Latin America Award

“Connecting digital regionalisms from Africa and Latin America”

The technological revolution of the 21st century is a phenomenon that, far from being universal, morphs depending on the context in which it develops. The experience of digital technology in the global south, especially in Africa and Latin America, has particularities that are vital to take into account.

These characteristics are also evident in the field of artistic creation and cultural production in the digital arts, and leads us to consider the existence of a particular digital art from the global south.

The material conditions of artistic practice with digital media are immersed in a particular economic, historical, political and social context. Understanding this context is the key to confronting and detaching ourselves from the matrix of colonial power that still dominates the economic, cultural and geopolitical relations of the contemporary world.

The present ArtBox Digital open call is a space through which we intend to produce knowledge from artistic practice and the reflection around these ideas, from spaces of enunciation clearly demarcated in a geopolitical way. The omnipresence of the conditions of the global computer network, makes us think that this reflection is not only interesting but highly relevant. Just as the countries of the South appropriated the languages imposed to them during centuries of colonial control, creating accents, regionalisms, and particular uses of these European languages, we wonder then what are the accents and particularities of the use of technological languages in the south. What are the theoretical, plastic and technological specificities of this new techno-regional discourse?

The power of current technologies is also at the service of the creative imaginary; the artistic creations that derives from these technological media, whether interactive, immersive, generative or many other forms and denominations, also allow us to recreate spaces and universes never before imagined. ArtBox Digital 2019, through its new open call entitled “Connecting digital regionalisms from Africa and Latin America” aims to build alternative bridges of identification and knowledge through contemporary artistic practices, specifically from those that make use of current technologies from spaces aware of their geopolitical condition.  

TRIAS CULTURE in coordination with the Fakugesi Festival of Johanesburg (South Africa), IDARTES through its interactive laboratory of art, science and technology Plataforma Bogota (Bogotá, Colombia), M’ARTE, NATURE, Griot, the Embassy of Spain in Dakar, invites artists from Latin America, residents of any of the countries of the region (see list of countries) to decipher the technological regionalisms of their own environments.

The purpose of this call is the selection of artistic and creative projects from the digital environment in Latin America.

In order to promote exhibitions and related activities, if any, and always non-profit, the selected applicants expressly authorize TRIAS CULTURE, for the inclusion of the works in the ArtBox Digital catalog as well as the videos of scheduled exhibitions, giving up the rights of fixation, reproduction, distribution and public communication of their works.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the selected applicants authorize TRIAS CULTURE to record the exhibitions, take photographs and use other inputs (interviews, etc.) for documentation and archiving purposes.

This call aims to:

1. Contribute to the creation of a more conducive environment for research and experimentation of new aesthetic languages derived from new media in the Global South.
2. Promote collaboration and knowledge among African and Latin American artists.
3. Federate digital artists and professionals in the sector around a perennial event that facilitates the creation of networks in Africa, Latin America and internationally.
4. Support artists in the construction of a structured and evolving professional career, in a dynamic of global exchange and interdisciplinary collaborations at an interregional and international level.
5. Allow artists who perform their creative work in Africa and Latin American to have a more favorable place in the international dynamics of contemporary art and give visibility to their creative proposals.
6. Sensitize the public about these new, e hybrid, and transversal artistic expressions

This contest will be open to creators in the field of digital artistic creation over 18 years old born and living in Latin America:

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Brasil
• Chile
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Cuba
• Ecuador
• El Salvador
• Guayana Francesa
• Guatemala
• Guyana
• Haití
• Jamaica
• Honduras
• México
• Nicaragua
• Paraguay
• Panamá
• Perú

1. The call is open to projects with an artistic motivation that involves innovative and experimental work and that facilitates the transfer of knowledge, and the generation of learning communities
2. Creative projects are particularly concerned with installations, video-installations, sound art, interactive, immersive works that integrate a digital process in their creation, including the manipulation of images, sound, 3D representations, virtual and augmented reality, and that make use of software or digital devices (such as sensors, among others). The use of open source software is welcome.
3. Each artist can participate with a single project
4. Excludes any advertising, educational or other material for non-artistic purposes
5. The proposal must be original, unpublished and must integrate digital media in its production process
6. The organizers do not assume any responsibility for the costs incurred when participating in the contest

The inscription to the contest and the presentation of proposals will only be made through the online form available on the website https://connect.artbox.digital 

The deadline for submitting applications will begin on May 21 and end on December 15, 2019 at 23:59 (HGMT).

