OPEN CALL FOR YOUNG ARTISTS SEEKING THEIR ROOTS

 Cyprus Mail 6 November 2020 - by Eleni Philippou

What makes up someone’s identity? Is it genetics? Is it their family background, their social environment, their birthplace? Perhaps it’s a mixture of all of them, perhaps it’s none of them. It may even be an entirely personal choice. These questions are what a new artistic project by NiMAC is focusing on, inviting artists under 30 to explore the concept of identity formation in an exhibition called Seeking Roots.

The project hopes to explore the connection between cultural roots and identity through art. “Some [artists] may find elements in the island’s past that seem crucial to their understanding of the current Cypriot identity. Some, on the other hand, may reject tradition altogether as a necessary element of identity formation, thus ‘roots’ need to be uprooted, and reinvented. Whatever the case, artists are asked to use symbols, materials, techniques and other signs that allude to tradition, in order to make their investigation on the topic,” a NiMAC representative said.

With the open call, participants are invited to question traditional concepts that extend the analogies of history to the present, signifying these partially or even elliptically, relieving them of redundant loads of meanings, thus leaving room for new identity interpretations. The exhibition is open to artists from all fields of visual art. The only limitation is for the artists to be 30 or under as the exhibition is organised “to promote young, upcoming artists that didn’t have as yet the chance and the time to show their work, especially because of the difficult decade during which they started creating.”

Cypriot artists that live abroad also have the opportunity to participate as long as they reach the deadline for proposals on November 10. Then, the selected artists will have until November 30 to hand in their projects. There is no fixed number on how many artists will be featured. The curatorial team will select works, taking into account their relevance to the topic and their overall quality, as well as the space capacity at City Plaza where the exhibition will take place between December 7 and 31, part of the Nicosia Pop Up Festival 2020.

“Artists should feel free to approach the topic in any way they wish,” NiMAC said. “We do not want to suggest that going back to one’s roots is the answer to the struggle of identity formation, but we’d rather provide artists with the freedom to reflect on the subject in their own way. It’s also important to note that the concept of ‘tradition’ should not be viewed in a monolithic, but in a broader sense, with artists exploring notions that may well transcend the border of the popular or national discourses, and reveal their personal understandings of the concept.

“What we hope for is that the artists will manage to combine old and new media and approaches in ways that will result in novel works and interesting visual and conceptual considerations or reconsiderations on the topic of roots and identity.”

 

Seeking Roots

Open call for artists 30 years old and under. Submission deadline November 10. All proposals must be submitted to the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre at info@nimac.org.cy Tel: 22-797400