OPEN CALL for interdisciplinary artists from/based in Serbia or the Republic of Moldova whose work is focused on research or in-situ exploration related to Eastern Europe.

The first edition of Twisted Lullabies aims to produce a collective exhibition that will take place in 2 locations: MATCA artspace in Cluj-Napoca and one of the spaces of the partner Maatka Phi Association in Bucharest. The project will connect three countries – Romania, Moldova, and Serbia – along an itinerary approached both physically and imaginatively – designed to provide research opportunities or make visible artworks based on research in a context inspired by transitions, mutations, and the “continuous past” of Eastern European culture.

There are two ways of including the artistic contributions in the exhibition: 5 artists will travel for research purposes through areas in Romania, Moldova, and near the border with Serbia. At the same time, the group exhibition will be completed by the contributions of 10 artists from Moldova and Serbia who will be selected through this open call.
We address this open call to artists who work in various mediums from video, text, photography, archives, traditional visual mediums, sound, (…), or artists whose approaches are interdisciplinary and can be related to anthropology, sociology, political studies, activism, architecture, etc.

***info: the 5 artists who will travel for research purposes are already selected, so this open call is addressed only to 10 artists who propose for this call already existing works related to the theme of the project – artists from SRB and MD

The resulting exhibition will focus on traditions, beliefs, customs, emotions, communities, places, and politics of Eastern European culture under a specific concept called Twisted Lullabies.

Lullaby (etymology – lull + bye-bye) is a metaphor for the common atmosphere shared by all three countries, imagined as a ghostly soundtrack played for the things we are preparing to say goodbye to. Each of the three countries (RO, SRB, MD) shares a communist past and retains reminders of this regime in one way or another. One of the stakes of the project is to investigate places (rural and urban spaces), intangible heritage (local legends, history), and relics of the communist regime or early post-communist atmosphere, which in the conceptual vision of the project are present materializations of the past. Once we say goodbye to something, it does not mean that it is gone.
The curatorial objective of the project is to explore the nostalgia of the inconsistency, irrelevance, and absurdity of the present-in-continuous change of these three countries, or the Eastern European area. Like a sickly (twisted) song heard in the distance, the project is motivated by investigating the degrading landscape of shared memories/history and the similarities we share from this starting point, from where the invitation for artistic contributions emerges.

Some guiding keywords: a dialogue between the past and the present, collective dreams and hopes, expectations vs. reality, archaic society and traditional beliefs, ruins, childhood vs adulthood in the East European society, collective habits, (in)equality, relation with technology, political conflicts, working contexts, labor, exploitation, freedom, alimentation, collective resources, habits, beliefs, illusions, riot, truth, etc (…)

HOW TO APPLY:

By sending us an email at matcaartspacecall@gmail.com until the 1st of September – 23.59 EET; UTC+02:00 // subject: Twisted Lullabies
We accept for this call only already produced works from artists residing or born in Serbia or the Republic of Moldova.
Submissions should include a pdf. portfolio including recent works – or website/portfolio link, and a short argumentation of the proposed work, including the work you want to propose + a short BIO of the artist or collective who is applying.

You can submit more than one work for the call if you want. Please do not send us your proposals via transfer platforms that require downloading the content as we might not get to your work in time before the transfer expires.

There selected artists will receive an honorarium and there is no fee required to apply.

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The context in which this project is initiated is the Cultural Management Academy Bucharest and Belgrade- 2021-2022, based on a microgrant offered by the Goethe Institute through the support of EUNIC.
Cultural project co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the National Cultural Fund Administration. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.

Twisted Lullabies is a project initiated and curated by Alexandra Mocan in partnership with Gordana Vukov and Constanța Dohotaru
Partners: Asociația Maatka Phi, ASUAD Cluj, Artcrawl Cluj, Empower Artists, Klara i Rosa, Asociația Laolaltă, Asociația La Pătrat

Project powered by MATCA Artspace

by Dragana Kostica
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