CALL FOR PROJECTS: Artists, cultural workers, researchers and community organizers

 

Montreal Monochrome VII

Oct 17-19, 2019 

 

Deadline: August 30, 2019

Send submissions to outreach@articule.org 

 

“If it’s attention (deciding what to pay attention to) that makes our reality, regaining control of it can also mean the discovery of new worlds and new ways of moving through them.” - Jenny Odell

 

Jenny Odell argues that training one’s attention is a process, one which is reality-making and can transform not only ourselves but the world. To decolonize our minds, bodies and spaces, she proposes consciously and continuously training our attention at both an individual and collective level. The narratives we are told, that we tell ourselves and others, direct our attention to different actions and modes of understanding. If training our attention is a reality-making process, to shift focus and (re)gain its control can be to gain control of our past, present and future realities.

 

The 7th edition of the conference Montreal Monochrome seeks to explore the emotional, physical, mental and socio-political ramifications of what it means to shift focus and/or (re)gain control. How might we understand shifting focus, on which scale, and in which ways? Through which mediums and interventions? What is it to (re)gain control of one’s narrative, body and/or psychic space? Which new realities can be created or remade? 

 

Taking wind from movements such as the resistances to Bill 21, migrant detention centres, SLĀV, Kanata and several others that have and continue to take place in Quebec and beyond since summer 2018, this edition of Montreal Monochrome seeks critical and creative projects that dismantle dominant discourses in the public sphere and explore the power and process of (re)shifting focus. 

 

This conference prioritizes indigenous, black and racialized voices, working toward nurturing and strengthening the existing bonds, solidarities and friendships between indigenous artists, thinkers, cultural workers and racialized allies. Projects can come from a broad range including but not limited to artists, cultural workers, researchers and community organizers. 

 

Submissions may take place at articule, be site-specific and/or mobile.  

 

Each project will receive an honorarium of $250.

 

Potential themes:

Unlearning colonial narratives

Public voice and/or platforms

Historical narratives as fiction

Performative allyship

Cultural appropriation

Quebec nationalism

Collective agency

Community care

Diasporas and mixed-race identities in Montreal/Canada

Migratory experience and responsibility

Artistic, cultural, and pedagogical modes of decolonization

Sites and/or movements of resistance 

Imagining futures

World-making

Alternative ways of being in the world

 

Potential forms:

Public and/or artistic interventions

Art action

Workshops 

Spoken word

Discussion-starting games or activities

Literary interventions

Facilitated discussions

Discursive activities 

Digital interventions

 

About

Montréal Monochrome is an annual event which aims to address the mis- and under-representation and systemic oppression of marginalized groups in Montréal’s contemporary art milieu. The event works toward imagining and nurturing new and existing bonds, solidarities and friendships between Indigenous artists, thinkers and cultural workers and their racialized allies. 

 

The structure of the conference is determined each year by participants’ proposals. It is a series of creative projects, workshops, discussions, talks, performances and/or field trips which prioritize Indigenous and racialized voices.

 

Montreal Monochrome is organized by articule’s Fabulous Committee, whose mandate is to develop anti-oppression strategies to make articule more inclusive and culturally diverse. 

 

 

Submission requirements:

• A summary of your proposal (max 500 words)
• A paragraph (max 500 words) including information about you and your work. Include website links or relevant documentation, with credits, if available.
• A title for your project
• The location and duration of your project 
• A list of technical requirements

 

Send submissions to: outreach@articule.org by August 30, 2019

 

Please note only accepted projects will be contacted.