CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS 2017- NOW CLOSED
Art Spin is gearing up for its ninth season this summer and is looking for exciting and imaginative submissions for its 2017 programming starting in June.
Art Spin has been operating professionally as an arts presenter since 2009, activating decommissioned venues and unique public spaces to produce large scale group exhibitions along with curated bicycle-led art tours, showcasing a wide range of newly commissioned art programming in unique site-specific settings.
Most recently Art Spin produced in/future: a transformative art experience, the highly acclaimed 11 day multidisciplinary art and music festival at Ontario Place this past September. Led by Layne Hinton and Rui Pimenta, artists and independent curators, Art Spin is driven by a strong sense of commitment and passion for presenting contemporary artworks in unusual, everyday spaces in order to make its audience’s experience with art more engaging and exciting.
Art Spin’s bicycle led art tours have become one of the city’s most anticipated events of the summer, attracting a diverse and enthusiastic audience of at least 350 people per tour. Programming is varied, consisting of commissioned, multi-disciplinary works which range from art performances to installations.
Central to Art Spin’s mandate and a big part of what makes our tours so impactful is our commitment to transplanting encounters with art from conventional, institutional spaces into more alternative and public environments. We believe that encounters with art are made more meaningful and demonstrably engaging when they are experienced in a communal context, in unique site-specific locations.
In past years we have commissioned projects that have taken place in parking structures, empty lots, public parks, vacant factories and warehouses, alleyways, churches, schoolyards, community spaces, hockey rinks and construction sites.
With this in mind Art Spin is looking for project submissions that are able to respond to their urban and cultural environment. Submissions for art projects from all disciplines (visual arts, installation, sculpture, film & video, new media, performance art, dance, theatre and music etc.) will be accepted but only those that embody a site-specific vision will be reviewed. This can mean work that responds to an environment in either a geographic, architectural, cultural, historical, or personal manner. Submissions that rely on a gallery type setting will not be considered.
HOW TO SUBMIT:
Art Spin is seeking submissions from individual artists and collectives working in a variety of disciplines including but not limited to; sculpture, installation, film & video, electronic & kinetic work, painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, performance art, dance, music, and theatre. We are eager to receive submissions for new projects and are also open to reviewing existing works so long as they speak to our curatorial theme (see guidelines).
Applicants must read the Art Spin submission guidelines and submit a completed submission package. The full guidelines, and application form, including artist fees, can be found following the buttons and links below.
Deadline: Monday March 6th (11:59pm)
We highly recommend having a look at past examples of projects featured on Art Spin tours if you have never attended one, see below.
If you have any further questions about the submissions process, please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@artspin.ca.
Past works created for Art Spin
Tent City by Dave Colangelo and Patricio Davila was a large-scale and site-specific projection on the old Victory Soya Mill silos down near Parliament and Lakeshore. Adjacent to this site was a Tent City, home to hundreds of Toronto's homeless until they were evicted by the property owners in 2002. The artists working here thoroughly researched this history and site, speaking to previous residents and activists involved with tent city and issues of homelessness and subsidized housing in the city. The research manifested in a beautiful short video piece with a powerful pairing of narrative text and images, projected on the side of the silos.
Our Last Picture by Je Suis Julio was a performance that combined dance, live music, electronic sound, and a live projection feed. The piece worked beautifully with the majestic space in St. Lawrence Hall playing off the architecture in the projection. The multi-discplinary nature of the work was appealing to Art Spin audiences as it seemed to bridge gaps between dance, installation and cinema in interesting ways.
We Are The Champions by Humboldt Magnussen was an elaborate yet playful performance art piece exploring combinations of masculinity, strength, viking heritage, football and ballet. The interactive piece came alive in a natural amphitheatre in Stanley Park and elicited audience interaction to contribute to the energy of the work.
End Zone was a special project by Art Spin curator Rui Pimenta. Written by Jordan Tannahill and directed by Zack Russell, the short play centred around a couple discussing what could be the end of their relationship. A success of the piece was the way in which its minimal set was situated in Lamport Stadium, a grand space for specator sports, yet for the production the audience was witnessing an intimate and private moment that played out on the field.
The Lines by Mark Prier was a sculptural installation made of reclaimed pine posts that were held together with steel bolts. His work explores conservation and urbanization, using materials that once grew in the now populated toronto area. The installation sat in a small parkette that highlighted the natural aspects of the work amongst the suburbia surrounding it.
Workers That Live In The Mirror by Dave Colangelo and Patricio Davila was a site-specific and large scale projection on the exterior of an industrial warehouse space. The appropriated footage not only matched the surface of the building aesthetically, but featured scenes that were conceptually tied to the building's history as a a factory.
Sandpiles was performed in a construction lot at the Railpath and Sterling Rd. It was a compelling movement-based performance exploring the joys and struggles of solitude and relation. Performed by Cara Spooner and Alicia Grant with choreography by Rui Pimenta.
Mortified was a performance piece by Jenn Goodwin and Camilla Singh that took place in August 2012. The piece was located in an empty lot off the railpath north of Bloor St. Four vehicles played an important role in the piece, but also provided an evocative way of lighting the performance. The piece involved drumming, cheerleading, muscle cars and interesting plays on gender dynamics. The high energy performance had the women kicking up dirt in the highbeams and riding away atop the cars while playing their drumkits.
Cara Spooner created a movement-based performance piece called Invitations/Into/Traces that took place on the July 2012 tour in an empty hockey rink at Dufferin Grove park. The work played with the relationship between performer and audience as she physically moved spectators around the rink.
Michael Louis Johnson & The Red Rhythm performed in an abandoned garage space around Dufferin St. and Alma Ave. Art Spin participants had to walk in through an empty lot to access the space where the musicians performed gypsy inspired music with aerial artist Haley Shannon on silks. The remote location of the work and magical performance made a surprising and memorable stop on the tour.
MooCow did a performance in 2010 that was almost reminiscent of a flash-mob in a Price Chopper grocery store. In a large group, Art Spin participants entered the store to fill the produce aisles. There we found two women shopping who broke out into song and dance among the lemons and limes.
Radiant Brass Ensemble arranged by Scott Thompson played a musical piece on horns as the Art Spinners circled them on their bicycles. The musicians each played a different tone and as participants steered around them their experience changed depending on their speed and position.
My Street Has No Trees was a project in 2011 by Haley Immerman and Angel Chan. They created simple and sustainable planter that mounts on the top of a ring and post bike stand. At the beginning of the tour as participants gathered and readied themselves for the night Haley and Angel facilitated the installation of several of these planters while inviting and involving Art Spinners in the process. They also created a downloadable template/handout so that people could repeat the project on their own street at a later date. We were drawn to this project for its involvement of the cycling posts, its urban awareness and environmental activism and level of interactivity.
This is an example map of one of our Art Spin tours in 2012. The blue line is the route we took from Trinity Bellwoods, headed North-West to Sterling Rd. The tour routes are varying and they are determined closer to the date as we program events. The route itself and cityscape are included as a curated element alongside the art projects on view and as a result neighbourhoods are temporarily transformed and their inhabitants see familiar streets and neighbourhoods in a different context during an Art Spin tour.
We encourage artists to work on site-specific proposals as we consider the urban landscape important to the tour and we like to see artists responding to their environment. Because of the way we design the tour routes however, we may have to work with artists to change the site and have it fit on the route.