Open call for artworks and art projects
19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil: Southern Panoramas
Application period: September 15–November 16, 2014
The Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil has become established over the years as a diverse and multiple platform designed to disseminate, foster and reflect about art production from the Global South. This area comprises the countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, South and Southeast Asia and Oceania. Significant political changes are underway and they radically resize the notions of North and South, yet the Festival still believes in the need to work on behalf of art and culture in regions that are yet to reinvent new forms of circulation and visibility. The participation of artists via an open call is, therefore, a democratic and vital strategy to the Festival. It serves the purpose of building a platform of visibility, debate and knowledge production turned to art of the countries at hand.
At this time, Associação Cultural Videobrasil and Sesc São Paulo are calling upon artists interested in taking part in the 19th edition of the Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil, due from October 6 to December 6, 2015 at Sesc Pompeia, in São Paulo, Brazil. Entries will be accepted from September 15 to November 16, 2014, on the Videobrasil website.
For the first time ever, the call for submissions comprises two separate open calls: one for artworks and another for projects, to be developed under the oversight of curators and with backing from the Festival; both the artworks and the projects are to be featured in the upcoming edition of the Festival. Artworks and projects will be accepted in all supports, artistic expressions and techniques, by artists either born or resident in the Festival’s target areas for over five years. Each artist may submit up to three artworks and/or one project, in keeping with the terms set forth in the open calls available on the website as of the opening date for entry.
Another new feature of the Festival is its enhanced geopolitical proposal. Southern Panoramas will become the pivotal point for all of the program’s curated sections, instead of only being the name of the competitive show. The Festival’s core will now be the South and its myriad issues—which somehow inspire and guide the selection of artworks and projects—including hybrid identities, diasporas, migration flows and travels, personal narratives, memories, isolation, social fabric and insularity, among other subjects.
In addition to the artworks and projects to be selected via open call, the 19th Festival will also feature pieces by landmark guest artists from the South, whose careers are nonetheless little known on a global level. The triangulation between Africa, the Caribbean and South America is the focal point of their reflections.
Through its meetings, residencies, prizes and commissioned pieces, the Festival sets out to strengthen and broaden collaboration between artists, peoples and cultures; promote debate on shared experiences; and foster horizontal discussion so as to shed light on the transit of ideas and practices in the contemporary world, thus helping to build an active artistic exchange network.
More on the Festival
In addition to exhibiting artworks and projects by shortlisted and guest artists, the Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil offers artist residencies, public programs, educational actions and publication launches.
In a bid to publicize the productions of shortlisted artists, the Festival also conducts actions to make their work available in its digital research platforms, books, websites, social media, as well as documentaries and TV programs produced by the organization. The artists also participate in meetings and debates that bring together curators, critics, researchers and delegates from art institutions and artist residencies to reflect on and discuss pressing issues in contemporary art and culture.
The Festival also awards a cash prize and nine artist residency prizes to be undertaken at Videobrasil Residency Network partner organizations around the world. All of the winners are given trophies designed for each edition by artists such as Tunga, Rosângela Rennó, Erika Verzutti, Carmela Gross, Luiz Zerbini, and Raquel Garbelotti, among others.
To participate, visit Videobrasil website from September 15 onwards.
Click here to learn more about the artists and activities featured in the last edition of the Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil.
