our monthly, free of charge, online information sessions and will organise two networking events in selected cultural venues around topics that relate to the challenges of working in Berlin’s arts and culture sector. Most importantly, we will continue developing the Artist Pilots mentoring processes: in 2022, four (4) new mentees will be selected and paired with mentors from the same artistic field to be able to benefit from one-to-one support.
Artist Pilots Winter Break
We are having a winter break and will resume our activities, starting on January 3, 2022.
There is another year of Artist Pilots ahead of us and we are very excited to continue with the project.
We thank all those who participated and showed interest in and supported the project. We wish everyone to stay healthy, enjoy the winter holidays time, and have a good start in the new year!
Artist Pilots Team
Laura Schultis
Laura Schultis is an Argentinian artist who has been living in Berlin since 2019. She studied choreographic composition in Buenos Aires, Argentina at the Universidad Nacional de Arte and completed a three-year training in contemporary dance.
Laura Schultis
In Argentina, she has performed in various shows on a national level and participated in many projects as a dancer and choreographer. In Berlin, Germany, she is researching new approaches to movement and stage, in parallel to her exploration of a new culture and the building of professional networks related to dance and other artistic fields. Laura Schultis current practice includes collaborations with other artists and the development of her own projects and artistic research.
