Photos: Regentaucher | Fotografie
The Open Call ended on 30.9.2022, midnight. We look forward to working through all the submissions and will report back with our decisions by the end of October at the latest.
We would like to invite visual artists to create works for an exhibition in the form of an art trail in Zeitz (Germany). The individual stations are not meant to be obstacles as in a classical parcours, but places for artistic interventions in the public space. The shrinking city will be changed by these interventions.
The works will be presented via the app Wantalon (Old High German: wandeln), which we are currently developing in parallel to the Open Call. It is intended to act as a mediator between urban space and art: Through it, Zeitz is turned into a large-scale gallery. The app takes users by the hand and guides them through the city. Only when they physically come close to the place for which the respective work was created will it be displayed. The project is intended to build a bridge between long-established residents of Zeitz and visitors. Wantalon enables both to see the small town in a new way.
In nature, one seeks untouched silence to recharge one's batteries and take a deep breath. But you can also find this silence in the city of Zeitz, located in the south of Saxony-Anhalt. The once bustling small town produced various industrial goods before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the early 1990s, the factories closed and within a short time, the people left. Zeitz became a shrinking city. Despite incorporations, less than 30,000 people now live here instead of the former population of over 50,000. Every third flat in the old town is unoccupied. In the recent past, buildings threatened with collapse were quickly demolished, creating numerous brownfields and gaps. Naked gable walls, bare areas and nailed-up shop windows dominate the picture; they are open spaces and opportunities that encourage dreaming.
The term "shadow" is the cohesive theme for the Open Call. It is to be understood ambiguously and can be interpreted freely. Without light, there is no shadow. Shadow is the means by which bodies reveal their form. But events or time can also cast shadows (ahead) - metaphorically. Some people jump over shadows. More and more are looking for shadows in hot times.
We invite discussion, communication and lively, peaceful discourse about what "shadow" can be - in whatever medium, in whatever form.
Regarding formats, the app can display videos, texts, images and sound. Art can locate itself here primarily digitally, although on-site interventions are also possible in some cases.
Applications are open to visual artists who want to deal with the theme of "shadows" in terms of content and design. To be submitted are:
We ask you to send the four documents mentioned above by September 30, 2022. After selection and notification of the participating artists, you have until January 15, 2023 to complete the work and send us the data. The app will be released in March 2023.
In the app there will also be the possibility to show information about the vita and a portrait of the artist. You are welcome to send a video with a statement about your own artistic work, for the application in general or specifically for the app work.
The first parcour is curated by Diana Artus and Petra Mattheis.
Diana Artus lives and works in Berlin. She studied German language and literature and photography in Leipzig, and her artistic work is primarily concerned with the perception and design of urban space. Parallel to this, she works as a journalist with a focus on architecture and urban development.
Petra Mattheis lives and works in Zeitz and Leipzig. She studied communication design in Wiesbaden and fine arts in Mainz and Leipzig. In her artistic works she addresses controversial subjects in order to question their perception, be it female desire, the taboo of menstruation or the image of a small town.