Open Call for Projects, Papers and Presentations 2017

The 16th edition of ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival will take place between 18th and 24th September 2017. The festival will partner with a number of local partners to produce a programme of projects that respond to the theme of water. We invite proposals from artists working in any medium,

however please be aware that ANTI is a site-specific festival – we do not show projects in traditional cultural spaces and houses thus your proposed project will need to have an integral relationship with the place in which it is presented. When proposing a project please make it clear where your project would, ideally, be located, and why; only proposals that clearly articulate these factors will be considered for inclusion in the 2017 programme.

Kuopio, located in Northern Savonia, is surrounded by ‘lake country’ and stands on the shore of Lake Kallavesi. The region, and indeed Finland, with its abundance of lakes enjoys a much celebrated and much embodied relationship to natural sources of water. In response to this, and to other, perhaps more complicated contexts, we invite proposals that engage with one or more of the following areas:

Water and travel, exploration and leisure
Water and migration, immigration and displacement
Water and the non-human
Water and trade, industry and market forces
Irrigation and signs of life
Water and the human body
Everyday water; the city, the home; grey-water
Seas, lakes and rivers; water and landscape
Water and catastrophe

We also invite proposals of talks, presentations or papers on preexisting projects that connect with the above themes – these may be included in the festival’s seminar or other moments of sharing and discussion. Use the ‘Project description & artist statement’ section of the online form to enter details of your submission, clearly stating the mode of presentation: artist’s talk, academic paper, performance lecture etc.

All proposals must be sent using this electronic form
and written in English. The proposal deadline is 22.1.2017 (see current local time in Finland).

The form allows a link to be made to online documentation of previous work and for applicants to attach a CV and a maximum of three supporting images. Proposals that do not strictly conform to these guidelines will not be considered.

We advice the applicants to get familiar with the artistic direction of ANTI Festival by reviewing our past projects on, for example, our Vimeo page!

Further information: elisa@antifestival.com / Festival Manager Elisa Itkonen

ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival

Participation, dialogue and exchange:
ANTI works with innovative artists on projects that explore and explode urban space.

ANTI began life in 2002. Since then we’ve produced 15 editions of ANTI – Contemporary Art Festival and have established a year-round programme of artist residencies and cultural projects and events. Held annually in Kuopio, Finland, the city hosts the festival, projects by artists from around the world inhabit the spaces of public life – homes, shops, city squares, business, forests, lakes – and directly engage communities and audiences in the making and showing of their work. The festival is free to attend.

We’ve presented and commissioned some of the world’s most exciting artists from USA, Australia, Mexico, Japan and Europe along with leading artists from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. We’re proud to support an ever-growing generation of emerging artists, often presenting artists internationally for the first time.