OPEN CALL > ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Castelfranco Veneto, Italy, 12-19 October 2018

OMNELAB 5×7 > BEAUTY
5 ARTISTS x 7 DAYS

This initiative is promoted and financed by the Environmental and Productive Activities Committee, the Territorial Development Committee of the Municipality of Castelfranco Veneto, and the Department of Public Health, ULSS2, Marca Trevigiana.

 

1. WHAT IS OMNE? THE NORTHEAST MOBILE OBSERVATORY

OMNE (Osservatorio Mobile Nord Est, or the Northeast Mobile Observatory) is a platform designed to enable us to look at our surrounding landscape in greater depth. It is mobile because the project originated from the idea to search for an exploratory path across a given piece of land and thus discover possible relationships between space, landscape and the physical experience of the inhabitants.

This exploratory journey is represented by the primary idea of architecture, “the first anthropic sign capable of inserting an artificial order into environments of natural chaos.” (Careri, 2006)

OMNE is a platform, a container of different projects (artists residency, labs, photographic surveys, public walks, masterclasses, conferences, speeches, exhibitions, publications) aiming to sensitize participants to the environment through the practice of walking.

Consequently, walking is regarded as a fundamental means of discovering the surrounding land and of developing a relationship between the body and the landscape.

“I cannot meditate if I do not walk. When I stop, I cannot think, as though my thoughts are synchronized with my feet.” (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

 

1. OMNELAB > RESIDENCY LAB

OMNELAB RESIDENCY WORKSHOP sets itself the task of exploring a wide range of dynamics – environmental, urbanistic, architectural, social and cultural – in a specific area in North-Eastern Italy.

OMNELAB is the place where various artistic disciplines come and meet so they can share different ways of crossing the local area and of reading the urban and rural landscapes in order to help build a new perspective on the contemporary.

The activities of the artists in residence, who are invited to capture in images, sounds and words different characteristic aspects of the local area, will concentrate on the town of Castelfranco Veneto and its immediate surroundings.

Using photography, video or graphic design, each artist will create their own personal project based on their own specific area of research. Their work will be supported by meetings and discussions with instructors and experts in various fields who also are invited to take part and through their input make their own contributions.

The artist’s residency at the next OMNE event will also see the opening of OMNE FEST, the first public demonstration devoted to landscape and environmental observation through the practice of walking.

Its programme will include a public walk, a cycle of conferences, encounters and workshops, and a series of exhibitions featuring the pictures and other works created by the artists from Italy and other countries who attend the first residency.

 

1. THE THEME: BEAUTY

“Go back inside yourself and look: if you do not yet see yourself as beautiful [i.e., as participating in the Idea of Beauty], then do as the sculptor does with a statue he wants to make beautiful; he chisels away one part, and levels off another, makes one spot smooth and another clear, until he shows forth a beautiful face on the statue.” (Plotinus)

BEAUTY is the theme selected for the second artists’ residency.

Observation of places, of the original dimension of habitation, of the perception of everyday objects and gestures, such as going beyond the confines of the domestic microcosm, are constant factors in human life. Through the way they manifest themselves, they favour interaction between man and the landscape, be it natural, constructed or social, while different relationships emerge with the inhabited land and its intrinsic features. If the characterization of such relationships can help us clarify the nature of the phenomena that identify the community and the environment they come from, this also allows us to recognize relevant factors. Without distinction of place and without a solution enabling continuity, the contemporary landscape seems ever more to express the fragility of a complex system where beside elements of value, can be found indefinite, homogenous and incongruous manufactured spaces. With regard to the environmental and constructed context, the presence of a natural, architectural and cultural patrimony seems to flourish through its capacity to transmit, through various forms of expression, that sense of timelessness whose roots lie in the very meaning of beauty. But looking at the contemporary landscape can we still talk of beauty?

 

1. PARTICIPANTS

The lab, with its instructors and experts, is intended for artists (photographers, graphic designers, video-makers, etc).

The residency is free of charge. There are no nationality restrictions. Applications must be submitted using the procedures to be found in the download.

The jury will select 5 artists out of the applicants to attend the residency. Their decision will be based on the applicants’ portfolios, which are to be submitted as an attachment to the online form.

All participants must be aged eighteen or over at the starting date of the residency.

 

5. WHERE AND WHEN

The residency will take place in Castelfranco Veneto, where the artists selected will be invited to stay and work from 12 to 19 October 2018.

The selected artists will be sent a detailed version of the lab programme.

Residency, board and lodging costs will be provided by the organization. Participants will have to cover the cost of travelling to Castelfranco Veneto and of shipping their equipment, as applicable.

 

1. AIMS

Participants will be provided guidance related to their specific skills to help them complete a personal project to be singled out in the lab. The project may be a photographic sequence, a map design, a short film, a video involving sound, music, words, and so on.

The artists will be invited to walk in the town and the surrounding countryside and to express, through their work, the criticalities, potentials, and unexpected singularities of the places they investigate.

The fact of walking around and staying in certain key locations will lead to identifying thematic journeys, while collecting suggestive elements will inspire the creation of artistic maps, designed according to the participant’s specific artistic field (photography, graphic design, video etc).

 

7. APPLICATION GUIDELINES

Applicants must submit the application form, duly completed, together with the required attachments, for selection by the jury.

The application deadline is 16 September 2018.

The jury will select 5 participants, basing their choice on an assessment of the artistic statements submitted. The selected artists will notified by email by 20 September 2018.

1. Applicants must submit:

1. An application form, all sections to be completed, and signed in accordance with the application rules.

1. A resume/CV listing past exhibitions, related experiences, and so on (max. 2,000 characters).

1. Two recent artistic statements, together with a selection of images or videos, and a written description of these projects (max. 1,500 characters).

Technical details for attachments to be submitted:

CV and texts must be submitted in .docx or .pdf file format.

Images must be submitted in .jpeg format, 72dpi, maximum file size 1 Mb, with the following title: OMNELAB_SurnameName_01.jpg and numbered progressively.

Video files must be saved in .avi, .mp4 or .mov, with a maximum file size of 30 Mb.

Sending Applications

To participate in the selection process you must include all the documents listed at point A.

You will be asked to submit your application online in a single .zip or .rar file, by email to the following address:omne.ambiente@gmail.com.

Files larger then 10 Mb can be sent to the same address (omne.ambiente@gmail.com) by means of services such as JumboMail, Wetransfer, etc…

 

8. 2018 SCHEDULE

16 September:           Application deadline.

20 September:           Publication and email communication to artists selected.

12-19 October:           Proposed Residency, as in the programme.

The delivery date for the art works produced during the residency will be decided with the organization during the residency period. The curators will select works by the individual artists to be included in a special exhibition and published in a specific catalogue.

 

9. JURY

The following persons will make up the jury to assess the applications submitted in accordance with the methods and deadlines described above:

Gerry Badger, photographer, curator, architect, writer

Rita Cagnin, OMNE Committee, Prevention Department, ULSS2 Marca Trevigiana,

Maura Gallina, OMNE Committee, Environment Office, Municipality of Castelfranco Veneto

Leonardo Delogu, researcher, director, performance artist

Stefania Rössl, curator, professor of architectural and urban structure, University of Bologna

Massimo Sordi, photographer, curator, professor of photography, University of Bologna

Francesco Zanot, curator