The Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux is extending an invitation to visual and community artists to submit proposals for an artwork or project on the theme of homelessness.
The invitation forms part of the Mobile Home 2017 project, affiliated with the official Suomi Finland 100 celebrations commemorating Finland’s centenary of independence. Our project partners comprise leading arts institutions in Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland.
Along with ArtHelsinki (Finland), the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts (Belgium), Castrum Peregrini (Netherlands), Frame Visual Art Finland (Finland) and Helsinki Festival (Finland), the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux is issuing an open call to visual and community artists to submit proposals for a new artwork or project on the theme of homelessness. The winning entry will be awarded funding worth €10,000, and it will be performed or displayed in Finland and the Benelux region in 2017. In addition, two further entries will be recognised with a prize worth €1,000 by ArtHelsinki.
”Homelessness is one of the great challenges facing Europe today and it is a highly visible part of everyday life, in Finland as well as in Brussels, at the very heart of Europe. Our homes are an important part of our identity, and homelessness can also be of a spiritual and psychological kind,” Aleksi Malmberg, Director of the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux, commented.
The Mobile Home(LESS) competition forms part of the Mobile Home 2017 project, run by Finnish cultural and academic institutions in Paris, Berlin and London, that marks Finland’s 100 years of independence and explores the meaning of home. Mobile Home 2017 considers the home as a physical, mental and symbolic space and a socio-cultural concept.
The jury tasked with evaluating the Mobile Home(LESS) entries will comprise representatives from the project partner organisations: Aura Seikkula (ArtHelsinki), Kathleen Weyts (BOZAR), Michael Defuster (Castrum Peregrini) and Raija Koli (Frame Visual Art Finland). Submissions are invited from individual artists, pairs or groups of artists based in Finland or the Benelux countries. There are no restrictions on the genre or media.
The Mobile Home(less) open call was launched today, Thursday 21 April 2016, at a discussion event at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels. Artists based in Finland and the Benelux region are eligible apply. Applications are accepted between 21 April and 15 May 2016.
For further information on homelessness, please visit: European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA - www.feantsa.org) and the European Observatory for Homelessness (www.feantsaresearch.org).
The Mobile Home(less) project is supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland100 and the Arts Promotion Centre Finland and organised in collaboration with ArtHelsinki, the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Castrum Peregrini, Frame Visual Art Finland and Helsinki Festival.
For more information on the open call please see www.finncult.be/mobile-homeless-open-call/?lang=en.
