MARGINALE II
CALL FOR WORKS
Transmedia Arts and Electronic Music Festival
[VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION 10€ | EXTENDED DEADLINE March 30, 2026]
Transmedia Arts and Electronic Music Festival
[VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTION 10€ | EXTENDED DEADLINE March 30, 2026]
Napoli Totale Elettronica and Opificio Puca open the call for works for the selection of acousmatic, audiovisual, and performative works to be presented as part of the second edition of Marginale, an experimental and electronic music festival.
The event will take place on May 9, 2026, and will utilise the VOLTA portable ambisonics diffusion system, which will be set up in an octophonic configuration at the Sala delle Ceneri of the Opificio Puca, a contemporary art centre in Sant'Arpino, in the province of Caserta.
Marginale is an electronic and acousmatic music festival organized by the composers of the Napoli Totale Elettronica collective and the curators of Opificio Puca. In its second edition, it will host international artists from various disciplines. The festival aims to explore and promote the participatory methods inherent in improvisational practices, particularly in electronic music.
In this second edition, we centre the need to reconfigure the notion of art as a social catalyst. In an era that tends to isolate bodies and reify functions, artistic production must transcend the aesthetic object to become a relational process and a rigorous political act. Marginale is not just a festival, but an investigation into the reticular complexity of the Performing Arts, where technology ceases to be a mere tool and becomes an actant of expanded relationality.
Our response to the fragmentation of the human is the affirmation of collective agency. We encourage co-creation processes that generate porous, non-identitarian collectivities. In this paradigm, listening is never passive consumption, but the foundational act of new artistic territories: permeable architectures where the negotiation of the scenic act becomes a situated practice of citizenship.
Through radical improvisation and the aesthetics of co-becoming, we intend to sabotage those temporalities that bind experience to the instant of consumption, preventing the sedimentation of a shared memory. We thus transform the Opificio Puca into a device of cultural resistance, a laboratory of sonic and artistic friction where co-creation becomes the tool for reclaiming meaning and building shared intelligence.
Beyond fostering a shared aesthetic experience, the festival aims to contribute to the cultural growth of the territories and communities in which it operates, promoting the dissemination and sharing of knowledge related to electroacoustic musical practice across both compositional and performative spheres. Marginale is founded on the belief that every skill—regardless of its degree of specialisation or complexity—must be able to circulate as shared knowledge, accessible on a multiplicity of levels of understanding and capable of activating different levels of awareness. In this way, every form of knowledge can become a critical tool and a relational practice, able to act across different contexts and nourish political, individual, and collective processes. The festival is articulated across spaces that adopt a collaborative, horizontal perspective on art, from production to distribution. The second edition will be hosted by the Opificio Puca.
The program of the second edition of Marginale is divided into moments dedicated to acousmatic diffusion, live performances, and audiovisual works. The lineup includes works selected through this Call for Works, sets by international guests, exhibition spaces, and educational workshops.
In addition to the selected works, the festival features performances by Klaus Filip, Christian Kobi, Radu Malfatti, and Jean-François Laporte. The guests will be the protagonists of a dedicated final concert and of various radical improvisation sets in mixed formations (instrumental and electronic), in which they will interact with members of the Napoli Totale Elettronica collective.
The program is completed by two workshops led by international guests and by performative interventions curated by the board of the Opificio Puca, designed to interact directly with the festival spaces, the artworks, and the scheduled concerts.
This year, we ask applicants to pay a small participation contribution of 10€, a modest but fundamental contribution to making the festival sustainable. The previous edition was entirely supported voluntarily by the members of the Napoli Totale Elettronica collective: despite the great artistic success, which included international guests and hundreds of people in the audience, it was incredibly difficult to organise an event of this magnitude without available funds. All fees will go directly toward financing the festival's production costs.
However, we believe that finances should not be a barrier to art: all submissions are welcome. Those who are unable to afford this payment can contact us at napolitotaleee@gmail.com to request an exemption.
The artists selected through the open call will participate in specific categories:
· Acousmatic: Works (stereo or multichannel) will be presented in listening sessions at the Sala delle Ceneri. Multichannel diffusion will take place via the VOLTA modular system.
