Call for Participation: The Urbanity Project in Shanghai
Mission Statement
Shanghai Arts Community is committed to the truth that human beings possess a given value. Thus, we suggest that the city exists because humans exist and that the activity of the city is good insofar as it contributes to and commits to the worth and dignity of each human existence.
From this posture the Shanghai Arts Community presents The Urbanity Project as both a collaborative art publication and a movement of artists committed to creatively expressing the city in terms of its people.
Goal
Our goal is to publish a book of multidisciplinary artwork that not only communicates a common vision of “the city in terms of its people,” but one that also values collaboration and demonstrates artistic excellence. This publication will be accompanied by at least two events in Shanghai between May 2010 and July 2010 which will showcase some of the works catalogued in our publication; as well as gather, encourage, and empower artists to creatively communicate the vision of a city whose highest value is its people.
Artistic Vision
The vocabulary of the city is vast. When we come to the city, we come talking of commerce and culture, the arts and the nightlife. We come to see skylines, visit sites, discover cuisine and experience history. And the common link between every single word in the lexicon of the city is that it tries to describe what happens when humans come together.
The city is the place where humanity has collided. All that we see, hear and touch in the city are fragments of that collision, the beautiful alongside the terrible, the skyscrapers alongside the slums. All is in some way a manifestation of human interaction. And whether they leave scars or smooth edges, the signs of human presence are everywhere: on animals, on the landscape, and on us - on one another. The sound of the city is the friction of humanity.
Shanghai Arts Community presents The Urbanity Project as both a publication of art and a movement of artists committed to engaging in a vision of a city whose highest value is its people.
We believe that seeing the city for the people requires specific vision We need a vision that recognizes the city is not summed up in economics, nor in art, nor in history. It is a vision that sees the city summed up in its people.
In each step that follows, the vision broadens, curves and twists. Each person has a name and a story. Each person carries the beautiful burden of infinite meaning and value. We hold that this transforming vision, with the worth of humanity squarely at its center, is the vision of the renewed city.
More than any other construct of the city, art is uniquely suited to talk about the worth of people, because good art is not motivated by the pursuit of money or power, but by the pursuit of truth. This pursuit uniquely situates art to speak for the common good of human beings.
Finally, we believe that the subject of human worth is by nature a communal one - it takes people to talk about people. Thus, Shanghai Arts Community invites artists of all mediums to collaborate and explore together this vision of a city whose life lies in each individual and all the humanness that soaks through them.
Shanghai Arts Community
Shanghai Arts Community is a group of artists, musicians and writers committed to pursuing truth, working in collaboration, living in community, engaging in thoughtful conversation, and creating good art.
Timeline of Goals
FebruaryMarch April May1st
|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
Launch and Fundraising Submissions Period----------------->Opening and Publication ----->
Publication Format
-Roughly 6”x6” gloss magazine of 60+ pages
-Sale for under $10 US dollars ~ 50元
Submission Guidelines
Deadline : March 31st, 2010. Submit to shanghaiartscommunity@gmail.com with subject line <Name, submission>. May include 50 word biography and 100 word artist statement, though neither will necessarily be published with an accepted piece.
Submit up to five pieces in any medium. All mediums will be considered. (Painting, photography, graffiti, sculpture, poetry, fiction, prose, music, dance, etc.) Video, sound, or live performance art will also be considered via file submission, and will be represented in the book by a still photography shot with a description and link to website file where entire work may be posted.
Email all questions to shanghaiartscommunity@gmail.com.
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