Open Call: Communities of Choice

Deadline extended: 15 August 2022, 11:59pm IST (6:29pm GMT)

CPB Foundation in collaboration with Ffotogallery Wales with the support of the British Council announces an open call for resident photographers and lens-based multimedia artists from India and Wales on the theme - 'Communities of Choice'.

‘Without community there is no liberation [...] but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretence that our differences do not exist.’

‘Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.’ - Audre Lorde

At this point in time, we are beginning to rethink our notions of community, collective responsibility and care. As dispiriting as current world events may seem, humanity has made tremendous progress towards tolerance, inclusion, and equality. Living in a period of dramatic social and political change, some of us feel more emboldened to confront a few existential questions - Do we belong to one community, or to many? Do we have the privilege to choose our communities or must we follow the choices made for us?

We extend an invitation to multidisciplinary artists working with lens based mediums, photography and film to further enquire into the notion of ‘Communities of Choice’.

This open call is for artists and collectives who use their art to create and develop bodies of work that express their views and opinions about belonging and inclusions. We welcome submissions on (but not limited to) the following themes:

• gender
• disability
• politics
• constructs of race/caste
• identity
• sustainable communities
• class

This opportunity is open to all and we particularly encourage applications from underrepresented communities.

Grant Details

• 5 applicants will be selected for the final exhibition.
• A token honorarium will be awarded to 5 selected projects (The honorarium will be per project and not per artist in case of collaborative projects and collectives).
• The selected artists will be exhibited in a physical exhibition in Chennai around January 2023 and will be a part of a digital showcase on CPB and Ffotogallery Platform.
• 3 additional shortlisted projects from the open call will be a part of a digital showcase on CPB and Ffotogallery platform.
• Production costs will be borne by the organisers.

How to submit

We are looking for artists who express themselves in multidisciplinary ways through lens-based art. Projects can have mediums including but not restricted to sound, video/moving images, text-based work, and illustrations as long as there is a lens-based component to the project.

The only requirement is that applicants must be a resident of either of the two countries or currently studying in either of the two countries or applicant is of non-Indian or non-Welsh origin and has concurrent resident permits of either of the two countries. Collectives and Collaborations are invited to apply.

Every application will be able to submit a maximum of 10 images from one project and up to 1 video or a multimedia project made up with photos and videos (illustrations, 3D art, or any combination of these disciplines).

Timeline

• Call for entries open - 1st June
• Submission deadline - 1st August 11:59pm IST (6:29pm GMT)
• Announcement of selected artists - 30 August
• Final works submission deadline - 30 September
• Exhibition - January 2023

Submission Guidelines

• The applications should be emailed to [email protected] with the subject line - CoC Application_Name_Surname
• All the required files need to be compressed into a zip file. The file should not exceed 25MB
• File Nomenclature - Application_Name_Surname(if any)_CoC2022

All applications need to be submitted in English or Welsh. The quality of the language will Not be a selection criterion.

Portfolio

The portfolio can include works with multiple file formats

• Still Images - Jpeg format - Minimum 10 numbers.
• File Nomenclature - Portfolio_Name_Surname(if any)_CoC2022_sequence number

• Video/Sound format - Please add the links to files into a separate PDF file.
• File Nomenclature - Portfolio_Name_Surname(if any)_CoC2022

• Text based work - PDF format
• File Nomenclature - Portfolio_Name_Surname(if any)_CoC2022

Project Proposal (approximately 500 words)

• File Nomenclature - Project proposal_Name_Surname(if any)_CoC2022

Brief Biography

• File Nomenclature - Bio_Name_Surname(if any)_CoC2022

The applicant must disclose in a separate PDF any exposure this project has received in the form of:

• Previous grants received
• Exhibitions in any public forum(virtual or physical)
• Publications on any platform including social media(digital or analog)
• File Nomenclature - Disclosure_Name_Surname(if any)_CoC2022

Information for the recipients of the Grant

• Exhibition/production costs, including printing, framing, installation, invigilation, and interpretation, will be determined and met by the organisers in discussion with the selected artists, subject to available resources.
• Selected artists will be required to share exhibition display plans along with the submission of final works in September 2022.
• In consultation with the artists, work created and submitted will be used for promoting the grant via social media, newsletters, video, and traditional media. Awarded artists will be expected to provide material from their project and remain available for interviews with the media and with CPB Foundation and Ffotogallery social platforms. The organisers' and granters' websites will also serve as a portal for collating the processes and outcomes of the entire project.
• Acquiring copyright permissions of all work that is a part of the project will be the responsibility of the artists.
• By applying to this Open Call, applicants implicitly agree to abide by the Open Call criteria and terms.