New Open Call: CreArt Dual Exhibition in Zagreb 2021 „HYPERADAPTABILITY“
Croatian Association of Fine Artists, within the European project CreArt (Network of Cities for Artistic Creation), opens a new call to invite artists born or residing in cities participant in the CreArt project to take a part in the Dual Exhibition "HYPERADAPTABILITY" that will be presented in Zagreb (Croatia) from September 3rd until September 16th in Meštrović Pavilion. Opening will be held on Friday, September 3rd at 7 p.m.
"HYPERADAPTABILITY " is a dual exhibition including:
artist born or residing in Zagreb Matej Nišević and one artists that will be selected through this open call born or residing in the rest of the cities participant in the CreArt project:
> Aveiro (PT)
> Clermont – Ferrand (FR)
> Genoa (IT), applicants should be under 35
> Katowice (PL)
> Kaunas (LT)
> Liverpool (UK)
> Lublin (PL)
> Rouen (FR)
> Skopje (MK)
> Valladolid (ES)
> Lecce (IT)
Participation in the exhibition is open to: contemporary visual artists, professionally representing the fields of visual and fine arts, focused on a range of new media practices, ecosystem and bio-art, and deals with the topics of climate change and adaptation to new ecological conditions, which is currently one of the burning artistic topics in the international context.
The exhibition will be held in the famous Meštrović Pavilion, the seat of Croatian Association of Fine Artists, located on a beautiful square in central Zagreb. It consists of three exhibition spaces: Ring Gallery, Barrel Gallery, and Extended Media (PM) Gallery. This exhibition will be held in Extended Media (PM) Gallery.
The official name of the building is the Home of Croatian Fine Artists. The building was built in 1938 based on the design of a prominent and world-known Croatian sculptor, also at the time president of HDLU, Ivan Meštrović. Positioned at an exclusive location a bit east of the main city square, the monumental circular building stands out among downtown rectangular buildings as an architectural point of important identification and symbolic significance. It is surrounded by representative houses built in the nineteen twenties and thirties with predominantly Neoclassical features.
Visual materials you can find on LINK - Photos and ground plans of the Gallery and Croatian artists Matej Nišević artworks reproductions.
1. CONDITIONS OF PARTICIPATION
The organizer (HDLU) will cover:
- exhibition technical set up, transport and insurance of artworks costs.
- costs of promotion and dissemination, including a catalogue.
- travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for the foreign artist selected (In case of need to assemble / set up the work- maximum 3 days).
- artist’s fees: artist will receive a € 500 (including taxes) fee (in case of duo, the fee is split as requested by the artists).
2. HOW TO APPLY
The following documentation is required in one PDF to be upload here https://creart2-eu.org/open-calls/
• ID or passport (scanned copy) and/or any kind of document that proofs your connection to your CreArt home city;
• A short version of your curriculum vitae (maximum one A4 sheet)
• A brief written project proposal (maximum one A4 sheet). Please describe the idea of works you plan to present at the exhibition. Indicate the size, type and technique / media of the planned works, as well as the necessary technical, software and other equipment.
• Visual and photo documentation related to the proposal and possible works that could be included in the exhibition.
Deadline: June 1, 2021
Only complete applications received within the deadline will be considered.
3. SELECTION PROCEDURE
The curator will examine each of the submitted proposals, taking in consideration the quality, the feasibility of the project, and their relation to the exhibition concept and the gallery space. According to the CreArt project, the curator has already chosen one local artist from the city of Zagreb and through this open call will choose one artist / artistic team from the other cities within the CreArt network.
CreArt Zagreb will inform all the participants about the results of the call, before 15th June 2021, and the name of the selected artist / artistic team will be announced on the project website.
The participation in this call implies the acceptance of these bases and the selected artists must include in their CV and in all future communications (press, digital media) that have been selected to participate in the Dual Exhibition in Zagreb. CreArt. Network of Cities for Artistic Creation, a project co-financed by the European Union.
