ACROSS BORDERS: BODY & SELF
Counterpoints Arts London and coculture Berlin are co-curating a five-day showcase of work (at coculture in Böttgerstraße 16, 13357 Berlin) inspired by and continuing on Mojisola Adebayo’s ‘Leaves from Family Tree’ performed this summer at ZK/U Berlin.
The work explores environmental justice and migration via the incredible story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American tobacco farmer descended from enslaved people.
Henrietta had her body cells taken without her knowledge for medical research and seventy years later, even after her death, they are still multiplying and continue to be used in laboratories all over the world, without her permission. Millions of us benefit from it today, even though most of us have never heard about her name. By talking about her story today, we place her body and her(self) on the map of contemporary Berlin.
We are inviting artists to submit existing work to be presented at coculture 1-5 September 2021 that explores “Body & Self” in the context of migration and displacement. We are open to broad interpretations of these themes, for example in relation to identity, memory and connections to other elements of Mojisola’s work such as environmental justice and mapping.
The work can be performance, film or video, installation, publication, sound or 2D.
We are particularly interested in early-career artists who might benefit from reaching new and wider audiences.
A budget of 500 Euros will be provided for each artist to cover the costs of presenting work. We will also provide marketing, photo and video documentation.
Timeline:
Deadline for submissions is 5pm on 13 August.
You need to be available for installing the work on Wednesday 31 August.
Presentation of work: 1-5 September.
Take-down: Monday 6 September.
There will be a symposium on 4 September with lunch and networking session with the artists.
To be considered for this opportunity, please email us:
– Your contact details: email address & telephone number.
– A project proposal: what you would like to present, with images and/or the link to the work (up to 300 words).
– Your artist biography (up to 300 words) with a link to your website if you have one.
– Send the above to hello@counterpoints.org.uk by midnight 13 August the latest.
Decisions will be communicated to artists on 16 August.
To find out more about Mojisola Adebayo’s commission and to reserve a free ticket for a performance in August go to: https://counterpoints.org.uk/event/leaves-from-family-tree-by-mojisola-adebayo/
This work is part of the three-year programme Across Borders by Counterpoints Arts in the UK, Germany and Greece, in collaboration with local partners, developing arts and pop culture projects that help normalise and diversify representations of migrants and people seeking refuge.
Counterpoints Arts works in the UK and internationally on the arts, migration and cultural change.
coculture is a Berlin-based non-profit organisation founded by artist and cultural activist Khaled Barakeh in 2017, created as a response to the challenges faced by displaced cultural producers in the Middle East, Europe and beyond.
Image: Mojisola Adebayo by Paul Woodward
