CALL CLOSED – Thank you for your interest in the open call for the Futureless group exhibition, which has now closed. We are currently reviewing all submissions, and will contact applicants shortly. To keep up to date with our open calls and artist opportunities, which we publish regularly, please sign up for our newsletter.

For the upcoming Futureless group exhibition, taking place between April 1 and 9 at SomoS Berlin, the SomoS curatorial team is calling for ephemeral installations, durational art pieces, performative lectures/projects as well as discourse-based work and other art forms that deal with topics related to queer/feminist* futures, including:

 

• The role of imagination, fantasy, fiction and speculation in shaping alternative futures.
• Digitization, technological and scientific development.
• Earthly, ecological and environmental precarity.
• Ecosexuality and the relationships between humans and the rest of nature.

Deadline: January 26, 2020, midnight
Application fee: none
Eligibility: international artists working in any medium

Theme

From their political root, queer/feminist identities, ideas and actions offer alternative perspectives on how society can be continuously shaped and reshaped differently. With the capitalist dream of progress fading, the Futureless group exhibition recognizes an important history of queer/feminist futurism that generates possibility through imagination; the writing of Samuel R. Delany, William S. Burroughs and Octavia Butler, films such as Lizzy Borden’s Born in Flames, Shu Lea Cheang’s Fluido and the cult-classic Rocky Horror Picture Show, as well as the art of Juliana Huxtable and Rebecca Belmore, all come to mind, to name just some examples.

The loss of a future once thought by some as great and bright leaves us in a futureless state. Such a state may feel at once empty and ominous, yet also appear as a vast and promising site for speculative fiction and fantasy. In this futureless void, queer/feminist answers become not only increasingly relevant, but also more articulate. What does it mean for queer/feminist thought and art that the future is missing? How can we dream of and interpret the present as seen from the future?

Artists may respond to some of the following questions:

 

• Which mythological, fantastical or other-worldly perspectives or examples are beneficial for life on a precarious planet?
• What does a queer/feminist utopia look like? In contrast, what does a queer/feminist dystopia look like?
• What is the future of gender?
• How can we foster a queer/feminist ecosystem?
• To what extent is ecological struggle the struggle for universal emancipation?
• How may we perform rituals to recognize the loss of the future?
• What are the connections between queer/feminist perspectives on future and others that are formed out of minority positions or resistance, e.g. Afrofuturism, indigenous futurism, decolonization, Trans Futurism, among others?

Both existing works as well as new works are eligible for participation. Submissions to the exhibition should include a detailed description of the artwork or project. We will look at any proposal with great interest and an open mind, but are especially eager to include installation based pieces, works that are durational, participative and/or interactive, for example, performances, and other works that take shape over time, works that are built in situ before or during the exhibition, works that create their own environment or that involve building an environment that is the backdrop to a performance as well as works that invoke all these forms and incorporate discourse into them through lecture, text etc.

Selected artists/performers will be invited to participate in a group exhibition at SomoS Art House in Berlin that will take place from 01.04.2020-09.04-2020.

*Please note: Considering the common questions of gender and sexuality, we included both queer and feminist perspectives in this Open Call. We encourage submissions that are both queer and feminist, as well as other submissions that lean towards one term or the other. We aimed to express this through the formulation of queer/feminist throughout the Open Call.

Support

The exhibition is not subsidized by third parties, and is an artist-run initiative, therefore financial support is limited. SomoS can be responsible for installing works, or shall assist in installing, and can help in the creation of new work in the exhibition space according to the artist’s concept. In the Berlin area, the SomoS can assist with, or arrange transportation. SomoS can offer lodging to a limited amount of artists/performers preparing work before or during the exhibition. SomoS is unfortunately not able to cover any travel expenses. All proceeds from the donation-based entry will go to the artists.
A range of digital and analog tools are available.

Submission

Deadline: January 26, 2020, midnight

Please fill in the submission form (in English or German) and provide a detailed plan of the submitted contribution, plus an artist portfolio.
Please note that all questions need to be answered in full for your submission to qualify, thanks.

Alternatively, the submission information and files can be sent directly to [email protected].

After carefully reviewing all of the submissions, we will contact applicants and selected participants in a timely manner.

Looking forward to your submissions!

This post is also available in: German