Yuán: How long have we known home?

Presented by It’s a local collective with Semin Hong

Supported by Arts Council England 

Open Call Oct 13 - Nov 06, 2023 

Exhibition Apr 18 - May 18, 2024 

The call is international. Submission is free. 

Call for Submissions 2023: 

Yuán （noun 園  1. Garden 2. Park ）, an immersive exhibition, aims to foster a diverse discourse on what it means to find Home. Comprising works of both local (at home) and immigrant (away from home) artists, the curation directs our consciousness back to our origins and towards our present sense of self and being. Referencing East Asian gardens as places for reflection on the self, community, and a way of life, the gallery takes form as an enveloping landscape that invites visitors to embark on a bodily reception of art as protagonists who question, reflect, find home and belongingness. 

The curation of Yuán will see the gallery transform into a well-being space for social exchange and creative discourse. Yuán prompts a reconnection to one’s sense of belonging, beginning with their relationship with body and awareness. By providing “Home” as a starting ground, we hope to become a broader and inclusive platform for artists and viewers to make their distinctive voices heard, away from obscured, mystified and ever stereo-typed portrayals of ESEA culture.

This call is primarily open to ESEA artists who are based in their homeland and engage through their work/approach/research with a variety of cultures and symbols that play on the relationship between body, home, consciousness and identity. The call is open to artists and researchers from a range of disciplines including, but not limited to: architecture, fine arts, fashion, digital culture, critical theory, graphics, sculptures, materials and systems. We positively encourage applications from underrepresented groups and consider candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital status, or pregnancy and maternity. Individual, collaborative or editorial projects are eligible for submission. A shortlist of applicants will be invited for an interview via video call w/c Monday 27 November 2023 to discuss their work in relation to the curation “How long have we known Home?” before the final artist/s is selected. Only one application will be accepted per artist, or group of artists. We encourage applicants to interpret the brief as openly as possible.