CONCEPTPLUS CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Happiness / Sadness // Digimovies // About ConceptPlus

HAPPINESS / SADNESS

EXTENDED! Now due February 26, 2010

Happiness / Sadness will open in Exit Art's main gallery in Spring / Summer 2010.

ABOUT


This exhibition is an exploration of the dynamic of opposites. For Exit Art, the study of paradoxes is a vital purpose of culture. We are looking for works in any media that express, metaphorically or concretely, the notions of happiness and sadness. Artworks can explore one or both issues. Identifying happiness helps to understand sadness; one cannot exist without the other.

For thousands of years, philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians and cultural critics such as Aristotle, Confucius, Locke, Camus, and the Dalai Lama have tried to understand, define or attain the elusive and desirable state of “happiness.” Is happiness a state of mind, an emotion, or neurologically coded? Are there true external sources of happiness, as pop-culture and mass marketing seem to suggest? Can happiness be produced through the use of modern pharmaceuticals?

There has been a recent surge of media attention on the topic of happiness. For instance, the country of Bhutan has declared happiness as its index of growth. Instead of a Gross Domestic Product, Bhutan has a Gross National Happiness Index, which is measured by the “four pillars of a happy society": the economy, culture, the environment and good governance. The most popular course at Harvard University in Spring 2006, taught by Tal Ben-Shahar and attended by over 800 students, was on the topic of happiness. The Dalai Lama has said that happiness is the ultimate enlightenment, the state of being that we all strive for and that lies within our grasp. Even the Declaration of Independence names happiness as one of our unalienable rights in stating life, liberty and "the pursuit of happiness."

Amidst stories of recession, war, and personal and political struggle, we want to offer artists a chance to think about and express the notions of happiness / sadness. Responses can be as varied as a presentation of one's own sources of happiness and sadness; aesthetic or formal interpretations of the subject, whether critical or affirmative; a cross-cultural study on happiness and sadness; or a geographic, anthropologic, or scientific investigation of the concept.

We want to know what aesthetically and artistically these two concepts mean to the creative mind.

HOW TO APPLY


Please submit the following:

-- a description of the project, no more than one page

-- a brief resume

AND

-- up to 10 JPGs of the proposed project on CD or on the web (please send images at a low resolution to open quickly); up to 5 JPGs of previous work; and an image list with descriptions

OR

-- a 3-5 minute NTSC DVD or Quicktime file on the web (if the DVD is longer than five minutes, be sure to indicate which part the panel should view)

Submissions will not be returned.

Please send submissions to:

Exit Art


c/o Happiness/Sadness


475 Tenth Avenue


New York, NY 10018

Or email your submission to Assistant Curator Lauren Rosati at lauren@exitart.org. Please put “Happiness/Sadness” in the subject heading.

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE.

DIGIMOVIES

Deadline: Ongoing

Presenting a new forum for the distribution and presentation of digital movies, Exit Art is seeking submissions of “digimovies” (digitally-produced movies in video format) in any genre – such as feature-length movies, shorts, documentaries, fiction, non-fiction, animated, etc. – for screening in Exit Underground, a new multi-media event space below Exit Art’s main gallery.

Exit Art recognizes the need for a forum to screen independently-produced digital movies. Planned to officially launch in Spring 2010, Exit Underground’s digital theater will contain a 5000 lumens HD projector as well as state-of-the-art audio and cinema equipment. As an ongoing site for bi-weekly screenings, directors’ discussions and premieres, we intend to create a new destination for digital cinema in Manhattan and to provide a public venue for digital moviemakers to screen their works and interact with their audiences.

Digimovies are movies produced in digital format.

To apply, please submit:

1.    One full-length copy of the video on an NTSC DVD
2.    One 3-5 minute ‘trailer’ for the video, or a 3-5 minute excerpt on an NTSC DVD*
3.    A one-page document describing the submitted video and listing past work and past screenings. The heading of this document should also contain your name, address, email address, title of the video, and the ‘type’ of work submitted (i.e., “SHORT”, “DOCUMENTARY”, etc.)

*The full video and trailer may be on the same DVD, as long as the DVD is properly menued.

You may submit up to 5 (five) videos at once.

Please include a SASE if your work is not selected and you would like your DVD(s) returned. Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis; we will notify you when we view your work and make a selection decision. Selected works will be included in Exit Underground’s cinema library, a permanent archive of “digimovies” accessible for viewing to the public by appointment only. All digital video screenings, festivals and other events will be culled from this library. The advisory committee for the Exit Underground digital theater includes Larry Kardish, Senior Curator for Film and Media at the Museum of Modern Art; Adam Richman, Producer with Double Nickel Entertainment; and Producer and Curator Kathy Brew.

Submissions should be mailed to:

EXIT ART
c/o Digimovies
475 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY 10018

No phone calls, please.

ConceptPlus

Exit Art currently works with a curatorial model called ConceptPlus, which begins with a theme or concept that is then publicized through a call for proposals.

For each ConceptPlus idea, the curators first chose a group of artists that form the base of the exhibition. Then Exit Art issues an international call for artists to propose new or newly-contextualized work in response to a given theme or cultural condition. The exhibition is then curated by Exit Art’s curatorial staff, who view all the proposals for new work and work samples submitted by artists and select projects to be presented and/or commissioned for the exhibition. Every artist who submits a proposal has equal access to the curators, regardless of their previous experience, making ConceptPlus a highly democratic curatorial model. Recent ConceptPlus exhibitions at Exit Art have addressed ideas ranging from the reconstruction of global cities (Exit Biennial: Reconstruction, 2003) to the image of America's highest office (The Presidency, 2004), to contemporary Latino icons (L-Factor, 2005) to neuroscience innovations (BrainWave: Common Senses, 2008). A fundamental precept of the ConceptPlus model is to remove barriers to cultural participation by creating exhibition opportunities limited only by the artistic idea itself. As we have implemented this model over the past five years, Exit Art has seen a dramatic rise in both the number and geographic diversity of artists submitting proposals in response to our open calls. ConceptPlus also enables us to directly support the production of new work, as an increasing proportion of artists propose new projects that are commissioned exclusively for Exit Art exhibitions.

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