ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER – PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI C.N.P.P. welcomes submissions from emerging and established printmakers, visual artists and groups, from all over the world for its upcoming exhibition with the topic Escape Plan: 1984/2024 which will take place in winter 2024 at ETCH INK art space, in Athens (Greece).

Escape Plan: 1984/2024 is a reference to George Orwell’s influential political novel, which thoroughly portrays the horrifying mechanism of control imposed by the state over the lives of people, through systems of surveillance, as well as mental and psychological methods of manipulation. Written in 1949 for the far-off 1984, Orwell’s prophetic work is a warning of a future world heading towards the abolition of any human freedom through systematic surveillance, corruption in information and culture of fear. In the dystopian world of 1984, language has been replaced by Newspeak, a fictional language as a system of “linguistic purification”, aiming at the gradual distortion of actual meanings, up to the point of total elimination of any original concept. Thoughtcrime is the greatest crime an individual might commit. Thus, the State undertakes mind-neutralizing policies, in order to eradicate any personal freedom or potential resistance to the totalitarian regime it imposes. Its objectives are encapsulated in the following threatening slogans: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. Forty years after, how far is 1984’s political rhetoric from today’s world?

Encouraging artists to reflect on the socio-political conditions and the obscure aspects of the current state of affairs, Escape Plan: 1984/2024 seeks to illustrate scenarios and paths of escape, inviting visual artists to envision and propose an alternative plan for the future. Unleashing creativity, imagination and free experimentation, this exhibition is set as a challenge and a confrontation with the present time and the future ahead. Using the visual language of printmaking as vehicle of expression, ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER welcomes various printmaking techniques and methods, seeking proposals that outline avenues of escape towards new collective artistic quests. The selected works will be presented in a physical exhibition at ETCH INK art space, the gallery space of the ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER, between February and June 2024. Official dates will be announced later in 2024.

Application deadline

To apply, please fill out the online application form, submitting all required entry materials, until 31 Οctober 2023.

General terms and conditions:

• Artists are welcomed to submit works from a wide spectrum of printmaking techniques including woodcut, linocut, silkprint, dry point, etching, sugarlift, lithography, collagraph etc. We encourage projects that have the possibility of being reprinted and come from a matrix/plate, rather than monotypes. Digital prints are not accepted. However, proposals that include digital processes are very welcomed when combined with traditional printmaking techniques.
• Submitted works should not exceed 22 x 30 cm. (paper size). Applications for works of larger size will not be accepted.
• Interested candidates can apply for free by filling out the online application form.
• Participation fee: 55 Euro + 10 euro shipping expenses (return of artworks).
• Please note that the participation fee concerns only the applicants that have been successfully selected and have confirmed their participation in the exhibition.
• Artists can apply for more than one project by filling out a separate application form for each one of them. If more than one work is selected, participants will benefit from a 10% discount on the total cost of the participation fee.
• The participation fee is non-refundable.
• Shipping costs are covered by the artists.

Please note:

The shortlisted artists will be notified by email and will receive more instructions about the procedure and the shipping of artworks.

Communication

For any questions, please get in touch by sending an email to:

[email protected] using “Escape Plan: 1984/2024 – Name/Surname” as the Subject Line, or message us on Facebook and Instagram.

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More about ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER – PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI

The ΑΤHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER – PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI was founded by the artists Pino Pandolfini and Dimitra Siaterli. It has been running in Athens since 1977 as an open workshop for art and printmaking. Its activities include many cultural activities, exhibitions and exchange exhibitions in Greece and abroad, printing artworks, art editions, cooperation with artists, cultural organizations, galleries, schools, regular seminars and lesson programs. The aim of the ΑΤHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI, from its founding until now, has been to make accessible the language of printmaking, the history, the potential and its particular expressive power in the art world. The lengthy historical pathway of the space includes important collaborations with artists and institutions from Greece and abroad, which have strengthened the cultural exchange and community of the domestic art scene. By supporting the participation in the creative process and the personal stylings of the artist, the organization encourages the inherent production of printmaking, as well as the interdisciplinary workings of art.

After an artistic mission of 44 years, the ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER – PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI, today estimates the production of approximately 1500 prints from 160 artists, who have collaborated with the workshop during its many years within the domestic and European art scene. The collection of the Athens Printmaking Art Center continues to be enriched with new works to this day. Since 2018, the ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER PANDOLFINI & SIATERLI opened for the public as a non-profit the cultural center ETCH INK art space, in the center of Athens. ETCH INK art space operates as the headquarters of C.N.P.P., as an exhibition space for art and printmaking, as a space for seminars and printmaking workshops, as an artistic space for projects, conferences, lectures, screenings, research programs on printmaking and its relations with other art forms, with other cultural organizations and galleries. Following the  exhibitions Self Portrait, Herbarium, Bestiarium I & II, the upcoming exhibition Escape Plan: 1984/2024 is the fourth international exhibition organised and produced by the ATHENS PRINTMAKING ART CENTER at ETCH INK art space.