Open Call: Group Exhibition in London

This open call invites artists of all disciplines to join a group exhibition that will take place at Craft Central London in September 2021. Curated by Seray Ozdemir and organized by Anna Kolosova and Melissa Vipritskaya Topal, the exhibition will explore the theme of boredom. 

Working to optimize for and invest in the future has become our mode of being, yet the constant precarity and insecurity we are being subjected to by market forces mean that we can’t even begin to see what’s two steps ahead of us. The digital devices of diversion ensure that we are never present in the present either. We are so used to being simultaneously stimulated by various types of media to the point where not multitasking feels unnatural. To most, the idea of actually doing nothing sounds foreign if not completely implausible or even anxiety-inducing, as maybe we started finding comfort in exhausting our receptors too much to leave space for self-reflection.

Audre Lorde teaches us that if the revelation and distillation of experience and feelings have become a luxury, then we have given up our power and we have given up the future of our worlds. If today, our perpetual state of severe ennui and mental fatigue makes achieving self-awareness a luxury; then we propose embracing boredom as a resistance technique. Inviting boredom into our lives collectively would mean rejecting the neoliberal achievement-obsessed mentality and disengaging ourselves from the ethos of never-ending productivity. Borrowing from Lorde, we acknowledge boredom as a tool for tangible action and change; therefore, a route to freedom.

Let us affirm together: Boredom is not a luxury.

KEY DATES

Submission Deadline: 22nd August 2021

Installation Day: 30th August 2021

Exhibition: 31st August 2021 - 4th September 2021

Private View: 3rd September 2021

Deinstallation Day: 5th September 2021

ENTRY GUIDELINES

All mediums are accepted.

Artists of all backgrounds are encouraged to participate.

Applicants should submit no more than 4 images of their artwork.

There is a one-off entry fee of £10 payable to cover exhibition costs.

International artists are encouraged to apply, however, they are responsible for all postage and customs fees relating to their work.

The cost of delivering the artworks to the exhibition space and back is the responsibility of the artist, along with any insurance.

The sales of artworks will be at the artist’s discretion.

We will not be imposing the restriction of sharing a commission with us, however, it would be greatly appreciated.