Applications will be accompanied by the following mandatory documentation:

1. Photocopy of the national identification document or, where appropriate, the residence certificate
2. Artistic / conceptual project submitted to the contest. It should include: motivation letter, project title, synopsis and objectives, description of the creative process that contains necessary software and hardware, digital processes or other technical descriptions and a first graphic presentation of the project submitted to the contest with images (PDF maximum 5 megabytes)
3. A first proposal of technical sheet on the final edition of the work and the sketch on the final assembly of the project.
4. Detailed and viable budget. The budget does not include purchase of equipment (computers, cameras or video, etc.)
5. Artistic curriculum, specifying the training and professional career (2000 characters maximum)
6. Portfolio with 2 previous works at the most with technical sheet that includes, in the case it’s necessary, assembly instructions
7. A declaration of honor on the original and unpublished nature of the proposal. The falsification of these data will be sanctioned by law and the proposal will be automatically disqualified. The candidate must guarantee that he is the sole owner of the submitted proposal

Note: The images sent must be in JPEG or PNG format at 1 MB or less. Participants whose works have been pre-selected will be asked to provide images (photo or video) in high definition.

If the application submitted is not accompanied by the mandatory documentation, the applicant will be required to reply within 3 business days, and provide these documents. If they do not comply, they will be considered to have withdrawn their application.

1. The selection panel is composed of art and technology specialists, including artists, curators, writers, art critics from Africa, Latin America, Europe and other parts of the world
2. Their names will be announced in a timely manner through this website. The deliberation of the jury is unappealable
3. The composition of the Committee will seek to respect a balanced representation of men and women
4. The Committee shall have the power to resolve any doubts that may arise in the interpretation of this call and may request from applicants, at any time during the assessment phase, as much information and accreditations they deem necessary to assess and complete those that are deduced from the documentation contributed
5. The Committee will act with full respect for the criteria of equality, transparency and non-discrimination
6. The decision of the jury is unappealable. The organizers will not respond to any correspondence related to the jury’s decision.

The selection of projects will be carried out by the evaluation committee, which will determine the winning projects and the finalist works.

The list with the scores of the rest of the proposals will serve to make the reserve list that will be used in case of express resignation by some of the selected artists.

For the evaluation of the applications, the committee will take into consideration the following evaluation criteria:

1. The aesthetic and artistic interest of the proposal
2. The critical, theoretical and aesthetic discourse in relation to the proposed theme of this call
3. The originality and innovative nature of the proposal
4. The viability of the proposal (budget, format, transportability, conservation, etc.)
5. The training and professional merits contained in the Curriculum Vitae
6. The motivation to participate in the contest

1. January 25, 2020 publication of the list of winners and finalists on the website https://artbox.digital 
2. January 30, 2020 telematic contact with the awarded artists and the finalists who have been selected
3. The awarded artist will benefit from four (4) weeks of creative residency at the Fakugesi Festival in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. The residency will take place during the first half of 2020. The dates will be agreed in coordination with the artist, the festival of Fakugesi and TRIAS CULTURE
4. An exhibition of the work done in residence by the awarded artist will be organized at the Fakugesi Festival venue at the end of the residence

These dates can be modified at the discretion of the organizer

The residence at the Fakugesi Festival includes:

1. Airfare, visa
2. Support (logistic, technical and artistic), production and contact with various professionals of the cultural and artistic environment of the place headquarters of the residence
3. Workspace
4. Cost of production of work and laboratories for a maximum total of 2,000 Euros
5. Stay (accommodation, food and local transport)
6. The winning artist agrees to be available for the dates agreed upon with the organizers and to carry out the programmed activities as part of his/her residence and in accordance with the program agreed upon with the organizers. and the residence center
7. The program of activities as well as the general dispositions of the residence will appear in the legal contract ratified by the artist, the organizers and the residence center.

1. The candidate agrees that his proposal and the works presented do not involve defamation or damage to the dignity of others
2. The information of the participants, as well as the works selected by the Jury, will be used by the organizers in accordance with these regulations and the Legal Mentions indicated on the website https://artbox.digital. Participants acknowledge having read this clause
3. These rights include itinerant exhibitions of works, publication on project websites, printing of catalogs or books, publications in magazines, press releases, video documentaries and other dissemination and communication actions undertaken by the organizers to raise awareness by all possible means
4. Selected artists cannot extract their works from organized exhibitions
5. Participation in this contest implies that each participant knows and accepts the conditions established in this call
6. If the contest cannot be carried out for an important cause (technical reasons, natural disasters, attacks or others), the organizers cannot be identified as responsible, nor obliged to any compensation by the artists
7. The organizer reserves the right to eliminate the participants who do not comply with these rules or cause damage to the contest
8. The work created in residence by the winning artist and the finalist works will be the subject of traveling exhibitions as part of the ArtBox Digital catalog
9. These exhibitions will be organized as non-profit activities in cultural spaces in Latin America, Africa and internationally in order to promote the digital art of Africa and Latin America weaving bridges with digital artists in other regions of the world
10. The works of the collection will also be shown in the online gallery that will be published on the website https://artbox.digital/  
11. The organizers reserve the right to define the museography of the exhibitions according to the projects and spaces. However, the artist can establish in his technical sheet, by means of diagrams and photographs, the particular conditions for the assembly of his work.
12. The conditions of this contest are governed by the Senegalese legislation, any disagreement will be resolved by the courts of Dakar, Senegal