We are pleased to announce the seventeen grantees selected for the Roberto Cimetta Fund/Valletta 2018 mobility funding line in March and June 2017.

The two calls received 231 online requests in all, 41 written requests of which 32 were considered eligible. The experts examined the applications and 17 applicants were awarded a mobility grant.

Mohammad Anwar, a Kuwaiti Film director, traveled to Valletta to develop cooperation between the two same-size states of Kuwait and Malta. He wants to set up an artist residency for storytellers, filmmakers or visual artists.

Nicolas Bertrand, administrator of the Image Aiguë Theatre Company, will travel from Lyon to Valletta in November to meet Teatru Malta, his partner on the Ghetto Project, for youngsters from disadvantaged areas. He wants to strengthen the links with his Maltese partner in order to share practises and experiences.

Didier Boujard, Mediatalents director, traveled from Marseille to Valletta to take part in the Valletta Film Festival in June. He presented his organisation in order to foster exchange and dialogue between emerging screen writers.

Azahara Cerezo, Spanish visual artist, selected for a residency in Malta to work on the theme of international retirement migration, traveled in June from Girona to Gozo and was able to present her work and accomplish the second phase of her project.

Elsa Gomis, French interdisciplinary artist, will travel from Shieffeld to Valletta in June 2018 to meet refugees to pursue her PhD on the anthropology of renewed images representing exile in the Mediterranean since 2000.

Bettina Hutschek, visual artist, filmmaker and curator who lives and works between Malta and Berlin, travelled from Berlin to Istanbul in September to foster exchanges between Turkish and Maltese artists. She took part in the Mahalla Festival. This festival also presented works by artists of RCF’s Fil Manfa programme.

Tugce Karatas, Turkish designer and curator, will travel from Izmir to Valletta in November. She will be a speaker at the international conference aiming to explore the interplay between cultural relations, place branding and liveability, particularly in light of large public events such as the European Capital of Culture.

Carlos Kong, art historian and writer, travelled from Berlin to Malta in August. He has attended the Curatorial School. Through the local culture of Malta, he questions how the issues of the Euro-Arab region are translated into contemporary art and curatorial practices.

Nikolaou Kosmas, Greek visual artist will travel from Athens to Valletta for the BIitz Residency. Nikolaou is preparing a multi-site exhibition entitled Transformer which includes Maltese artists in a vast array of European artists.

Farrah Makki, Lebanese architect, will travel from Beyrouth to Valletta in November to take part in the Living cities, Liveable spaces conference. She wants to develop partnerships and map potential speakers for a conference and a workshop in order to foster exchanges and capacity building.

Liliana Mendes do Nascimento, co-funder of the Noite do Fogo, association for literature and storytelling, travelled from Óbido to Valletta in August to participate in the Valletta Curatorial School. She intends to diversify local engagement, share knowledge between generations and develop the work of her organisation on an international level.

Yasmine Modestine, French actress, will travel from Paris to Valletta in June 2018 to take part in a Greek theatre production. She will discover the art scene in the street and new teaching methods.

Angelique Muller, French curator, will travel in October from Malta to Italy to take part in the Short Film Festival in Montecatini to curate Maltese short films. She will promote Maltese cinema and share her contacts on return.

Azzedine El Ouafi, filmmaker and writer, travelled in August from Tangiers to Valletta to collect videos for his documentary on Ibn Uthmân and meet Maltese partners to invite them to the next edition of the film festival Cap Spartel which he will organise in April 2018 in Tangiers.

Shareef Sarhan, Palestinian visual artist, will travel from Gaza to Valletta in September 2018 for a residency. His project, « Immigrant Pain Road Map », will record stories of refugees and create a multimedia map of them.

Meltem Senturk Asildeveci, Turkish urban designer, will attend the international conference Living Cities, Liveable Spaces in Valletta in November. This meeting will be an opportunity for her to present her research and once she returns she will organise similar meetings in Turkey on the subject.

Philippe Wozniak, German musician and interdisciplinary artist, will travel in January 2018, from Berlin to Gozo to compile an electroacoustic composition based on local sounds on the island, performed by local musicians. His journey will allow him to initiate cultural exchanges by inviting Maltese artists to Berlin.