OPEN CALL
24.12.19 — 10.04.20
Creative agency Ōagency and BOOKSHA publishing announce an open call for artists who work with media of photography
The topics of the open call are immigration in Ukraine, internal migration and the life of Ukrainian emigrants abroad. Artists, whose photo series will be selected by the commission, are invited to participate in the book and exhibitions projects.
Collecting photographic works, that will demonstrate the aspects of displacement of people, due to political, economic or social causes to the international and Ukrainian communities, is the purpose of Ōagency and BOOKSHA publishing team. Even though the migration process is inherent to human nature, at the same time, it could be forced, traumatic, have different backgrounds and consequences, and be caused by a variety of socio-political factors.
Migration processes in the modern world are most often being associated with globalization — the symbolic vanishing of borders, the possibility of free trade, the free movement of social, material and labor capital. Although migration is a reaffirmation of human freedom, its ability to move freely, the phenomenon of migration is interdisciplinary — one that goes beyond economic or sociological data, since any migration processes are based on personal stories of people, whose worldview, life, physical and mental health were influenced by the very fact of their migration.
First flow: internal migration associated with two factors.
The first factor is the centralization of Ukraine — despite the official policy of the state on decentralization and development of business in small cities, most of the population from the regions is moving either to the capital or to regional centers.
The second factor of internal migration is forced internal migration, which is related to military and political factors. This type of migration is not traditional for Ukraine, and also has a different type of motivation for changing the permanent residence (high level of political instability, social vulnerability, threat to life, etc.).
Second flow: emigration.
This type is primarily related to labor migration, which is caused by the economic instability in the country. It is impossible to tell the exact number of Ukrainians who went to work abroad — some of them work illegally, which indicates not only the need for quick employment, but also the demand for cheap labor.
Political instability, social vulnerability and threat to life are universal reasons for migration, and therefore are also characteristic to the emigration abroad.
Third flow: immigration
Immigration is also driven by economic, political, social factors. Representatives of this type of flow are students, migrant workers and other less protected strata of population of other countries.
Terms and Conditions:
- Applicants can submit unlimited number of projects;
- The competition provides the possibility of using different aesthetic approaches in project creation;
- Participants are not limited by age, race, nationality and area of residence;
- In a project selection the commission will favour newly created works, but also will closely consider completed series.
Selection Panel:
- Viktoria Bavykina — curator, critic, art researcher
- Misha Buksha — artist, curator, publisher
- Igor Chekachkov — artist, lecturer, researcher of photography
- Max Gorbatskyi — artist, curator, researcher of photography
- Kateryna Iakovlenko — critic, art researcher
- Yaroslav Solop — artist, curator, researcher of photography
- Olga Tykhonova — art researcher
How to Participate:
- Create a PDF presentation that includes: short biography, list of solo and group exhibitions, descriptions and images of the project proposals (file size should not exceed 10 MB);
- Name the PDF in the format: Migration_Name_Surname;
- Click the "Submit Projects" button;
- Fill out the Google Form and download the PDF file.
Application deadline: 10.04.2020
Announcement of results: 11.05.2020
Project's Team:
Amina Ahmed — editor, art researcher
Viktoria Bavykina — curator, critic, art researcher
Misha Buksha — artist, curator, publisher
Max Gorbatskyi — artist, curator, researcher of photography
Yaroslav Solop — artist, curator, researcher of photography
About Our Projects:
Book project UPHA Made in Ukraine
Exhibition project UPHA Made in Ukraine
Exhibition project UPHA In da Office
Additional questions: o.agency.info@gmail.com