The Aps U Jùse indicates the second edition of the international call “ESSERI URBANI the other side of art”. The aim of the project is to select 10 “site-specific” art projects, protagonists of an open-air exhibition along the streets of the historic centre of Locorotondo, from 19th June to September 13th 2020, as part of the “Festival of Contemporary Art ESSERI URBANI Eterotopia”.
The theme of this second edition of Esseri Urbani is “Heterotopia”. The candidates will have to decline their artistic project on the suggestive concept coined by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in the Sixties; with this term, he defined localized utopias, “other-places”, which are – as if suspended – outside of any place while remaining real and localized, a sort of “counter-spaces” that every society and culture produces.
The starting point is always the concrete space – glimpses and streets that we know and cross every day – to propose new readings, experiment new perspectives, temporarily alter traditional functions and identities. Priority will be given to the direct interaction between the works and the space that hosts them, in order to amplify the involvement of the observer, invited to establish a more “intimate” contact with the work: according to the intentions, the places themselves must become works of art and offer the opportunity, perhaps unique, to be lived in ways that are out of the ordinary, moving, stopping and/or acting within them, creating moments of sociality and spontaneous sharing of experiences.
To the artistic project can also be added the proposal of a collateral activity – workshop, talk or other – by the candidate, to be carried out during the festival. This integration will represent a reason for reward. Finally, a higher score will be given to the projects that will pay attention to the inclusiveness of the work, since this festival has made accessibility one of its distinctive features.
Applications must be sent by e-mail, with the subject “PARTICIPATION IN ESSERI URBANI – SECOND EDITION”, no later than 12 a.m. on April 5th 2020.
The people who will be part of the Scientific Committee that will evaluate the candidate projects are: the artistic director and curator of the festival Angela Conte (art history expert), the head of the organizational secretariat Alessandra Neglia (journalist), the Graphic Director Michela Neglia, the curator of technical contributions Claudio G. Fusillo (architect) and Franca Perillo (responsible for info-point Locorotondo for the cooperative society system museum). The results of the selection will be announced from April 12th on the website www.esseriurbani.it. All info on the website.
At the same time, the rules for participation in the Social Photo Project #OPPOCITIES have already been published, in which you can participate until April 30th 2020. The project is aimed at drawing a map of urban reality in which emerges the strangeness, the no-sense, the dissonant, the element outside of time and space, which stands out and doesn’t conform. A new image takes shape, describing landscape, environment and architecture from all over the world through the perception of its anomalies, collected in a sort of large illustrated atlas.
It’s very easy to apply for the contest: participants must take photos that represent anomalies of a familiar place, describe what the photo represents, follow the Instagram @esseri_urbani profile, share the photos on Instagram using the hashtag #oppocities and #esseriurbani2020 by April 30th 2020.
Of all the shared photos, 30 will be selected and printed and will be the subject of an exhibition during the festival. The authors of the selected shots will be entitled to a personal and non-transferable free admission to the scheduled paid exhibitions.
