Open call for artists, scholars and activists

The cultural mobility information network on the move are inviting artists, activists and scholars to participate into an open call for a gathering in Venice under the titel Power Structures and Hidden Border.

In Power Structures and Hidden Borders the organisers take up this call by creating a platform for other artists, researchers, and activists to question the problematic terms in which “PERSONAL STRUCTURES” frames the discussion itself, as well as unsettling that exhibition’s position within it.

“PERSONAL STRUCTURES: Open Borders” is claimed by its creators to be “an open forum for discussion to take place on the different expressions of contemporary art that break away from any ideological, political and geographical barriers”. In “Power Structures and Hidden Borders” we take up this call by creating a platform for other artists, researchers, and activists to question the problematic terms in which “PERSONAL STRUCTURES” frames the discussion itself, as well as unsettling that exhibition’s position within it.

“PERSONAL STRUCTURES” plays on themes of globalization and proposes an idealistic future for its visitors in which they are afforded “the chance to live their lives as free global citizens.” However, it neglects addressing such issues as where this conception of “free global citizens” comes from, who is allowed to live such a life in our world as it is, as well as what hidden relationships of exploitation and subordination it is dependent upon.

Through an investigation of these questions within the exhibition itself we hope to interrogate the colonial power structures constitutive of the process of globalization more broadly. Our aim is to make the hidden borders of this exhibition, and of the (art) world more generally, explicit in order to question them and facilitate their subversion and destruction.

“Power Structures and Hidden Borders” will be realized in the space of existing exhibition (Venice: Palazzo Mora; Palazzo Bembo) beginning in November, and will run parallel to the closing program of Venice Biennale.

Conditions:
All participants will be informed about the decision before the 5th of October. Participants will be provided with travel costs, accommodation and technical support while in Venice, and a participation award of 500€ per project.

On the Move (OTM) is a cultural mobility information network with 40 members in over 20 countries across Europe and internationally. Our mission is to encourage and facilitate cross-border mobility and cooperation, contributing to building up a vibrant and shared European cultural space that is strongly connected worldwide.

Deadline (extended): 8 October 2017

Find details online