Last call | Open call for an illustration The COVID Nostalgia

Organizer: Poznań Art Week / Rarytas Art Foundation
Patronage: Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts Poznan
This competition is co-funded by the Poznań City Hall

Organizing Committee:
Mateusz Bieczyński – Cuator of the project
Max Skorwider
Piotr Grzywacz

Pre-Selection Committee:
Mateusz Bieczyński – Head of the Jury, curator, art critic, lawyer, professor of UAP
Max Skorwider – graphic artist, illustrator, poster artist, professor of UAP
Wojciech Janicki – graphic artist, designer, professor of UAP
Agnieszka Mori – artist, curator, Consulate General of Poland in Hong Kong
Iwona Wierzba – director of Albus Publishing House
Cooperation: Piotr Grzywacz, Aniela Perszko

The COVID Nostalgia

Lockdown. Shutdown. Forced restrictions. Pause,
questions about the future. ‘Cos there must be a future…

Attention. Caution. Responsibility. Take good care of yourself.
Watch out for others. Stay home!

Internal emigration. State of weightlessness. Lethargy. Melancholy,
thinking, not-thinking, nostalgia, longing, annoyance. Choice?
Powerlessness, reading, watching, calling.
You have time. Finally. Curse! This is not how it was supposed to go.

Sound familiar? The COVID desert. It absorbs you. It draws you in. Fully..,
and completely. It is war without a war. An internal storm. A monologue. A clash,
with oneself. Saying “No” to the environment. You can’t go out.

Stay home. Locked up inside yourself. Examine your conscience.
Ask what’s important and what you can throw away.
Look out of the window. Are things around you changing at all?

The world has turned upside down and tripped over COVID. Seriousness,
And the sense of absurdity empties us, leaves us barren. We laugh through tears
And weep through laughter. Even spring seems to make us less… happy.

What is there left to be done? Well, you can always answer with an image.

The purpose of this open call is to illustrate emotions, feelings and other kinds of inner experiences related to the time of the coronavirus pandemic. Although this is an announcement of a competition, choosing the winner is not its main purpose. The prize is purely symbolic. Our main goal is to document in the form of artistic, authorial statements a certain spirit of the times, which, we hope, will soon change, giving way to the broadly defined normality. Quarantine, forced confinement and sanitary restrictions have become a cross-generational experience shared by everyone. They have also become the source of many emotional and affective reactions, often of high intensity. We can all feel their impact, although they have a different, individual dimension for every individual. This community of diversity is at the heart of the project. It will result in a publication – an album presenting the submitted works and the profiles of their creators – and an exhibition – as long as the sanitary regulations allow it. Each participant will receive an original copy of the album.

There will be one category for new, never-before-published works.
The qualification of illustrations for the exhibition (according to the possibilities related to the pandemic situation) and publication (the album) will be made by a Jury appointed by the Organisers, who will award the Main Prize and distinctions.
The Organisers reserve the right not to award prizes and distinctions and to distribute the funds differently, according to the jury’s verdict.

Category:
A — Ilustration (all techniques are eligible).
Participants present works on the theme of “The COVID Nostalgia” specified by the Organisers.
Each author can submit only 1 work.

The following prizes will be awarded in the course of the competition:

1. Main Prize (PLN 2 000 )
2. Honorable Mention (without financial reward)

Please note that the amount of the Main Prize is gross amount. After signing a declaration, the winner will receive a sum reduced by 10% of tax paid by the Organizers to the Polish Tax Office.

Stages of the competition:
First stage:
Participants submit their entries in digital form to the following email address:
opencall@uap.edu.pl

Each entry should contain the following information:
• author’s first name and surname, address, email address, phone number
• date of completion of work
Deadline for submitting entries – 15 October 2021
The list of artists qualified for the exhibition will be published between 25 and 30 October 2021.

Second stage:
The results will be announced on 19 November 2021.
The awarder participants will be notified via email.

Planned date of issuing the publication: March 2022.
Planned date of the exhibition: May 2022.

Additional provisions:
Organizers reserve the right not to award the Main Prize and to distribute the financial means allocated to the prize in a different way, in accordance with the decisions of the Jury.

The submitter declares that works included in the Entry Form are their individual work.
By submitting an entry, the author declares that its public presentation will not infringe copyright of any third party.

The submitter will be held accountable for any claims that may arise.

By submission, the participant grants permission to publish the entry in mass media and promotional materials related to the competition, particularly in the catalogue of the competition exhibition and other accompanying exhibitions as well in social media. To the remaining extent, copyright remains with the author.

Works that offend religious or philosophical beliefs or racial or cultural origin will not be reviewed.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an online catalogue containing reproductions of works, a full list of participants and a catalogue listing of qualified works.

By participating in the competition, the submitter grants permission to participate in the exhibition that will be held at a later time and in accordance with safety regulations related to the state of epidemic.

Poznań Art Week

PAW is a stage for artistic debuts and for ephemeric actions and temporary initiatives.