Activities // Open Calls

Karas Gallery is an exhibition space of the Croatian Association of Fine Artists (HDLU) with a long tradition in the contemporary art scene. After many years of activity at Praška 4, since 2018, it now operates at the address Kralja Zvonimira 58. Recognizing the need to redefine and create a new cultural identity for the neighborhood where Karas Gallery is located, within the EU project CreART 3.0, a collaborative artistic program titled KARAS + KVART is organized, envisioned in a collaborative and co-creation model between one local artist and one artist from the network. Artists will explore the neighborhood for 3 weeks, and the final result will be an artistic work or initiative in the public space of the gallery neighborhood in October. As part of the KARAS+KVART 2025 project, Petar Vranjković has been invited to participate, and an international artist will be selected through an open call.

Preference will be given to artists who are interested in and expressing themselves through innovative visual, video and/or sound practices, as well as those who are interested in re-activating the Gallery and surrounding neighborhood through working with the local community. Artist Petar Vranjković envisioned a project based on two connecting concepts: one for American urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg's gallery as a third space, and one for art historian Ida Biard's Gallery of Neighbors (La Galerie Des Locataires). More precisely, these concepts have informal interaction and transfer of knowledge at their core, and by applying these ideas, the project aims to further democratize the gallery to the microstructure of its immediate neighborhood and broader citizen community. By doing so, the gallery aims to become a place for temporary residence, an extension to people's living rooms in which the community and artists discuss and work together to explore, via different research methods (including interviews and workshops, shared meals and art), social meanings, as well as the roles the gallery has or can have to express and answer to the needs of the local public.

 

Petar Vranjković (b. 1997) is an transmedial artist and researcher who uses objects from archives, photography, video, printmaking, and design in his research– and artistic–based processes. He holds an MFA in Animation and New Media from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb.

He is interested in shaping memories and the idea of storytelling through artistic narratives. One of the central themes of his work is the intimate history of the individual, which is an interpretation of the heritage, tradition, and culture of a community and time.

Vranjković’s recent solo exhibitions took place at Kamba, Zagreb (2024); Collection of Vjenceslav Richter and Nada Kareš Richter, Zagreb (2023); Miroslav Kraljević Gallery, Zagreb (2022). His work was  included in the 42nd Split Salon and 36th Zagreb Youth Salon.

WHO CAN APPLY

• Artists of younger generation born or residing in one of the cities in the project network: Kaunas (Lithuania), Liepaja (Latvia), Skopje (North Macedonia), Aveiro (Portugal), Valladolid (Spain), Lublin (Poland), Venice (Italy), Clermont-Ferrand and Rouen (France), České Budějovice (Czech Republic), Oulu (Finland), Regensburg (Germany)
• Ukrainian artists through our collaboration with the Lviv Artistic Council “Dialog”

 

GRANT CONDITIONS:

The Organizer (HDLU) will provide:

• Three-week accommodation for artists in residence (October 2025)
• Round-trip ticket expenses to and from Zagreb up to a maximum of 400 EUR
• Artistic fee in the amount of 1,200 EUR/gross
• Daily allowance of 30 EUR/day
• Production cost of new artwork(s) in the amount of 5,000 EUR/gross, resulting from the joint action and collaboration between artists.
• Report: Upon return from the residency, artists are required to submit a brief narrative report containing evidence of newly created works (in English), and boarding passes if traveling by plane.
• Contract: Before going to the residency, the artist will sign a contract with HDLU, committing to participating in CreArt promotional activities until the project ends in 2026, in agreement with HDLU.

 

Only complete and timely applications will be considered.

Selection Committee: Nika Šimičić, Mihaela Zajec, and Petar Vranjković

The Committee is not obliged to justify the selection decision.

HOW TO APPLY:

Send an email to: karas.hdlu@gmail.com with the subject: KARAS+KVART, including the following documentation:

• ID card or passport (scanned)
• Motivational letter (max 500 words) and a brief written project proposal (one A4 page)
• Curriculum vitae in English
• Portfolio of works and artistic activity (in PDF, max 7 MB; for video works – include links to online publications in the PDF)
• Artists need to register on the CreArt website and upload their portfolio: LINK

DEADLINES:

Applications accepted until: April 13, 2025

Announcement of results: no later than May 16, 2025

Contract signing with HDLU: two weeks before departure

Submission of report: 1 week after the end of the residency

 

QUESTIONS:

The contact person for all questions is Mihaela Zajec, karas.hdlu@gmail.com. Questions will be accepted only via email.

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