Deadline: 15th of March, 2015.

OFF-Biennale Budapest, organized for the first time in 2015, initiates a research on artistic and curatorial self-organizations currently active internationally.

The aim of this research is to map best practices of grassroots contemporary art initiatives engaged with a democratic and sustainable mode of operation.

About the OFF-Biennale

Envisioned as a series of exhibitions and events in and beyond the city of Budapest, the OFF-Biennale is planned for the period between April 24 and the end of May 2015. It will be an occasion for a wide range of actors of the contemporary art field to consider and test the potential inherent in self-organization and network-based collaboration. Besides, it aims to offer an alternative both to the usual know-how of contemporary art biennials, as well as to the dominance of local state-run art infrastructures.

This Biennale endeavors to establish a base for a sustainable, well-connected independent and interdependent art scene in Hungary. For the sake of this cause, OFF-Biennale Budapest implements a structural model that is based on a commonality of interest, on voluntary work, on networking, collaboration, and solidarity. One of the main objectives of the project is to produce and present a wide spectrum of collaborative, DIY, network-based, and risk-taking art projects that critically address the emergent possibilities and the set of problems that result from the recent conservative/nationalist/populist/anti-democratic turn in Hungary and beyond.

Call for contributions

OFF-Biennale Budapest in this research aims to investigate artistic projects, initiatives, communities, institutions which are organized from the bottom up, are not exclusively dependent on state funding, and have an engaged and reflected relationship with the given social and political reality.

The organizers endeavor to set the basis for a platform of knowledge sharing and networking, where various contemporary art initiatives can meet.

Artistic and curatorial collectives, projects, initiatives, and organizations are invited to send information about their activities and modes of operation which will be collected and presented in the course of the OFF-Biennale in the frame of an on-line publication on various forms of artistic and curatorial self-organizations.

The organizers are looking for contributors whose working methodologies correspond to at least some of the following criteria:

-their activity is engaged with the transforming the potentials of art/culture and have a strong mission they represent consistently,

-represent critical approaches towards the dominant, oppressing political environment and intend to sustain a critical and engaged contemporary art scene despite the unwelcoming atmosphere,

– represent the interest of local communities with a special emphasis on communities in need,

-their mode of operation is based on self-organization, and are not exclusively dependent on state funding and infrastructure,

-have a strong interest in community and network building,

-follow inventive economical models to ensure financial stability.

Please upload information in English about your activity at the link here till the 15th of March, 2015.