Tings Chak, “Suitable Accommodation” (2016), masking tape, 1:1 site specific drawing, A4 paper posters, dimensions variable. Part of apexart Open Call Exhibition How to Make Space, organized by Rear View (Projects) in Hong Kong, China, 2016
apexart Open Call exhibitions are selected through a unique crowd-sourcing process, intended to create a level and fair process to select the most interesting ideas. Anyone, from anywhere, is invited to submit an idea.
Following a one-month submission period and then a one-month voting period, apexart recently announced the four winning exhibition proposals from their Open Call for the organization’s 2018-19 Exhibition Season. Exhibitions will be presented in Lagos, Nigeria; San Francisco, CA; Bangalore, India; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The exhibitions were chosen by 344 jurors from over 543 submissions, resulting in nearly 13,000 votes. Exhibition dates will be posted online soon.
The Winning Proposals
Innocent Ekejiuba and Yinka Elujoba
Re-imaging Futures: A Trans-Nigerian Conversation (Lagos, Nigeria)
Evolving from a road trip across Nigeria undertaken by a group of writers, photographers, and filmmakers in 2016 and 2017, this exhibition presents works that examine what it means to be Nigerian today. It will feature documentation of the road trip and timely works that respond to Nigeria’s political instability, ethnic crises, and colonized past.
Harris Kornstein and Cara Rose DeFabio
System Failure (San Francisco, United States)
“Fail fast! Fail big! Fail often! Fail better!” These oft-quoted Silicon Valley mantras celebrate the high-octane risk-taking that is a hallmark of the tech world. But who gets to fail? This exhibition critiques ideologies of technological failure and tactically engages breakdown itself. Artists strategically build tools that are never meant to function properly, and push systems further than they were meant to go.
Shaunak Mahbubani
Regimes of Truth (Bangalore, India)
As India’s right-wing fundamentalist party enters the final year of its term under the current Prime Minister, the time is ripe to reflect on the changes brought about by its leadership. Following public mob-lynchings and drastic environmental crimes, this exhibition questions the government’s present use of propaganda to claim and consolidate political control.
Marina Reyes Franco
Resisting Paradise (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
Drawing inspiration from Caribbean nations’ shared history — from invasion, to plantation, to resort economic development model — this project addresses tourism as a new means of colonization. Through transgression and appropriation, participating artists envision new paradigms of life in the region and its diaspora, by challenging preconceived notions of what it means to be Caribbean.
Visit apexart online to read the original proposals in full.
Find out more about apexart’s upcoming NYC Open Call for Group Exhibitions, in October 2018.
