Call for Creatives
15.2.2021 - 15.3.2021
Opening in 26 minutes
Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Tallinn Art Hall and Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius announce an open call to select creatives for an upcoming archipelago of events, tentatively titled History of Joy, Part 4. Curated by Kaspars Groševs, Virginija Januškevičiūtė and Siim Preiman, the event series aims to bridge communities and provide an alternative platform for employing creatives during a time of isolation and uncertainty. Visual artists, musicians, performers and writers from, based in or otherwise connected to the Baltic states are invited to propose ideas for contributions, which can take any form, either physical or virtual. All the contributions will be shared in one way or another on a common web platform. It could be publishing of a text or a visual essay, launch of a film or a soundtrack, an online streaming session that’s also recorded, a special project for an internet platform of your choosing, or any other way you can imagine sharing your work with others online – we will try to accommodate your chosen form in conversation with you.
In the words of one of the curators, Kaspars Groševs: The project aims to unveil a kaleidoscopic reverie of concurrent streams of thought, expression and comprehension by inviting a variety of cultural agents to share their creative manifestations and gestures in any form, either physical or internet-based. History of Joy, Part 4 is intended as a sequential space for exchange of joyous explorations, traces, undercurrents and murmurs. Resonating with the fragmentemd history of ephemeral, often uncharted intimate acts of bringing joy to oneself and others, the project invites creatives to engage in distribution of personal discoveries and artistic explorations.
The title of the project reflects on the many historical shifts in exhibition-making, with an aim to emphasise the distinct current moment and a myriad of different ways we can engage with it. The curatorial team aims to emphasise that a physical public exhibition hasn’t always – and not for everyone – been the main format for experiencing art.
Each selected artist will be supported in the execution of their project by one of the three partnering institutions. Besides a fee and production budget, this support can include facilities like spaces or technical equipment.
Deadline for submissions: 15 March 2021. The applications will be reviewed by the three curators who will make the final choice based on the proposal’s fitness to the project’s evolving narrative and the organisers’ ability to accommodate the presentation.
The series of online presentations is aimed to launch in May 2021. The selected contributions will be contacted in April 2021. You may be approached by the curatorial team with follow-up questions prior to the selection. Please feel free to contact us with questions, too.
Applications must be in English and should be sent as a single email, word or pdf document to part4@history-joy.cc (subject line: History of Joy) and it must include:
- Project proposal (with preliminary visuals, required budget, location ideas if relevant, and contact details)
- CV (two pages maximum)
- Summary of previous projects (please aim for around three pages, including images and links)
Kaspars Groševs is an artist and curator based in Riga. In 2014 he co-found 427 gallery and has been co-directing it since. In recent years he has made curatorial gestures at P/////AKT, Amsterdam, Salon de Normandy by The Community, Paris, Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga, Polansky Gallery, Brno among other places.
Virginija Januškevičiūtė is a curator at the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius. The recent exhibitions that she curated at the CAC include solos by Yugi Agematsu, Brud, and Arthur Jafa, as well as two group exhibitions: Splitting the Atom on ethics and aesthetics of nuclear culture (with Ele Carpenter) and Head With Many Thoughts based on an open call for contributions (with a collective). She is co-founder of the publishing platform “The Baltic Notebooks of Anthony Blunt” (blunt.cc) and its series of artist books in PDF format.
Siim Preiman is a curator at Tallinn Art Hall whose curatorial projects explore the possible role that art can play in resisting global powers, focusing on the ethics of making art and on micro-narratives circulating in society. His latest curatorial projects include galerii galerii presents: a concise anthology of mobile art platforms at 1st March Gallery, Tallinn (2021), Memory Palace by Maria Valdma at Tallinn City Gallery (2021) and Endless Story by Mihkel Ilus and Paul Kuimet at Tallinn Art Hall (2020).
About the organisers:
Kim? Contemporary Art Centre is one of the leading and most recognized contemporary art institution in Latvia. Founded in 2009, Kim? has held more than 150 exhibitions by local and international artists. Also, more than 50 exhibitions have been organized outside of Latvia including the 55th Venice Biennale, co-curated with long-time partner, New York based art space Art in General, and the 58th Venice Biennale, co-hosted with the Latvian Contemporary Art Centre. During the past 10 years Kim? Has worked with institutions like Fondation d’entreprise Ricard (FR), Rupert (LT), Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York), Moderna Museet (Malmö), KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) (New York), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow); co-organized events such as the Latvian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (Venice), the XII Baltic Triennial (Vilnius/Riga), Art I’ve Lived with The Mikhail Baryshnikov Collection (Riga) and others.Kim? is a non-profit, non-governmental institution.
The Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius is one of the largest contemporary art venues in the Baltic region. The CAC hosts a diverse programme of exhibitions and events dedicated to contemporary art, aiming to enrich the cultural life of the city and the local and international discourse of contemporary art. The CAC realises a prolific programme of between 10 to 15 exhibitions a year that is supplemented by events spanning the fields of performance art, theory, literature, cinema and video art, as well as publishing projects. Every three years the CAC organises the Baltic Triennial – one of the most ambitious contemporary art projects of the Baltic region – a shape-shifting event, which aims to address the most urgent ideas in art of our time with each iteration. In addition, the CAC regularly collaborates with international art biennials and venues to present Lithuanian artists’ work abroad; it has overseen the Lithuanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale a number of times.
The Tallinn Art Hall Foundation is a contemporary art institution established in 1934 with an exhibition program in three galleries on the central square of Tallinn – the Tallinn Art Hall, the Art Hall Gallery, and the nearby City Gallery. Tallinn Art Hall addresses the most pressing issues in contemporary art and society, provides a fascinating program for contemporary audiences, and helps artists create new exhibitions and works. We are part of the larger international contemporary art scene and mediate an active exchange of ideas between local and international art scenes and audiences. In addition, we also organise exhibitions abroad. When putting together our program we value being contemporary, international, well-curated, and engaging different generations.
https://www.kunstihoone.ee/en/
The project is supported by the Baltic Culture Fund.