A restless collective of artists and producers, enthusiastic about the quality of the Uruguayan music promotes a mechanism of Formation and international marketing which has allowed outstanding tours throughout the region. This week they meet at Montevideo to launch new initiatives.
“This began in 2011, a group of producers, musicians and musicians created a cooperative, Cooperate, Cooperative of the Arts Uruguay. And well, because it was a necessity, cooperatives exist so that artists can make their contributions to the B.P.S. and that they can retire. Then we saw that it was necessary to manage Projects, there was international funds that existed and that we could collaborate in the world,” he tells Ambit Sheila Bonino, artist and producer
“In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, when the situation of cultural workers was really very difficult, very hard hit, that is when one becomes more creative and there we saw the possibility from the foundation, since there was a call from the National Development Agency For a fund, we presented ourselves, we were selected, and that was like the starting point of creating a new project, with the idea of making music international,” adds Bonino.
OIMUS is today the Uruguayan Music Internationalization Officea project of the Music Fans Foundation whose purpose is to internationalize local music with several axes of work.
“One is the holding of music markets and participating in markets to disseminate our artists through the website that we have uruguaymusical.com, which is a Uruguayan music catalog which is in several languages.” In addition, we carry out training to professionalize the sector in Cultural Management, production of shows, communication, musical projects and we have a record label called “Uruguay Musical”, mentions the producer and alma mater of the project.
Taking advantage of every “window” that opens to the market outside the country is vital for Uruguayan artists, he points out.
“Being able to go outside is important, because here one thinks about internationalization and of course, bands that were able to transcend as The Puerca Candlehe Nos Quartet, but they are few. Then there are a number of artists in the middle who are very good and what they lack is the opportunity to take the step. The maximum they can go is Argentina, but then it’s like it’s very difficult,” explains Bonino.
Examples of cultural “export”
Among the shows by Uruguayan artists in the region that were achieved thanks to the support of the market and its internationalization plan, the organization highlights those held in November 2023 by the band The Tabare in the city of The Silver in Argentina and in December at the festival Rockodrome in Santiago de Chile, Diego Jansen and Juan Marino in TUM Festival in Brazil and the tour carried out in February of this year by Mochi by Patagonia Argentina.
Within the catalog of artists ready for their artistic production to be “exported” this 2024 in the catalog are the singer-songwriter Palma Papinathe candombe band “La Ventolera” and electronic music performers clipper and Agustín Casullo.
Musical networking and market opening
With this objective, it is carried out in Montevideo this week the “Uruguay musical market” which is committed to generating international experiences in order to increase positioning inside and outside the country.
“This is an instance of meeting between festival programmers and theater and musical venues, with artists, musicians and musicians. When we talk about programmers, they are people who are in charge of organizing these festivals and concerts. We created the instance where these programmers come to see Uruguayan musicians and it is the possibility of uniting the supply and demand of music, which is something extremely important for local artists, since being a small market there comes a time when we have to start look out and there is the importance of having a large number of countries whose markets are also very important,” Bonino, who also organizes the event for the Music Fans Foundation, told Ámbito.
“This year programmers came from Argentina, of Chili, of Colombia, Bolivia, Canada, Mexico, Paraguay and Spain. For many artists, without a doubt, it is a moment where they can serve as window, to make themselves known to different organizers who perhaps do not have the opportunity to meet them. Uruguay It is a country that is full of very good musicians,” he concluded.
Among the planned activities is the discussion “International circulation, creation of networks and circuits”, where some of the success stories achieved by the organization were presented and the upcoming artistic tours to be supported by the group were announced.
Source: Ambito
