Minister of Foreign Affairs Announces the 2019 Cultural Projects Contest

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roberto Ampuero, announced the launch of the DIRAC 2019 Contest, which allows Chilean Embassies, Consulates and Missions abroad to apply for cultural projects, as well as national artists who want to present themselves abroad.

The call is available on the digital platform of the Directorate of Cultural Affairs, DIRAC, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (www.dirac.gob.cl), since last August 24. Those interested may submit their projects until October 5, 2018 and the results will be published between December 3 and 7 of this year.

"Our objective with this contest is to take the works of our creators and the activities of our artists 'to all the territories of the human'", the Chancellor emphasized during the launch.

The projects finally approved will take Chilean cultural manifestations to other latitudes in dialogue with other nations and other cultures. "That is what the international projection of cultural manifestations is all about: creating ways of dialogue to get to know and make ourselves known, to create trust, to overcome differences, to associate and cooperate; to face together the challenges that know no borders and to learn from each other," added the Secretary of State.

He emphasized that "the dialogue generated by cultural exchange is an important asset in contemporary international relations, as it has been throughout history. As Mario Vargas Llosa says in "Sables y Utopías": "The roots of an artist are deep and inextricable, like those of the great trees, and if one insists on following them to their confines, one discovers that it is impossible to hold them within a region, nation or continent, because they run, free, through all the territories of the human".

The cultural program chose as image of the Contest, the Manutara, bird of luck for the culture of Rapa Nui and so characteristic of it. This symbol of our bond with the Pacific Ocean will also represent us in the year APEC 2019, which will take place in our country.

The purpose of DIRAC is to spread the cultural image of Chile around the world, to an ever wider public, becoming a reference for the internationalization of Chilean artists and creators. This year special emphasis has been placed on the relation and diffusion of the Contest in Cultural Centers and Municipalities of regions and diverse houses of studies.

The rules for the competition are divided by: Visual Arts, Performing Arts (Theatre and Dance), Architecture, Handicrafts, Film and Audiovisual, Design, Literature, Music, Heritage and Translation.

In 2018 DIRAC selected 108 winning projects. Its continuity for nine years, without interruption, has facilitated the development of initiatives of great impact to wide audiences: tours of learned and popular musicians; exhibitions of national artists; samples of crafts; cycles of Chilean cinema and retrospectives in international events, in the market and the film industry; tours of theater and dance; photographic samples; presence in biennials of art, architecture and design, book fairs, translation of Chilean texts, seminars and literary meetings around the world.

The annual call is one of the pillars of DIRAC's work. Each year's program also includes alliances and proposals with other institutions and foundations dedicated to culture.

All this speaks of a foreign policy that values culture as a vital element for the dissemination of our country's image and for the strengthening of ties of friendship and understanding with other nations.