Call for work: 7th International Video Poetry Festival 2018

Video Poetry Festival banner

The +Institute [for Experimental Arts] and Void Network are pleased to announce that submissions are open for the 2018 International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece. The annual festival will be held at the free, self-organized theatre EMBROS this winter, with the precise dates yet to be determined. Approximately 1200 people attended the festival last year.

The 7th International Video Poetry Festival will run for two days in two different zones. The first day will be the Show Room Video Poetry, a unique zone that will include video poems, visual poems, short film poems and cinematic poetry by artists from all over the world (America, Asia, Europe, Africa). The second day will be the Live Improvisation Zone with multimedia poetry readings, concerts with experimental music, and performances.

We are inviting artists – poets, video artists, directors, producers – who want to visit the festival to present their art project at the Theatre. We can provide accommodation for three days (one day before the festival, during the festival and one day afterwards).

The International Video Poetry Festival 2018 attempts to create an open public space for the creative expression of all tendencies and streams of contemporary visual poetry.

It is very important to note that this festival is a part of the counter-culture activities of Void Network and +the Institute [for Experimental Arts] and will be a non-sponsored, free entrance, non-commercial and nonprofit event. The festival will cover the costs (2000 posters, 15.000 flyers, high quality technical equipment) from the income of the bar of the festival. All the participating artists and the organizing groups will participate on a volunteer basis.

The Institute [for Experimental Arts] invites the artists and creators of video poems to participate from their side in our effort to cover the expenses of the festival without private or state sponsorship. For this reason we propose to the artists the suggested donation of 5 euros for the submission of their video poems.

Void Network began organizing multimedia poetry nights in 1990. Void Network and +the Institute [for Experimental Arts] believe that multimedia poetry nights and video poetry shows can vibrate in the heart of the metropolis, bring new audiences in contact with contemporary poetry, and open new creative dimensions for this ancient art. To achieve this, we respect the aspirations and the objectives of the artists and create high-quality, self-organized exhibition areas and show rooms. We work with professional technicians, and we offer meeting points and fields of expression for artists and people that tend to stand antagonistically to the mainstream culture.

APPLICATION FORM at Google Docs

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: no later than November 20, 2018 (date of postmark)

HOW TO SUBMIT

1. Click here to download and complete the application form

2. Your participation is FREE. Please you can add the suggested donation of 5 Euro (or more) to the following bank account:
National Bank of Greece 04664860451 Iban GR2101100460000004664860451 Swift (BIC) ETHNGRAA

3. Please, send the submission material via email as following:
+++ via email:
your video poems in mp4 or mov file, definition (720 x 576, 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080)
the submission form and photos in .jpg file
(all these in a single wetransfer file)
Email: theinstitutecontact [at] gmail.com
*please replace [at] with @ symbol to send email
You can use wetransfer.com or any other FREE SERVICE to send us big files.

4. It is very important to name your files (videos and still images, photos) as it is shown below:
Title of video poem
Artist’s name
Country

5. Be careful, you have to send only one email with the application form, the link to download, the video poems or the video poems archives, the still images of the video poems and any website of your art work projects

6. We recommend you add English or Greek subtitles to your video poems even if the spoken language is in English as it will be easier for people outside the English spoken world to understand it.

We recommend you send your video poems over the internet. But if you prefer, you can also mail your DVD file to the following address:
INTERNATIONAL VIDEO POETRY FESTIVAL
TASOS SAGRIS
159 KREONTOS
SEPOLIA ATHENS
GREECE 10443
Please post it no later than November 20, 2018 (date of postmark) to the International Film Poetry Festival, Athens.
+ the Institute [for Experimental Arts] will inform you about your participation in early December 2018.

In memory of Ren Hang

photo of Ren HangThe 7th International Video Poetry Festival is dedicated to photographer and poet Ren Hang (1987–2017), one of the leading lights of the new generation of Chinese photographers. Ren Hang was arrested many times for his sexually explicit, joyously celebratory photography. Although he was globally renowned, he never gained the recognition he deserved in his home country, in part because he was repeatedly denied the opportunity to display his work in Beijing and throughout China. Read more about Ren Hang.

In his compositions of bodies among forestry, jungles and mountains, he intended to capture nothing more than the moment itself without attachment to political or sexual gestures. The process to create these moments, he once said, is both spontaneous and specific to the time and to the subject.

Photographic documentation of previous events

International Video Poetry Festival photos

Photos of previous poetry nights organized by Void Network and + the Institute [for Experimental Arts]:
http://voidnetwork.gr/2/5th-international-video-poetry-festival-sat
http://voidnetwork.gr/2015/10/20/speak-no-evil-poetry-even

More photos from Void Network art, events and actions

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