Call: Web Biennial 2020 Apeiron
Deadline: 22 May 2020
Call for entries
THE WEB BIENNIAL 2020 APEIRON
Open Call for Proposals
The Web Biennial is an independent, artist-run and experimental online art festival.
Our focus is experimental New Media Art. Initiated by Genco Gulan in 2003 as one of the first online biennials, the event is hosted by the online Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum. The biennial focuses exclusively on the artistic practices intended for online preferably networked presentation.
Since its emergence, unofficially in 2002 with the Reload exhibition, The Web Biennial always linked pioneering art and has been a promising model for artist-created content. It came earlier than the birth of some other user-created content applications, such as Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005) and Instagram (2010). And thus constituted a model for them.
The Web Biennial so far, had six editions held in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2014, and presented the works of hundreds of artists from all over the world. It has been addressed as an exemplary case at academic conferences such as “Refresh†in 2005 and at physical exhibitions like “Regeneration.011†organized at Plato Sanat. It started as a no sponsor, no curator, no theme art event. Later on we started working with curators such as Marcus Graf and Dimitris Fotiou who presented a selection in Athens.
This year’s Web Biennial edition, titled APEIRON.
The term APEIRON coined by the ancient philosopher Anaximander (610 – 546 BC) meaning “unlimitedâ€, “boundlessâ€, “infinite”, or “indefiniteâ€. Anaximander is originally from the Menderes region of the Western Turkey that is why we feel very close to him. And also the concept APEIRON departs from the atmosphere of lock downs and pandemic pessimism. We still want to believe that, as Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994) said “Everything is possible†and thus keep on creating art.
In the first quarter of the second millennium, emergence of mobile applications posed a challenge to the computer-based ones in the short run. However, the current pandemic situation proved to us that we still need alternative, independent, online art exhibition models. As they say in Broadway, show must go on! Our main purpose is to offer a platform for documenting contemporary conceptual experiments, electronic dreams and developing survival strategies for the future.
In 2020, the curator of the Web Biennial 2020 is Ipek Yeginsu.
Ms. Yeginsu is an independent art professional from Istanbul and she is the ne curator of the Web Biennial APEIRON. She is an instructor and a Ph.D. Candidate at Ozyegin University, Department of Design, Technology and Society. Since 2013, she has been curating her own exhibitions. Her curatorial practice is based on a transdisciplinary, site-specific and carry a pluralistic, participatory approach. She regards exhibitions not as finished products, but as elements for triggering the emergence of new dialogues around them. Her selected exhibitions include; Intergalactic (Anna Laudel, 2019), “Speculative Spaces†(Kare Art, 2019), “Crossed Destinies: Homage to Calvino†(Bilsart, 2018), and “Synchronicity†(Mebusan 25, 2017).
AND finally, here is the open call:
We prefer experimental, NON representative, fresh online art. We want to learn about what you are doing now and not what you have been doing. This is a
1) Open call for Web-art. Interactive woks welcome. Send us your links.
2) Open call for net-art. Any kind of networked online art welcome.
3) Open call for workshop topics. We will host workshops on Zoom all through summer.
4) Open call for online conferences and artist talks. We will utilize Zoom and Instagram live. (AND maybe others?)
5) Open call for digitally generated images. Animated Gifs are welcome.
6) Open call for experimental online games and downloadable apps.
7) Open call for video art and sound art. Send us the links to your files.
8) Open call for articles and dada text. Send us your files or links.
Please write in the Subject Line:
Name of the Artist and Name of the Project.
We will arrange the galleries according to your submissions. First come first serve. Application is free.
Deadline: May 22, 2020.
We will launch our galleries in June 1st 2020. AND if you keep on sending, new galleries will pop up in July and August.
This year’s edition will have zoom conference program all through the summer.
For more info:
http://www.webbiennial.org
http://istanbulmuseum.org
