An open call to artists, designers, culturists, chefs, dancers, performers, scientists, engineers, technologists and writers to submit one piece of artwork to Tashkeel’s group show titled ‘Mind the Gap’ before January 28, 2017.

Gaps are all around us: cultural, creative, economic, educational, gender, generational, professional, and social.

Today, we live in incredibly strange times. We are presented with gaps or divisions – tangible and intangible – on a daily basis. They cross boundaries, they shape lifestyles, they determine our next move, and they can even prevent our next step. With the right context for creativity – and a critical attitude towards it – these disparities could be seen as opportunities.

What if we can help bridge communities, generations and knowledge? What if we can narrow the cracks between societies? What if we can transfer creativity that transcends boundaries? Ask yourself the question – how can we visualise the intervals between technology and craft, old and young, past and future and mind and matter – what would these look like?

By taking a pause and observing these spaces, we can attempt to enhance the historical, social and cultural fabric of the United Arab Emirates. In Mind the Gap, Tashkeel asks you – artists, culturists, chefs, dancers, performers, scientists, engineers, technologists and writers – to re-invent chance, providence and random encounters to stimulate thinking, charge our emotions and confound our expectations, and in turn, help illuminate the gaps and the opportunities they unveil.

Whether it’s bridging society through food, using memory to create dialogue, or observing regeneration in communities and how it can be articulated through different contemporary art practices, the exhibition attempts to look at the material reality of change in our built, lived, and social environments.

The exhibition will be a culmination of the process, rather than just the focal point; to curate an event that brings people together, shares happiness, and distributes knowledge, while documenting research.

We encourage submissions that explore a variety of mediums, from photography to printmaking, the use of archival material to provoke memories, and the art of sound to foster emotions.

Submission guidelines

· The call is open to all artists, designers, culturists, chefs, dancers, performers, scientists, engineers, technologists and writers living in the United Arab Emirates to create an original work in any medium in response to the given theme or to submit a work that is aligned to the theme but that has not been previously exhibited.

· Applicants can submit only one artwork, a series is considered as one work. For 3D works, please include two images of the final work. If you are submitting video, please send a link to the video work. If you are submitting a series of photographs/Polaroids, please ensure you label them in the correct sequence.

· Selection will be by a panel, including the Tashkeel Director, Lateefa bint Maktoum, and the visiting curator for this exhibition, Jack Thomas Taylor.

· Previously exhibited artworks will not be accepted.

· Application forms and images must be submitted not later than 12 midnight on Saturday 28 January 2017.

· Shortlisted artists will be informed by email by 6pm on Saturday 4 February 2017.

· Selected artworks must be delivered ready to hang to Tashkeel no later than 12 noon on Saturday 25 February 2017.

· Tashkeel reserves the right not to exhibit any work that differs substantially from the initial application or is deemed unsuitable for exhibition.

Submissions should include:

· A completed application form together with images of proposed work emailed to submission@tashkeel.org (Subject: Mind the Gap, followed by the name of artist).

· All images sent by email should be high resolution JPEG or Tiff formats.

· For 3D works, please include 2 or more images together with technical information for installation, if required.

· For video submissions, please send a link to the work. If shortlisted, final video works should be at least 720 x 576 PAL or 720 x 480 NTSC and audio works (wav or aiff), should be submitted on a DVD/CD and hand delivered to Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba.

What do you think of Tashkeel’s Mind the Gap prompt?

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