Application deadline: February 28, 2021
Who can apply: professional artists based in Västra Götaland
Exhibition period: September 3–October 17, 2021

Prior to the 2021 edition of its regional project GIBCA Extended, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) has invited the Malmö-based curators Simona Dumitriu and Tawanda Appiah to curate a group-exhibition showcasing artists active in Västra Götaland. The exhibition is to take place at 3:e Våningen, contemporary art, dance and performance space in Gothenburg, in autumn of 2021. GIBCA is now launching the Open Call for the artist selection.

The exhibition aims to showcase contemporary art, artists and actors in Västra Götaland (West Sweden), and to encourage the meeting between contemporary artists active in our region and the biennial’s national and international audience.

The exhibition idea was tested as a pilot project during in 2017, and then developed into a larger format in 2019 with the exhibition Crossworlds at 3:e Våningen, curated by Oscar Ramos and Olof Persson. The collaboration with 3:e Våningen continues in 2021, when the GIBCA Extended Exhibition is organised in partnership by the biennial and the artist-driven space. With a duration of six weeks, the exhibition will feature ten artists based in the region, selected as result of this open call, and will be curated by Simona Dumitriu and Tawanda Appiah.

Curatorial focus

GIBCA Extended, through its appointed curators, Malmö-based Simona Dumitriu and Tawanda Appiah, invites practitioners who work with art in the Västra Götaland region to react to the following questions that the curators believe resonate in many local practices and/or lived experiences:

“What are some of the deepest histories seeded in personal or public archives and records, in Västra Götaland’s ports, towns, villages and coastal areas? What are some of the borders that restrict today’s context in the region? What are the disruptions going on? How do art practitioners in the region take the power to make the discomfort or the pain visible, to project this discomfort into art and engagement, to interrogate the web of politeness? From isolation, exclusion, disconnection, dissociation, partitioning, what do you see as places of arrival?

Important information

  • Only artists based in Västra Götaland are eligible
  • Deadline for sending in your application February 28, 2021
  • The exhibition takes place between September 3–October 17, 2021
  • The exhibition is created based on the curators’ thematic framework
  • From the open-call responses ten artists are selected to participate in the exhibition
  • To selected artists GIBCA Extended pays an exhibition fee of 3,600 kr (excl. 6% VAT)
  • GIBCA offers support during the exhibition’s installation process

Selection

The selection is made by the curators Simona Dumitriu and Tawanda Appiah in dialogue with an advisory group of art professionals active in Västra Götaland. The selection process takes place in March and the applications will be responded to on April 1, 2021.

Application

  • Application open to February 28, 2021 at the following link
  • Apply with a CV, sketch proposal or documentation material of existing works and a short artist statement (max. 2,500 characters)
  • We accept applications in Swedish or English