Image courtesy apexart

After a month-long submission process and a one-month voting period, apexart is pleased to announce the winning exhibition proposals from their 2020–21 International Open Call.

apexart Open Call exhibitions are selected through a crowd-sourced voting process, in which hundreds of anonymous proposals are rated by a vast international jury. Connections and personality do not matter — jurors review only the written proposal idea, which is communicated in 500 words or less. This selection process ensures that the ideas are unique, compelling, and reflective of the hundreds of people who want to see them transformed from a proposal into an exhibition.

apexart’s 2020–21 International Open Call received 400 written submissions from 76 countries. Over 550 jurors hailing from 48 countries logged more than 20,000 votes to select the four winners, each of which received approximately 80 votes.

The four winning proposals listed below were selected to become apexart International Open Call Exhibitions. 

2020–2021 International Open Call Winners

Nancy Pelosi’s Living Room, San Francisco, 1986 | San Francisco, US
submitted by Matthew Terrell
Recreating the early days of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, this project takes place in the living room of a Victorian-style home in San Francisco, featuring early panels of the quilt, archive ephemera, and the work of contemporary artists addressing HIV/AIDS.

Goodbye, World | on an ice floe in the Norwegian Sea
submitted by Andreas Templin and Raimar Stange 
In response to catastrophic climate change, mass extinction, political turmoil, and loss, Goodbye, World sends art on a “farewell tour.” Displayed on a remote ice floe destined to melt, environmentally-friendly artworks will dematerialize and disappear over time.

Ownness | Tokyo, Japan
submitted by Mizuho Yamazaki, Virginia Liu, and Rin Aonami 
Juxtaposing works by women artists that address gender inequality in East Asian countries, this exhibition demonstrates how women are fighting to overcome colonial and patriarchal subjugation, seizing bodily control on their own terms.

Voicing the Silence | Moscow, Russian Federation
submitted by Creative Association of Curators TOK
Over 100 years after soviet feminist Alexandra Kollontai penned “The Social Basis of the Women’s Question,” domestic violence has been decriminalized in Russia. This exhibition responds with works that address the state-sanctioned mechanisms that limit women’s rights. 

To read the original proposals, visit apexart.org/intl20/results.php.

For more information and submission guidelines for the upcoming NYC Open Call (October 2020) and the next International Open Call (February 2021), visit apexart.org/opencalls.

Want to be a juror for the next Open Call? Learn more at apexart.org/juror-process.html.