[spectre] Call for Application / Roma New Media Art in Central Europe

[Janos Sugar]

Call for Application
Roma New Media Art in Central Europe
- Exhibition in Menü Pont, Kunsthalle, Budapest, 2011. 04. 08-31. -

With the support of the International Visegrad 
Fund, in partnership with Khamoro Festival (Czech 
Republic) and Production Roma Civic Assosiation 
(Slovakia) the European Roma Cultural Foundation 
(ERCF) is pleased to announce an Open Call for 
Applications to visual artists and art 
professionals of Roma origin from Hungary, 
Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Visual artists, 
art professionals (also students), filmmakers, 
media professionals, internet and computer 
experts, creative individuals are invited to 
apply with media art and new media artworks 
(detailed below).
The European Roma Cultural Foundation (ERCF), as 
an operational and fundraising body, exists to 
strengthen and widely promote the role of Roma 
arts and culture in the enlarging Europe (and 
beyond) as a way to fight against negative 
stereotypes and hostile attitudes towards Roma 
communities.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition 'Roma New Media Art in Central 
Europe' is the first event of a series organized 
by ERCF to present contemporary Roma artists to a 
wide audience in official art spaces. In the past 
few years, partly due to the saturating effect of 
the Call for Applications for the second Roma 
Pavilion seeking new media works and partly 
thanks to the increasing number of Roma artists 
receiving official fine art education, the 
attention of Roma artists more intensely turned 
towards media art and new media. We are calling 
for these artists to be presented in an 
exhibition simultaneously, to offer a new 
perspective for people interested in contemporary 
Roma art. Roma art, because of structural, 
institutional and infrastructural reasons was not 
prone to diverse representation for a long time 
and was forced to show itself in a monolithic 
fashion, the way the majority regards "gypsy 
art". The works of young Roma artists show that 
Roma culture and Roma identity are just as varied 
and polarised as majority cultures, and every 
meaning is contextual and is in direct contact 
with contemporary identity politics. New media 
appears to be an effective alternative in Roma 
art in the lack of physical apparatuses 
(representational space, location, bulding and 
objects) . The diversity of Roma communities and 
artistic teams seem to perfectly align with the 
requirements of this new genre.
The exhibition will present examples from Central 
Europe - Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic 
- showing that Roma art and culture is using 
developing technologies to explore cultural, 
political and aesthetic possibilities. It raises 
the questions if past political and artistic 
actions, performances, non-profit and virtual 
activities (that often ease the lack of a 
tangible apparatus) can be interpreted in a 
contemporary artistic context. It aims to exhibit 
phenomena such as the rearrangement of computer 
parts gathered from searching through junk 
(hardware art), the conscious media and public 
appearances of Roma artists or interactive 
community projects.


ACCEPTABLE WORKS
Animation, comic strips, digital art, 
installation, internet art, live-art, 
performance, photograph, projection, sound art, 
video and other new media projects.
Video, film and sound works should not extend the 
maximum of 10 minutes duration.

EVALUATION
Applications will be evaluated by the Jury 
delegated by ERCF, Khamoro and the Roma 
Production Association, with the assistance of 
Fictionlab, Budapest (www.fictionlab.hu)  .
The chosen artists will be exhibited at the Menü 
Pont, the project gallery of Kunsthalle Budapest 
from the 9th of April until the 30st. The 
exhibition will open on the International Roma 
Day, the 8th of April, 2011. Exhibited artists 
will receive a honorarium. Gypsytv 
(www.gypsytv.eu) of the Visegrad countries will 
shoot and screen a film about the artists and the 
exhibition. A professional discussion will take 
place during the Khamoro Festival 
(www.khamoro.cz) in Prague between 18-23. May.

APPLICATION
All applicants are required to send their 
application not later than 10. March 2011. to the 
following e-mail adress:
speli at romacult.org
Sarolta Péli, curator
European Roma Cultural Foundation

Applications must contain the following information:
-Contact details (e-mail, phone/mobilephone)
-Biography of the artist (maximum 3000 characters)
-Description of the artwork
-Images (maximum 4) of the artwork or in case of 
a video or other moving picture stills of the film
-Useful information: For example link to the 
applicant artist's website or preveous works 
(optional but encouraged)
There is no application form, please apply with a 
single email not larger than 3 MB, including all 
the attachments.

FURTHER INFORMATION
European Roma Cultural Foundation
Sarolta Péli, curator
speli at romacult.org
+36-70-431-8106