Open Call
How Are You Practicing What You Preach
Annual Program VBKÖ March 2024- March 2025
VBKÖ, Vereinigung bildender Künstler*innen Österreichs (Austrian Association of Wom*n Artists), invites you to send in a proposal for our yearly program running from March 2024 to March 2025.
“How are you practicing what you preach—whatever you preach, and who is exactly listening?”
— Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.
As we have continually upheld in our Open Calls, we have an equal responsibility to work towards a future that ensures queer-feminist principles within the VBKÖ. With this Open Call, we aim to put together a programme of different practices that nurture community, and de-links from global White supremacy, at the same time, we actively fight against trans-exclusionary radical feminism as well as any forms of discrimination. We look for proposals that allow for tenderness, ugly feelings, and different truths, and recognize the reverberation of a contemporary feminist outlook in other movements internationally.
We welcome group submissions for programs, including gatherings, exhibitions, screenings, events, performances, workshops, lectures, and other artistic practices within it. We do not support solo shows or individual presentation formats.
Although VBKÖ started as a feminist association in 1910, there has been a difficult history in the past where this association has been discriminatory to persons of different religions, classes, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. Acknowledging the weight of our own histories, VBKÖ has been transforming to challenge these structures. Therefore, we stand together with our artistic communities to mutually exchange different ways of knowing and practicing.
We are looking forward to your proposals to create a space for sharing with joy!
What we require from you:
- A description of the program (max. 2 pages, including sketches if any). Proposals can be written in English or German. Video submissions will also be accepted for descriptions of smaller formats. Please include preferable dates/duration and which space(/s) you would want to use.
- A CV/biography from all participants involved in the proposal (max. 1 page for each) Video submissions will also be accepted for the CV/Bio.
- A financial plan: We encourage you to make your plan based on Fair Pay
- Technical requirements
- Three high-resolution images of work or sketches for the exhibition (if you want to send video files in addition, please include the links in your proposal)
- A contact person’s information (email & mobile number)
Spaces:
1) Space A 55 m2
2) Space B 15 m2
3) Space C (max. 3 days in a row) 28 m2
A combination of the spaces is possible. Since they have their own characteristics, we recommend to come by in our opening times and have a look. We also welcome you to think about how you would use the entrance/kitchen (25 m2) during your program.
Possible duration of the program: 1 day – 6 weeks
*The project should happen from March 2024 until February 2025.
Budget: VBKÖ can support each project with 500 – 2,500 EUR depending on the scale, duration, and feasibility of the proposal. This project budget can include fees, materials, labor, production, and transport. VBKÖ can provide invitation & support letters to apply for extra funding to cover your expenses.
* The VBKÖ provides a space, graphic design of online promotional material, press announcements, photo documentation, and some technical equipment (please see the technical list).
The selection process:
The shortlist will be made by the VBKÖ team, and the final proposals will be selected by the VBKÖ board with two external jury members who have profound international experiences in contemporary art, activism, and community building.
Please take note of the requirements, incomplete applications will not be considered. If necessary, we would ask you to meet with the Jury to present the proposal. The selected proposals will be announced in September 2023.
Please send all your written materials via a single PDF (max 5MB) and submit the high-res images within the email or through a download link (please label images with artist’s name, work title, year, proposal title) to opencall@vbkoe.org with the Subject: Open Call + your proposal title.
Deadline: 13 August 2023, 23:59
If you have any questions, please contact info@vbkoe.org.