Now open: have you seen the call out FaB 2020 yet? #FaB20
Call-out to Artists for Fringe Arts Bath Festival - 22 May to 7 June 2020
Inviting Artists and Creatives to respond to the 20 exhibition and event proposals below, with themes ranging from automation to girlhood, climate change to live performance.
These will come together as the Fringe Arts Bath 2020 Festival programme. Also see info for groups & collectives below.
Have a scroll below, please read ‘how do I submit?’, and see our exhibitions page for curator’s blog entries and more info on all these exhibitions.
Submission is free, deadline is 22 March 2020 at 23:59 GMT for all exhibitions, unless otherwise specified. If you are selected, we will ask for a £20 contribution and some of your time, see our FAQs for details.
Deadline: 22 March 2020 at 23:59 GMT
The call-out to artists for FaB 2020
We eat with our eyes first
An exploration of play through senses:
Touch as appetiser
Sound for starters
Taste for mains
Scent for dessert
Sight as palate cleanser.
Teasing how we engage with art ///// exploring how interaction and participation can develop social bonds. Read more
„The sensation of home”
Addressing artists who challenge the essence of home and reflect on the aspects of existence including ‘rituals, relationships and restrictions’ (cf. Taiye Selasi). Focussing on both praise and critical reflection, „The sensation of home” invites the artists as well as the audience to examine multiple alternatives and unexpected perspectives. What is the aesthetic of home? What does home mean in our multicultural and international societies? And what answers are coming from the artists of our time? Read more
Submit
Submit aims to explore the murky boundary between the artist and the curator - their creativity and their egos. Both artist and curator conceive of ideas and present them to an audience. Both start a dialogue but do not control where it goes. Artists’ and curators’ claims to creativity, authorship and meaning will be scrutinised and lampooned. Both protagonists will submit to ‘Submit’. Read more
SHELFIES
Hoarder, Minimalist, Record Collector or Book Stacker? Do selfies really tell the truth?
SHELFIES invites artists to submit mobile phone images, professional photography, ideas for installations or other media that showcase their own shelves, or the shelves of intriguing individuals they’ve invented - to reveal fascinating truths that posed selfies never do. Read more
Scorched Earth
Open to artists in all media, ‘Scorched Earth’ focuses on recent mega firestorms and their relationship to environmental climate changes. From the wildfires of California, to massive arctic fires in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska and Brazil’s Amazon, these vast infernos emit smoke that can be seen from space – making the air in populated areas dangerous to breathe. Read more
REALLY//REAL
This is a call-out for artwork that explores ideas of 'Reality'. We are looking for a broad range of artists who’s work reflects different approaches to individual and collective 'Reality'. We would like you to freely interpret the concept and avoid obvious troupes. Existing artworks is preferred — the bolder the better. All materials welcome. Read more
Phantom Perspectives
The relationship between art, science and technology will converge in Phantom Perspectives, an exhibition that seeks to test the ocular and mental boundaries. We encourage artists to develop the traditions of 'Op Art' with many medias to create a dystopian reality that removes reason and control and encourages audience participation. Read more
Paradise in Pieces
Paradise in pieces will offer possible answers to the worrying political and environmental reality that the countries of Latin America find themselves in facing neoliberal extractivism. Read more
Outside the Form
Formless as fluid refers to something that continually deforms. Fluidity is thus a condition toward chaos and disorder, nay a system for transgression of shape and form. Outside the Form seeks artworks dealing with what could be the formless in artistic processes that transgress all form, all limits; artworks that think outside the box, outside the form. Read more
Non Place
“A person entering the space of non-place is relieved of his usual determinants. He becomes no more than what he does or experiences in the role of passenger” (Auge, 1995). The exhibition aims to shift the experience of the passer by, to the now becoming-viewer engaged with site-specific artworks that respond to the non-place location. Read more
Happenings @ Walcot Chapel
Help one of Bath’s best-loved venues come to life with a programme of action and events, movement and making, workshops and discussion that will make every day feel different. We’re open to all manageable media, so any kind of visual technique, sculpture, installation, performance, music, dance, poetry, prose and debate... and perhaps something beyond description. Read more
GIRLHOOD
‘Girlhood’ is an exhibition that playfully explores the construction of female identity throughout childhood and adolescence. Read more
