Selected artists: open call for artworks
Associação Cultural Videobrasil and Sesc São Paulo announced the list of artists participating in the 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil | Southern Panoramas selected through the call for artworks. In all, 53 artists and groups from 22 countries have been selected by the Curatorial Curatorial Committee to be featured in the exhibitions set to take place at Sesc Pompeia, from October 6 to December 6, 2015. The committee in charge of the selection comprises the curators Bernardo de Souza (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil/lives and works in Rio de Janeiro), Bitu Cassundé (Ceará, Brazil/lives and works in Fortaleza), João Laia (Lisbon, Portugal/lives and works in London) and Júlia Rebouças (Sergipe, Brazil/lives and works in Belo Horizonte) working under the guidance of the Festival’s general curator Solange Farkas. [Read the Curatorial Committee's statement on the 19th Festival's selection]
This year, the Festival is taking its proposal to the extreme by making Southern Panoramas the core of its entire program, instead of simply its competitive show. The South and its myriad issues – related to diasporas, hybrid identities, migration flows and travels, first-person accounts, memories, isolation, social fabric and insularity – have inspired and guided the Curatorial Committee in selecting artworks and projects, as well as underpinned the curatorial axes of all of the Festival’s exhibitions, public programs, and publications.
The selection work has been an invaluable opportunity to confront art production from the global South, whose outlines change constantly as a result of deep socioeconomic and cultural transformations. Despite the significant geopolitical changes that constantly rearrange the notions of North and South, the need remains to work for an art and culture scene in areas that must invent new forms of circulation and visibility.
In addition to the exhibits by the artists selected via the two calls opened this year (artworks and art projects), the 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil | Southern Panoramas will feature two other exhibitions in venues throughout the city: one featuring works by guest artists and a parallel show conceived from the Videobrasil Collection, in the light of the reality of this edition, to indirectly expand upon the reflections featured in the Festival artworks. Just like in previous years, the 19th Festival will feature a lengthy program of meetings with curators, artists and researchers, book launches and educational actions.
Different concepts, supports and generations underscore the diversity of the selection
The Curatorial Committee has spotted commonalities between the selected artworks. A few issues appear recurrently, such as a predominant political axis. Other works explore the social fabric, touching on issues such as geographic displacement, diaspora, traffic and belonging. Other productions tackle the fictional gesture and even hint at science fiction. Yet another key feature of certain pieces is the discrepancy in scale between the human and the non-human, at times giving rise to a near-mystical relationship in the face of nature or of large power systems.
Open to all art languages and supports since its 17th edition (2011), the Festival remains watchful of the multiplicity of contemporary expressions, prioritizing the conceptual and aesthetical quality of the artworks. In addition to a large number of videos and video installations, the 19th Festival will feature photographs, prints, sound art pieces, sculptures, mixed-technique installations and performances.
The fact that established artists are being featured alongside up-and-coming is one of this edition’s highlights –– the shortlist age bracket ranges from 25 to 77. The addition of new names attests to the Festival’s ongoing dedication to experimentation and to mapping out contemporary art production: out of the 57 artists in the shortlist (53 for artworks and four for projects), 39 artists are being featured in the Festival for the first time. Check also the list of artists selected with Art Projects.
See the list of artists selected through the ART WORKS CALL FOR ENTRIES for the 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil | Southern Panoramas
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