Open Call for the main exhibition
“Imagined Homes”
Deadline for submissions: January 31, 2017 – 23:30
After ten years and five successful Biennials, with the participation of hundreds of visual artists and curators from all over the world, collaborations with various institutions, interventions in the urban environment and thousands of visitors, the State Museum of Contemporary Art is organizing the sixth edition of the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, from September 2017 until January 2018. Under the title “Imagined Homes” the curatorial team of the SMCA takes over the 6th Thessaloniki Biennale and seeks to investigate how the idea of home changes today. Home as a place where someone feels safe and accepted is no longer a certainty, since thousands of people are obliged to leave their homeland for another, hopefully safer, place. The Biennale will attempt to trace the imagined construction and fluidity of home as a projection and future expectation, through incorporating past experience, trauma and loss. Displacement and hybridity, emerging domesticities, practices of inclusion and new community concepts articulated on alternative visualizations of gender, religious or family bonds are the main issues around which the exhibition narrative will be structured.
The Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund)
Guidelines for the proposals’ submission
Τhe 6th Biennale has decided to launch an open call as a tool for curatorial research and a method to democratize its selections. This open call aims to encourage visual artists who work around these issues in any contemporary medium (painting, sculpture, engraving, photography, video, installation, performance, new media), to submit their proposal for participation in the main exhibition until January 31, 2017, 23:30.
Applicants must send by e-mail:
• their proposed work, title and short description (up to 200 words), credits, year of production, medium
• up to 5 digital photos
• a short c.v. (up to 200 words)
All material should be provided in Greek or English. Please not that each candidate may participate only with one work or project. E-mail address for submissions and for inquiries (please note that we won’t be taking any questions over the phone): [email protected]
The curatorial committee will examine the submitted proposals, select the works which will be presented and inform the selected artists by email, until March 15, 2017. Entries that fail to comply with the above mentioned requirements will not be examined. The shortlisted artists will be responsible for the transportation of their works to and from Thessaloniki. The State Museum of Contemporary Art will be responsible for the organization and promotion of the exhibition and for the publication of accompanying documentation material. The 6th Thessaloniki Biennale will cover insurance of the works during the exhibition, documentation in the Biennale catalogue, communication, technical support and installation cost, but it does not cover transportation expenses. Nevertheless, we will provide the artists with every possible support in order to cover transport expenses from other potential funding resources.
Submission of proposals certifies the acceptance of the conditions mentioned above.
The 6th Thessaloniki Biennale curatorial team consists of the SMCA art historians and curators Yannis Bolis, Angeliki Charistou, Domna Gounari, Areti Leopoulou, Theodore Markoglou, Eirini Papakonstantinou, Maria Tsantsanoglou, Syrago Tsiara with the collaboration of the museum educators Evi Papavergou and Katerina Paraskeva.
Project manager: Athina Ioannou
Director: Syrago Tsiara