16 July 2016 sees the return of the Bloop International Proactive Art Festival for a month-long island-wide display of avant-garde art projects running until 16 August. This year's theme is “No Fear” with the original ethos in place: “Art is for everybody”, which continues to drive the project as it has done since it first launched in 2011.
This celebration of art will feature interactive installations, graffiti displays, sculpture, fine art, photography and video mappings. There are also many creative workshops for children or adults and there will be concerts, performances and music sessions. All events are free making art accessible to all.
The wide range of different arts in the programme means there is something for everyone. You can browse in the museum of fine arts or get into experimental new arts or music. The BLOOP Headquarters is where many of the free workshops are held including things like basic photography and art ones for the little ones.
You can go and see the huge murals around San Antonio, part of a long-term project to convert an entire city into an open outside gallery. The event has attracted artists from all across the world such as Martha Cooper and Massimo Mazzone; each year all contributors work around the annual theme when producing their work. Spectatots are invited to muse on the artworks, which bear social messages to see how they relate to them. There will also be sunset music sessions, called BLOOP 'n' Sunsets and open-air projections of experimental films with Drive-in BLOOP.
Created by Biokip Labs, the project has been nominated for the Best Active Tourism Model by local government at FITUR (International Tourism Fair). This independent event continues to grow and last year attracted an average of 90,000 visitors.
The full events programme and names of the participating artists will be announced soon. Keep your eyes peeled on our events calendar for more details as they come in.
WORDS |Julian Heathcote
