The OSI Arts and Culture Network Program invites project proposals for the 2nd Roma Pavilion to be organized within the framework of the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011.

Second Roma/Gypsy Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale 2011:

Call for Proposals

The Arts and Culture Network Program of the Open Society Institute (OSI) invites project proposals for the Second Roma/Gypsy Pavilion to be realized within the framework of the 54th International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale 2011.

Building upon the successful and challenging exhibition and auxiliary projects of the First Roma Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale curated by Timea Junghaus and entitled “Paradise Lost,” and in recognition of the dynamic grassroots activities representing Roma/Gypsy art within the framework
of the 2009 Venice Biennale currently on view, OSI offers a platform through which this energy and
contemporary Roma/Gypsy artistic practices can be carried on and further developed within the international context of the next Venice Biennale (2011).

OSI envisions the Second Roma/Gypsy Pavilion as a critical and polemical undertaking that explores the vibrant potential of contemporary Roma/Gypsy art to contribute significantly to the artistic, cultural, intellectual, and political imaginaries of the contemporary world. Issues that to a great extent define our contemporaneity such as the relationship of the nation and the national, mobility and migration, and majority and minority groups, as well as possible responses to the demands of globalization such as a new forms of solidarity and the notion of imagined communities, are intrinsic to the work of contemporary Roma/Gypsy artists through their cultures and lived experience, past and present, just as they are to the work of other artists on the margins of our current artistic and political condition. The Second Roma/Gypsy Pavilion offers the possibility of engaging artistically with the world in the framework of these issues, but also, and perhaps more importantly, moving further towards imagining it otherwise. As such, it is clear that the notion of “Roma art” or “Gypsy art” needs to be approached critically to ensure a balance between artistic visions and the pragmatics of political emancipation. Both represent crucial challenges with which the project must engage.

Project Proposals and Procedure:

Deadline for submissions: September 14, 2009

Project proposals must include a curatorial vision for the project (max. 1 page), brief outline of the organizational framework, timetable for project development and realization, brief description of the financial plan, and curriculum vitae and/or profile of the collective or art institution making the proposal. Curators and/or project organizers (preferably connected to an (art) organization or institution with the production capacity to adopt and realize the project), curatorial collectives, and/or art institutions are eligible to apply. Applications should be submitted via e-mail to acnp@osi.hu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it no later than September 14, 2009.

The Arts and Culture Sub-Board of OSI, together with a panel of international experts will select a maximum of five proposals to be further elaborated in detail. Applicants will be notified at the latest
by September 25, 2009. Selected finalists will have three weeks to develop their proposals further.

The deadline for submitting second-round detailed project proposals is October 15, 2009. The final
decision will be announced by October 30, 2009.

For more information please contact: Andrea Csanadi, Senior Program Manager, Arts and Culture Network Program, OSI-Budapest, at acsanadi@osi.hu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

More information can be found HERE.