4. CONCEPT “HYPERADAPTABILITY”
Nikola Bojić, Curator
The grand narrative of capitalism often relies on Darwin’s theory of natural selection according to which the strongest survive and the weaker ones lose and gradually disappear along with their genetic material. But what if “the weaker ones“ have actually never disappeared, but are incorporated into dominant entities from where they speak from “within“ and produce continuous, radical metamorphoses. Such a view of all living evolutionary processes is not just a fictional counterpoint to the theory of natural selection but one of the fundamental biological principles that enabled the evolution of life on Earth, the emergence of species, ultimately ours as well. In the 1960s, the biologist Lynn Margulis published a theoretical article explaining the formation of more complex cells from the simple ones through endosymbiosis – a biological process in which dominant cells “digest” weaker ones, but the weaker ones do not disappear but continue to (co)exist within the dominant cells, changing them into more complex cell types, and gradually organisms as well. In that sense, being “digested” does not imply destruction, but transition, metamorphosis and hyper-adaptivity to new circumstances.
From the early industrial age to the present day, civilization has gone through several major technological revolutions that have permanently changed the ways we communicate, work and (co)exist. The phrase “the revolution devours its children“ emerged in the context of the French Revolution resonating well with the course and outcomes of technological revolutions. What is being devoured is us – the children of technological progress with the planetary ecosystem as a collateral victim. Yet, what is created throughout this process is an open question. According to the theory of endosymbiosis, the unpredictable mutual digestion of organic and inorganic matter characteristic for the Anthropocene turns the evolutionary processes towards the genesis of hybrid organisms adaptable to the extreme biological and techno-climatic conditions. The human species will no longer play a dominant role in these processes.
By juxtaposing the two artistic practices/researches in the field of ecosystemic art and bio-art, the exhibition will examine the future in which endosymbiosis creates the circumstances for the emergence of hyper-adaptive organisms as biological, artistic and mental tactics for coexistence in the era of radical ecosystemic crisis.
5. BIO
The Curator (HR)
Nikola Bojić
Nikola Bojić is a researcher focused on the relationship between space, technology and the ecosystemic futures. He graduated in Art History and Museology at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb and completed his postgraduate degree at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. He has exhibited at numerous international conferences and exhibitions, most recently at ZKM, Karlsruhe; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Milan Triennial, Venice and Taipei Biennial. As a lecturer at the School of Architecture + Planning at MIT, he co-developed the course on techno-politics of models and modelling. Nikola has published a number of scientific papers, created the artist’s book Excavations: The Sinking Gardens and was the guest editor of the 96th issue of the Život umjetnosti journal dealing with the issue of territory. He is currently an assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb and an affiliate researcher in the Art, Culture and Technology programme at MIT, involved in the Climate Visions - artistic research lab which operates at the intersections of art, technology and climate changes.
The Artist (HR)
Matej Nišević
Futuristic metamorphoses and the evolution of marine organisms due to Nano plastic pollution and healthy aquatic ecosystems are the topics of Matej Nišević’s works (Sisak, 1996). In addition to bioart, which he approaches through objects and installations, he is also interested in land art. He is a first-year graduate student of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Zagreb, in the class of prof. Mirjana Vodopija and co-mentor Sunčica Ostoić, MA. He studied biology at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb in the 2018-2019 academic year (Department of Biology, course: Protista Including Molecular Biology and Genetics), its Botanical Garden and the Institute for Marine and Coastal Research in Dubrovnik (research and scientific education on plankton and the ecosystem of the Adriatic Sea, 2019-present). In 2019-2020 he held courses on botanical illustration, Botanical Garden of the Faculty of Science in Zagreb.
About Croatian Association of Fine Artists
The Croatian Association of Fine Artists (HDLU) is a nongovernmental, not-for-profit, and politically neutral union of professionals. Its membership consists exclusively of visual artists of all generations, working in all forms of expression and disciplines. The Association was established in 1868 and has been continuously active since then, though under different names. The basic aims of the Association are: to support and encourage contemporary visual expression, to improve and protect the freedom of visual expression, to organize exhibitions, and to participate in the making of the laws and rules regulating visual arts production and the social rights of the artists. HDLU annually organizes or collaborates in the organization of approximately 40 exhibitions in four diversely profiled galleries. The exhibition program covers all segments of art presentation and production, ranging from large national and international manifestations to projects concerning new media pursuing experimentation.
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