Interviews: by the end of February 2020
Eastern Bloc is seeking a local or national guest curator for the 11th edition of its Sight & Sound International Digital Art Festival to be held in Montreal at the end of September 2020. The guest curator position is open to researchers, artists and curators interested in establishing a critical dialogue around pressing issues related to digital culture. The project will be developed in collaboration with the current Eastern Bloc team and programming committee and will culminate in a five-day, digital arts festival with live performances, site-specific installations, workshops, interventions, and panels. Other festival-related activities may also be considered.
In particular, we are encouraging proposals that work with the centre’s desire to integrate – among other media – performative, web, electronic and sound-based artists into a seamless and equitable programming structure. We are welcoming proposals that are challenging generational, social and cultural differences in the professional art world. Initiated in 2008, the festival is dedicated to presenting politically relevant, experimental and evocative art in a setting that defies audience expectations. We will prioritize an artistic vision for the festival that allows it to act as a creative laboratory for the production and presentation of digital art: a springboard for new ideas. We invite you to help us create a project that will strengthen a community of artists and audiences who look to develop and transform the normative programming structure of digital art. How should we experience and produce digital art in 2020?
Sight & Sound embodies the intentions and philosophy of the organization at all levels, more than any other exhibition or project mounted by Eastern Bloc. Before submitting a project proposal, applicants are strongly encouraged to consult the Eastern Bloc mandate and history (https://easternbloc.ca/en/about/mandate-history)
Eastern Bloc encourages Indigenous, racialized, disabled, LGBTQ+, gender non-binary, and people from working-class or immigrant backgrounds, among others, to submit proposals. Emerging as well as established professionals are encouraged to apply.
*Please specify if you are living outside of Montreal and if you will need any accommodations. Eastern Bloc is open to providing lodging and travel.
Nature of the position :
The curator’s primary responsibilities will include research and selection of participating artists and ongoing contact with selected artists. They will also be involved in festival production and will lead the decision-making process rregarding the visual and spatial design.
This is a contract-based guest curatorship, roughly estimated at 60-80 hours of work by the curator (following a schedule agreed upon by both parties) between March 2020 and the festival in September 2020. The curator contract includes:
2000$ in curator fees
Monthly consultation meetings with Eastern Bloc’s director
Project management, promotional, logistics, and production support from the Eastern Bloc team.
The selected curator must be available for exhibition tours, press interviews, professional meetings, and other satellite events, as needed.
Submission guidelines:
Please submit the following to appel@easternbloc.ca by February 7th, 2020 11:59 PM with the subject heading “2020 Curator Application”:
– Curriculum vitae in PDF (max. 2 pages)
– A description of the proposed project, including a general theme for the festival and a list of potential artists (500 words)
– A list of potential artists and if possible a link to their website.
– A justification/contextualization of the proposed artists (100-150 words)
– Support material, including audio/video/images + list describing your support material ( files should be sent via online links, or WeTransfer, labelled as: “LastNameFirstName_Title”)
Please contact us at appel@easternbloc.ca with any questions.
Territorial acknowledgement
We would like to acknowledge that Eastern Bloc is located on the land on which we gather is the traditional and unceded territory of the Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk), a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations.