Convenience Gallery
Our aim is to represent artists in new spaces. Looking at the current artists & narratives of Merseyside, we invite artists to come together at our space in the Wirral, to explore a theme, collaborating where possible. We will take that scene to a new space through FaB. Read more
Co.Lab Sound
An experimental testbed for artists, musicians and performers to develop new works live. We invite artists and collectives working with experimental sound practices and performance to host a series of live events. Artists are encouraged to collaborate openly and are welcome to propose cross-disciplinary collaborations. Read more
Blahbarians
Blahbarians is a celebration and examination of interpretation. This exhibition seeks to consciously acknowledge the way in which many of those around us communicate with the world through an individual, material language — providing expression or even a type of personal semiotics to be absorbed without prejudice. Art has for many years been subject to perhaps over-exaltation, thanks to lofty academia and dizzying market prices. Blahbarians seeks to remind us that, through all the confusing conceptualism and mystifying premise, the act of making is at its essence simply kin with that of speaking. Read more
AUTOMATED
'Automated' will feature new media artists that create works varying from algorithmic to internet art. Themed on progressive art that utilises a tool that reduces workload for the artist. Read more
Assemblage
Exploring narrative through the art of Assemblage. Unify found objects and materials into partially abstract, ambiguous forms. Explore how narratives are generated and distorted when materials combine and collide. Collect and merge pre-existing materials, transforming their old connotations and functions through the act of Assemblage! Read more
A Black Ass ________ Made This Art
Seeking mixed media, text-based work across disciplines, including performance, that presents beautiful remixes of capitalism, bias, colorism and other forms of oppression. This exhibition confronts historical terms, slang, and vocabulary used to oppress, and explores how language is remixed and interpreted using the power of cultural re-appropriation through a global lens. This exhibition is specifically reserved for black/brown artists. All exhibition submissions will be subject to personal interviews and review of references by the curatorial team. Read more
#oromeo2
Many Whispers. How would a conversation sound if it were decisively divided by its participators? How might an audience eavesdrop and what types of conversations could be pieced together? Using mobile phone, web accessible tech and QR code tech, how might a cunning artist create content? Read more
_digitalfootprint_
As we carve out our online lives through the digital jungle of the internet, what happens to the footprints we leave behind? ‘_digitalfootprint_’ asks artists and audiences to directly interact with the digital artefacts that we leave behind, forgotten in the ever-growing sea of data. Read more
Submissions from Groups & Collectives
Inviting artist groups & collectives with work of a high standard that they wish to show. Submit up to 500 words with images of the work (or past works if it’s a new project).
Email submissions@fringeartsbath.co.uk
Sponsors & donations
FaB is voluntary and non-profit, your support helps us make the festival happen. If you're interested in donating please do so via paypal here. Get in touch if you are interested in donating materials, lending us a property, sponsoring an exhibition or an event: info@fringeartsbath.co.uk
Bath Open Art Prize
Artists working in all mediums are invited to enter the Bath Open Art prize, now in its 9th year. Judges by Natasha Kidd and Bridget Sterling, selected works will be exhibited at 44ad during FaB 2020.
Prizes: £500, £250, £100, a solo exhibition and more. £20/£30 entry fee. Deadline: 23:59 on Fri 24 April 2020.
To find out more about The Bath Open Art Prize 2020, judges, awards & how to enter visit bathopenartprize.co.uk
Image © Participant 30, theme 10, FaB Photomarathon 2018
FaB Photomarathon, Sat 8 May 2020
You have 20 themes to illustrate, in the right order, in 10 hours. Do you accept the challenge? Open to all who like taking photographs, the results will be exhibited during FaB Festival. £10 entry / £5 conc.
For info and to register visit fringeartsbath.co.uk/photomarathon
FaB Art Market, Sun 31 May 2020
Calling contemporary artists, crafts-people and makers to exhibit and sell work at our outdoor market. Welcoming diverse, innovative, fresh artworks with a relaxed Sunday vibe and street performers.
£20 per stall, no deadline: fringeartsbath.co.uk/fab-art-market
Volunteers
Join the team! We're always looking for help, from regular festival production sessions throughout the year, to festival set-up & take-down, event stewards, invigilators, photographers, data collectors and other ad-hock help.
To find out more about volunteering click here...