EMBARRAT
AWARDS 2017
THE GREAT
MACHINE IV
OPEN CALL
UNTIL MARCH 12, 2016
Organize:
EM
BAR
RAT
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
THE GREAT MACHINE IV EXHIBITION
AND THE EMBARRAT AWARDS 2017
The modernist buildings that house the Trepat Museum in Tàrrega, origin of
the social and industrial transformation of the lands of Lleida, will be the venue of
the third iteration of EMBARRAT - Festival of Contemporary Creation. The
main objectives of this event are to disseminate throughout society the concept
of art and thought as critical and engaged attitudes, and to incentivize artistic
creation and promote cultural heritage.
Submissions are now being accepted from artists of any discipline and nationality, for the purpose of selecting the artworks that will comprise the group show
THE GREAT MACHINE, and the winners of the EMBARRAT awards.
The exhibition will take place between the 26th of May and the 4th of June 2017
in the unique interior of the modernist of Tarrega’s Trepat Museum, seeking to
find a dialogue between the space’s industrial past and the most up-to-date
contemporary creative pieces.
EM
BAR
RAT
1. The artistic projects must address a single theme: “As Slow As Possible”.
In the eighteenth century, an agricultural revolution started. It radically transformed
the economy and the production systems, firstly in the British territory to spread afterwards to some countries in continental Europe. This revolution was an important
change of paradigm: from a traditional agriculture, oriented to family consumption and
with slow production rhythms, to a modern agriculture, with a surplus production to
sell and great increased worker productivity.
These changes were great possibilities for a new industry, the agricultural machinery,
which arose in Catalonia at the beginning of the twentieth century. The J. Trepat factory –established in Tàrrega in 1914, and nowadays venue of Embarrat Festival– had a
very special role in the mechanization of the crops since it was one of the leading producers and distributors of agricultural machinery in the Catalan and Spanish territory.
These agricultural and industrial revolutions also promoted a progressive implementation of the clock, a device designed to measure, monitor and socially standardize time.
A specific type of watch, the metronome, took relevance in the field of music, which
was used to measure both the duration of the execution of the pieces and its tempo.
In 1987, in a fully industrialized society and with the use of metronome completely
spread, John Cage composed the piece for organ ASLSP, the title of which is an abbreviation of the English construction “as slow as possible” and an indication of the
time of execution and its tempo. This indication –both precise and vague– raises certain questions: how slowly is “as slow as possible”? Which factors may interfere in this
slowness: The skill of the performer?, the technical characteristics of the instrument?,
the circumstances and context in which the concert is carried out?
Whichever the tempo of execution of ASLSP is, the idea that a piece of music may be
played as slow as possible is, in a way, a manifestation and a gesture of resistance to
the culture of speed –derived from that Industrial Revolution– and it is also a reminder
that the time of creation and thinking can not be the same of that of the market.
Embarrat opens a call for artists of different disciplines to submit works and projects
that relate to the slowness and to alternative ways to comprehend time that differ from
the imperative paradigm of rapidity and acceleration.
EM
BAR
RAT
1. Participation is free
2. Who can participate?
• The call is open to individual artists or artist groups.
• All participants must be adults, but may be of any nationality.
• Residents outside the European Union may participate only with audiovisual works.
3. About the works
The works must touch on the proposed theme: “As Slow As Possible”.
Submissions can consist in artworks of any discipline: video art, performance,
photography, audio, installations, illustration, etc.
Participants may submit one work, or a set of works under a single title
4. Closing date for submissions
• March 12, 2017.
5. Submission of proposals. Application form
• Each participant must fill out an application form online on the Festival’s
website, attaching a small dossier (PDF) that explains the art project (maximum of 3 MB)
6. The PDF dossier should contain
• On the first page: the artist’s name and surname, phone number, email,
webpage and the name of the project that appears on the sign-up sheet
• A conceptual description of the work/artistic (Maximum 20 lines).A
• A factsheet or description of the work’s characteristics, suggesting, if necessary, the kind of mounting required for the exhibition space (see exhibition spaces in the annexe).
• Photographs of the work or works to be exhibited, if necessary.
• A short artistic CV, a portrait of the artist and a copy of the artist ID or passport.
• Optionally, the artist may add the information and Internet links considered
necessary to explain the presented project and/or other previous projects.
EM
BAR
RAT
7. Notification to selected artists
Selected artists will be notified directly by the festival organizations. The list of
selected artists will be published the first week of April 2017.
8. About the works
• It is the curator’s responsibility to make the final selection of projects and
artists, and to determine the appropriate exhibition space for each artwork.
• In addition to the artistic criteria, the curator will consider the conceptual rigor of each project, its adjustability to the proposed topic (disused) and the
feasibility of adapting the artistic proposal to Cal Trepat’s exhibiting spaces.
• The artists will assume the cost of the work production.
• The festival will assume shipping costs.
• Reception of the selected artworks: The selected artworks must be at the
festival’s office no later than May 12th 2017.
9. About the participating artists
Artists must be the authors of the presented artwork and must be in possessions of all right of authorship, display and communication. In the event of a
shared authorship, it must be specified and have the relevant authorisation, in
each case.
10. Rights
The works exhibited remain the property of their authors. The latter will provide
EMBARRAT reproduction and publishing rights with the aim of promoting the
festival, whether by internet, printed press, audio-visual means and/or the publication of catalogues or any other promotional material.
11. Acceptance of the conditions
Participation in the call for entries implies acceptance of these conditions.
In the case of disagreements between the artist and the Festival, the organisation reserves the right to cancel the his/her participation.
EM
BAR
RAT
12. EMBARRAT AWARDS
• The EMBARRAT Award of € 1,500 (taxes included) will distinguish the best work among all those shown at the exhibition TGMIV.
• IEI AWARD. Production of a solo show: the award will distinguish the best artist among those shown in the exhibition The Great Machine IV. In 2018 the
Institut d’Estudis Ilerdencs (from now on, IEI) will produce a solo show in its
Gótica exhibition space to showcase the work of the winning artist.
• The selected artist must present an exhibition project to the IEI no later than
October 31st 2017.
• The dates of the exhibition will be set by the IEI and the artist must meet the
agreed deadlines.
• The award is the production of the exhibition and there are no fees involved.
• In the case of disagreements between the artist and the IEI, the institution
reserves the right not to produce or cancel the exhibition.
• For its part, if the selected artist doesn’t agree with the IEI criteria, he/she
may, if it so wishes, decline their participation.
The JURY will chose the winning works, and its decision will be incontestable.
They are: Cèlia del Diego (Centre d’Art la Panera, director); Federic Montornés (curator); David G. Torres (curator); Ramon Sicart (Sicart Gallery); Roser
Miarnau (Museo J. Trepat) and Anselm Ros (IEI, curator).
EM
BAR
RAT
ANNEX
Museo J. Trepat , the place where will be the exhibition
EM
BAR
RAT
ANNEX
Museo J. Trepat , the place where will be the exhibition
EM
BAR
RAT
Festival EMBARRAT
26, 27, 28 of May 2017
Exhibitions
26th of May - 4th of June 2017
www.embarrat.org
www.facebook.com/embarrat
twitter.com/embarrat