We are accepting submissions for the 2019 edition of the Wrocław Drawing Triennial.
The motto of this year's edition is Weltschmerz. The deadline for submissions is 5 May 2019.
The aim of the contest is to present novel activities in drawing, allowing us to describe the current state of artistic explorations in the field. The Organizers are open to the broadly-understood "drawing thinking".
We also welcome proposals in the form of objects, installation, animation, interactive and ephemeral art, video and performance.
We live in a world of which we have learned to think that it is a world of unlimited possibilities. This world, shaped in the climate of relative peace and prosperity, during a fast pace of technological development and postmodernity, has for long been eaten by falsehood and is now falling apart. A contemporary man already knows that the world we have created is complicated and brutal in its laws, no matter whether we live in its more or less privileged areas. More and more people no longer trust the governments which they choose and lose faith in ideologies and religions. Although most people remain lawful citizens, predictable employees and, most importantly, good consumers, they suffer quietly and secretly.
An overflow of images, scrolling hundreds and hundreds of pages, getting addicted to visual gluttony are but a few reasons for getting satiated and tired with the world. Blindness, deafness and boredom with excess translate into an unwillingness to participate and a longing to be absent and uninvolved. Yet, if we are to focus on something else besides our own comfort, what else is there to do but oppose increasing despair and manifest one's disagreement with the status quo? What new forms of opening oneself and tackling and changing our reality are there? What should we do with increasing pain and helplessness? What can a contemporary child in the body of an adult do about it?
The motto of this year's edition of the Open Call Wrocław Drawing Triennial asks a question not only about the state of the contemporary world. The term Weltschmerz expresses the pain of existence, however, we understand weltschmerz as a broader concept and a departure point for more general considerations about crisis, which is also visible in the area of visual arts as the presence or absence of their deeper, ideological meaning in today's world. The motto of the competition triggers off explorations of issues regarding the relationship of an artist with himself/herself in the face of the pressure exerted by the surrounding world and his/her ties with society. Therefore, it also encourages artists to discuss the meaning of individuality in the world where everybody is an individual.
Who is the Open Call for?
We invite all artists, irrespective of their age and education, for whom drawing is an important means of expression. We would like to gather and present valuable and novel activities in the field of drawing, which will enable us to describe the current state of artistic explorations in the field. We are looking for artistic proposals which are varied in terms of formal means and which address the ideas suggested by the motto or approach it from a different, also critical, perspective. Entrants can submit works on paper made by means of classical drawing tools but also those created in different techniques, such as objects, animations, interactive and ephemeral works, video and performance, provided they represent the so-called "drawing thinking".
Basic information:
- deadline for submissions: 5 May 2019
- motto: Weltschmerz
- email address: opencall@trwro.pl
- venue: the artwork will be presented in the BWA Galleries of Contemporary Art at the Main Railway Station in Wrocław
- duration of the 2019 Wrocław Drawing Triennial: 14.06 – 22.09.2019
- prizes: Grand Prix 10 000 PLN
Both the entry rules and the entry form are available at trwro.pl/opencall
prepared by: as. Piotr Kmita
