Oculi Inquisitivi: Inquiring Eyes in the Urban Shadows

Open Call for visual artists to submit their artworks for participation in an international curated exhibition to be held in Athens next June by the Luminous Eye Gallery (Acropolis area, Athens, Greece). The official languages of the exhibition are Greek and English, and a commemorative catalog – book will be published in digital format in both languages. The exhibition will also be available internationally online via the ARTgrID platform.

Eligibility. The exhibition will accept artworks of painting, sculpture, photography, collage, digital art, video art, primarily focusing on human-centric themes, urban landscapes, or other topics that provoke reflections on the contemporary way of life, which can engage with the theme in any manner deemed appropriate by the creator. Eligible to apply are visual artists worldwide.

Conceptual framework. In the light of day and under the blazing sun of Ancient Athens, the philosopher Diogenes the Cynic roamed the streets holding a lantern, repeatedly saying "I seek a man" (searching for a true human being), meaning someone who would embody the virtues and values that his society seemingly had forgotten. Centuries later, Edgar Allan Poe in his story "The Man of the Crowd" places his protagonist observing the relentless flow of human masses, detecting the inner anxieties and hidden stories each passerby carries, adding to the narrative of Diogenes that the city is a living organism that breathes and interacts with the secrets of its people. The latin phrase "Oculi Inquisitivi" found in humanistic scientific texts of previous centuries resonates today, as the search for truth and values should not be confined to the mere surface of social contact, but should extend to a deeper understanding of the soul of the contemporary human, detecting the weaknesses, fears, and hopes within the heart of the modern urban framework.