· Improv Solo: Live solo performances (instrumental or electronic) that will be held within the rooms of the Opificio Puca.
· Audiovisual: Audiovisual and video art works, which will be projected in a dedicated room set up for the occasion.
Marginale is an independent project. To make the festival sustainable, we suggest a voluntary contribution of 10€ from all applicants. The previous edition was entirely self-funded; these contributions will go directly towards covering production expenses (travel, technical equipment, and hosting).
You can send your support via PayPal here:
(If you are unable to make payments via PayPal, please contact us at napolitotaleee@gmail.com)
Note: This is a non-obligatory donation to support a non-profit cultural initiative. If you cannot afford the contribution, please contact us at napolitotaleee@gmail.com for a waiver.
We invite composers and collectives of all nationalities and ages to propose acousmatic music works (stereo or multichannel) by submitting their application exclusively through the dedicated form.
Only one submission per artist or collective is allowed. The maximum duration of the works is set at 10 minutes; however, shorter works are encouraged.
The application must include:
NB: For multichannel works, a stereo reduction/downmix is required during the selection phase. Temporary links (e.g., WeTransfer) will not be accepted.
We invite performers and musicians of all nationalities and ages to propose a solo performance for instrument or electronics. Musicians selected for this section will be provided with room and board for the duration of the festival. Only one submission per artist or collective is allowed.
The application must include:
We invite artists and collectives of all nationalities and ages to submit videoart or audiovisual music works via the dedicated form.
Only one submission per artist or collective is allowed. The maximum duration of the works is set at 20 minutes; however, shorter works are encouraged.
The application must include:
Napoli Totale Elettronica is an open and fluid collective of composers that brings together electronic works collectively created by artists originally from Naples, based in the city, or tied to it by a profound and significant relationship. Currently composed of about thirty musicians, the collective develops a live approach to total and radical improvisation, founded on continuous listening, immediate reaction to sonic stimuli, and the interpenetration of instrumental and technological practices.
The collective's main objective is the construction of a collective sonic discourse, prioritising the community process over individual assertion or personal aesthetics. In addition to performance activities, the collective is involved in organising interdisciplinary events hosted primarily in independent spaces, liberated spaces, and urban commons of the city, reaffirming the importance of the free enjoyment of art and culture and fostering the rooting of experimental sound practices within the urban fabric of Naples.
The collective has released several recordings in collaboration with the Neapolitan label Materiale Elettrico and has established stable formations, including the trio Totaleee (Montella, Pisano, Laudante), which is currently on international tour.
The diffusion of multichannel works will take place via VOLTA, a portable ambisonics diffusion system designed to emancipate spatial audio from exclusive institutional access and make it usable in independent and community contexts.
Born from the collaboration between Giuseppe Pisano, a researcher and composer specializing in spatialization practices, and Davide Ercolano, an architect with expertise in acoustics and 3D prototyping, VOLTA combines an open-source approach with the artisanal production of 3D-printed speakers.
Conceived to be accessible, modular, and easily transportable, VOLTA is designed for installations in unconventional spaces such as art galleries, urban commons, and small theatres, facilitating workshops, concerts, and experimental installations. During the festival, the VOLTA system will be configured in an octophonic mode.
The Opificio Puca, located in Sant’Arpino, province of Caserta, is an emblematic example of industrial archaeology. Founded in 1912 as a shoe factory by Commendatore Enrico Piro, the building later housed a food preserve factory under the management of industrialist Carlo Puca. After decades of industrial activity, the factory was transformed into a cultural hub thanks to the efforts of visual artists Francesco Capasso and Maria Giovanna Abbate, along with the cultural association that manages it.
Today, the Opificio Puca is a creative hub hosting exhibitions, installations, theatrical and musical performances, promoting artistic experimentation and dialogue between local and international artists. The structure, with its Art Nouveau architecture and expansive post-industrial spaces, offers a stimulating environment for independent artistic production and for community-oriented cultural events.
Among the initiatives promoted, the project "OhAhSi! Sul fiume fuori rotta" stands out. Conceived by Francesco Capasso and the artist Maria Giovanna Abbate, it is a hybrid, experimental public art project along the Volturno River, involving local communities in a participatory process of reclaiming the territory through art.
