OPEN CALL #1

With the support of Amarte, Amsterdam Light Festival invites creators to develop a new light art installation for the 16th edition of the festival, taking place in the winter of 2027–2028. This open call is open to artists based in the Netherlands. Whether you’re taking your first steps as an artist or looking to expand your practice, this call is intended for creators who are new to the medium of light art.

OPEN CALL #2

Amarte is pleased to collaborate again with Rotterdam Photo to present the Dutch Talent Project Grant. This initiative gives emerging photographers the opportunity to create new work exploring the festival’s theme: Vibrance - The Pulse of a Living World. Selected artists will receive financial support, artistic mentorship, and a platform to showcase their projects during Rotterdam Photo 2027.

They received a grant

About walking, water, and being watched

Mayar Alexan
Mayan Alexar received a grant for the development of new work. About walking, water, and being watched is an attempt, a ritual, a confession, a dance, a contemporary miracle, a form of resistance, a song, a multidisciplinary work, a reality check, an act of solidarity, a lecture-performance, or perhaps just another form of human gathering. The performance aims to explore the symbolic and performative act of walking as a bridge between the concepts of impotence and miracles. Grounded in movement research and physical theatre, it draws on the narratives of Hagar’s search for water in Arabic mythology and May’s repetitive pacing in Footfalls by Samuel Beckett. Through these narratives, it seeks to articulate a story of a contemporary walker in the city of Amsterdam. Through the interplay of movement, live music, and text, the performance investigates themes of repetition, persistence, and transformation, while questioning the power of everyday acts of resistance and the possibility of contemporary miracles.Mayar is a Syrian-Palestinian-Dutch multidisciplinary performance artist and theatre practitioner. His practice explores the mental spaces people inhabit, particularly in moments of crisis and catastrophe. Through performance, he gives form to the imagined worlds people create to escape or navigate harsh realities. His research draws on mythology, political theory, and linguistics, with recurring themes including dreams, the afterlife, utopia, and dementia. He finds inspiration in the ways the imaginary and the tangible coexist, and in how they shape our perception of reality and the world around us Over the past decade, Mayar has developed and presented his work across the Netherlands and internationally, between the WANA region, Northern Europe, and Canada.
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The Amarte Foundation was founded by a number of individuals and their families who share a deep love for the arts. They wish to support the development of creatives and talent in arts and culture by providing financial means and where possible coaching, knowledge and experience. Artists who are active in the cultural sectors of the Netherlands or the ABC and SSS islands (the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands) can apply to Amarte for the support of projects in the field of theatre, film, music, visual arts and literature, as well as interdisciplinary projects.