Deadline for the receipt of work is the 18th October 2009


SUBMISSIONS ARE INVITED TO EITHER ONE OR BOTH OF THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:

1.
Short artists’ videos, animation and / or performance-based, both historical (i.e., post ‘89) and contemporary. Selected entries will be screened on location in Berlin. A shorter edition will also be screened at a central London cinema location after the Berlin event. It is possible that other UK venues will also be realised.

2.
Still images for the Berlin edition of the Field of Vision artwork. FoV is a serial artwork in which artists submit electronic images to a database that is then curated into thematic relationships with specific sites and audiences. As such the artwork exists both on the Internet and also appears as a physical gallery installation at sites around the world, with New York, Frankfurt and Beijing to date.



THEME

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was famously epitomised by Francis Fukuyama as marking the “end of history” for the way that it brought to a close the struggle between Soviet-style East European communism and Western market-led liberalism, with the latter succeeding the former. Fukuyama’s claim was, of course, outrageously exaggerated in that the very event precipitating its use also ushered to the fore another, arguably larger, historical narrative; Globalisation. Since 1989, this ‘new’ world history in the making, born substantially of an alliance between Western neo-liberal and Chinese socialist-market ideologies, has produced twenty years of rapacious economic development, and overseen China’s emergence as the ‘workshop of the world’ and a global economic power.

However, in the wake of the current global financial crisis, artbetween and CACN voice the crucial question now facing the world - whether a recast alliance between East and West is capable of bringing to fruition a new and responsibly sustainable era of development, or whether we are fated to see the old East-West binaries buried along the dismantled fault lines of the Berlin Wall de-interred and brought to life around a negative dialectic vision of Sinic and Western cultures, as outlined (for example) by Samuel Huntington in his ‘Clash of Civilisations’ thesis.

artbetween and CACN view Huntington’s thesis as an interpretation that needs to be challenged through performative actions on many fronts that might help engender the new responsible associations between China and the West that are sought for. “Break on Through to the Other Side…” represents a first contribution to this wider project by marking the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall through inviting artists from around the world to submit art works that address, challenge or reference the concept of movement between, through, and / or the overcoming of, boundaries and walls. In this context ‘boundaries’ and ‘walls’ will, of course, be open to the broadest possible interpretations as tangible and / or intangible entities, i.e., physical, mental, and / or spiritual; human / animal, animate / inanimate, etc..

Malcolm Ferris, CACN



SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

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To submit moving image works to the screening events: please post your DVD to:

(Please refer to Chinese Version)

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To submit still images to the Field of Vision: please email your image(s) direct to:

info@artbetween.org

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In both cases you should attach a CV and, if you wish, a short statement relating to your work in English.

The final deadline for receipt of work is the 18th October 2009.

Submission of work implies full agreement to participate in the events developed by the organisers according to the exigencies demanded by local conditions. Copyright of course remains the property of the artist and all selected artists will be credited at showings.

artbetween and the China Art Criticism Network (CACN) are both not-for-profit ventures and no fees will be paid, although it is expected that the events will generate considerable publicity that all participants will benefit from. Finally, owing to administrative and postal costs the organisers will not be able to return submitted discs.



PROJECT DIRECTOR / CURATOR:

Stephan Hausmeister, artbetween (UK)



THEORY & CONTEXT / CURATOR:

Malcolm Ferris, CACN (UK)



DEVELOPMENT & FUNDING:

Alison Dalwood, artbetween (UK)



TRANSLATION:

Guo Sheng, Oxon Translation Service (UK)



SUPPORTED BY:

Plymouth College of Art (UK)
Greenwood Global Media, New York (USA)
University of Hertfordshire (UK)



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