We are pleased to announce the winning exhibitions selected through apexart's 2019-2020 International Open Call. Over 350 jurors cast approximately 12,000 votes to select four idea-based proposals from 432 submissions. Submissions and jurors came from 67 countries. The following proposals will be presented as apexart exhibitions at their respective locations around the world.
Fatima Bocoum, Founder of Openletr (Brooklyn, NY)
Musow Ka Touma Sera in Bamako, Mali
While women are the backbone of Malian society, speaking out about gender-based violence, specifically sexual abuse, is considered disruptive to the common good. Translated as “The Era of Women has Arrived,” this exhibition addresses the socio-political condition of Malian women, and is the first exhibition in Mali organized by a woman and featuring only women artists.
Kang Seung Lee and Jin Kwon, Artist and Curator at Seoul Museum of Art respectively (Los Angeles, CA and Seoul, South Korea)
Untitled (QueerArch) in Seoul, South Korea
Through re-emphasization and re-imagination of the QueerArch (also known as the Korea Queer Archive), this project—consisting of newly-commissioned works by Korean LGBTQ identified artists—makes an important step in acknowledging the unique lineage of queer history outside of the Western context. Engaging collective voices, it underscores marginalized individual experiences and absences in the history of art and related discourses.
Elnaz Mohammad Tehrani and Anahita Rezaallah, Service Designer and Architect respectively (Tehran, Iran and Milan, Italy)
WOMEN C(A)REATE in Tehran, Iran
Addressing gender-based inequities and stigma around drug addiction in Iran, this exhibition presents works by artists and designers who incorporate the rich history of tapestry into installations. The project doubles as a form of art therapy and activism, as each artist collaborates with a group of recovering female addicts. WOMEN C(A)REATE uses art and design as tools for collective empowerment, expression and negotiation.
Clarissa Aidar, Artist, writer, and community organizer (São Paulo, Brazil)
Fantasy Battleground in São Paulo, Brazil
A frightening spike in homophobic and transphobic assaults has intensified an atmosphere of fear in the Brazilian queer community. To defy the ascending heteronormative desire for massacre, the exhibition explores fantasies and dreams as strategies of radicalizing our imaginations. Through installations, six transgender women artists imagine what we could or must turn ourselves into in order to survive this dystopian turn of events together.
Visit us online to read the original proposals, and find out more about how to submit to our NYC Open Call, held in October 2019.
Want to be a juror for our next Open Call? Learn more here.
