TULCA 2021: Open Call (closed)
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is pleased to announce details of its 2021 Open Call curated by Eoin Dara; there’s nothing here but flesh and bone, there’s nothing more.
A short missive from the curator:
A chara,
I am writing to you from the east coast of Scotland, thinking about the west coast of Ireland — a place I have not been able to visit for quite some time. I have resisted writing this for weeks now, hoping (perhaps naively) that this delay would allow me to speak with some clarity about what a project such as TULCA might look like this Autumn in Galway. I have been worrying about how to state my intentions, how to lay out my table, how best to project an air of assured confidence and authority in this time of unwilling dormancy. The truth is though, in these circumstances, I don’t have a concise curatorial statement to make. My thoughts remain as unfixed as the world around us, and performing some kind of professional fiction here would be deceitful.
In the winter of 2019 I pitched an embryonic idea to the board at TULCA centring around a question posed within a poem by Ocean Vuong. The question was ‘Don’t we touch each other just to prove we are still here?’
I didn’t know that in a few short months physical intimacy would become an impossibility for so many of us. I didn’t know we would then collectively be entering a year devoid of touch. I shelved this idea for much of 2020, thinking it a little obvious, gauche even, to pursue such a focus after the pandemic. And yet here we are in 2021, still locked within it in a state of slow, unknowing ongoing. Still sheltering in place. Still seeking out new ways to enact intimacy, trying to affirm something like touch through its negation. Still trying to connect, to care, to love, to grieve, and to resist, when all the means of gathering that previously sustained us are (literally) out of reach.
So whilst we remain in this untethered place, far from any space of clarity or assurance, I am writing to say that I am still obsessively thinking about touch. Do we touch each other just to prove we’re still here? In what way? Where is here? Is here enough anymore? What do we want to touch again? What do we want to let go of? These are some of the questions I hope will guide my thinking in the coming months, with the help of other artists, writers and kindred spirits as part of TULCA 2021.
For now, this morning, I’m listening repeatedly to a song by George Michael advocating for casual sex in public spaces (I know you want to but you can’t say yes). I’m misremembering a line from a Jamaica Kincaid essay where she describes a fritillaria flower as smelling like the armpits of all the people you’ve ever loved. I’m thinking of a poem by Caspar Heinemann where he crafts an image of loving arms as ‘a small architecture of warm blood.’
Of course I’m thinking of all these things in an act of longing. I’m writing this hopeful missive from my own empty architecture, towards a place of fullness and imagined excess we might fill together in an inoculated future.
I need to draw this note to a close, as the skin around my thumb and forefinger has started bleeding with bright anxiety. Perhaps I’ll be able to stop this leakage by October. Perhaps not. Perhaps it is a good reminder of what moves through me and allows me to move through.
’til then, in solidarity, and with warm blood,
Eoin
Open Call Process & Guidelines:
TULCA is curated through direct invitation and an Open Call process. The final selection of artworks will be based on thematic connection, artistic quality, and feasibility. Selections are made by the curator in consultation with the TULCA producer.
Application Process:
Deadline: 11 April 2021
Artists are invited to propose the presentation of existing artworks, or the production of new work. Works can be proposed for exhibition in the festival, or as one-off performances / events / workshops / screenings comprising part of the public programme. Work must not have been previously exhibited in Galway.
Please send a single PDF attachment (15MB max) that includes the following:
A concise artist’s statement that tells us about your work and how it might connect or respond to the letter above (250 words max)
CV (2 pages max)
Examples of previous work:
Up to 10 images (must include title; the material / medium; the dimensions / duration; the date of production, and also information on where the work has been shown, if applicable)
Up to 2 web links to video / sound works can be sent (YouTube or Vimeo, extracts should be no longer than 10 minutes. If works are sent in full please suggest a 10-minute excerpt to watch). Include passwords for any private videos.
A clearly outlined proposal of work to be exhibited, including detail about its installation, technical and accessibility requirements (250 words + 3 photos max).
Optional: If this is a proposal for new work, please also include any available visualisations, information on materials, costings, technical and venue requirements (additional 250 words max).
Applications should be submitted via email to opencall@tulca.ie
Notes for Applicants:
TULCA is a focused visual arts festival with limited resources, so please bear this in mind in developing your proposal. TULCA typically takes place across a range of art and non-art venues, such as Galway Arts Centre, NUIG Gallery, University Hospital, Galway City Museum, 126 Gallery and other off-site locations. If you develop a proposal for a specific location or context, we cannot guarantee its availability or feasibility. We encourage artists to take a flexible approach in this regard to allow for a variety of options developed through discussion with the curator.
We will confirm receipt of all applications. Selected artists will be notified no later than 1 May 2021.
We regret we are not able to give individual feedback regarding unsuccessful applications.
There is no submission fee
TULCA is a unique festival that provides the opportunity for artists to engage with a wide audience in new and unusual ways, to build new collaborations and to extend your network with artists nationally and internationally. As well as an artist fee, we offer curatorial and artistic development, technical support and a significant press, marketing and audience campaign. The festival will be accompanied by a publication with commissioned writing. TULCA presents a dynamic programme of education within primary and secondary schools and third level institutions.
All applicants should be aware that, if selected, they will be required to do press and promotion work as necessary. TULCA reserve the right to photograph works and to use elements of accepted entries for exhibition for publicity purposes, unless the artist expressly states the contrary in writing. Copyright of all work remains the property of the artist.
For any further queries please contact Festival Producer at info@tulca.ie
Image: Isobel Neviazsky, Two Figures 2021. Graphite on paper. Courtesy the artist.
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
there’s nothing here but flesh and bone,
there’s nothing more
Curated by Eoin Dara
5 - 21 November 2021
Galway, Ireland