Open Call 2024
Deadline Fri 31 Mar 2023, 13:00

On this page:

Liesel Burisch: NEVER STOP, video still, 2022. The piece was part of Burisch's show at O—Overgaden, selected through O—Overgaden's Open Call.

O—Overgaden presents around eight grand-scale exhibitions a year, mainly based on the institution’s long tradition of Open Calls. Artists – Danish and international – are now invited to apply to exhibit within next year’s exhibition program. The application deadline is March 31, at 1pm.

O—Overgaden explicitly invites artists to submit an application based on their practice, rather than applying with an already defined exhibition proposal. Artists are thus invited to describe recent and long-term developments, methodologies, and continuous transformations, as well as thoughts on coming developments within their practice.

Instead of asking for a specific project fitted to the institution, O—Overgaden concentrates on molding the institution to the artistic practice and providing support as it develops, adapting to the artistic production’s material changes, conceptual crossroads, unexpected turns, and detours that take place in the process of making an exhibition. It is thus the idea that the development of the exhibition takes place in close dialogue between the artist and O—Overgaden’s curatorial and installation team.

In order to secure resources for the changing exhibitions and exhibitors, Overgaden’s Open Call currently centers on solo shows, whether a single artist’s work, artistic duos, groups of artists working collectively, or an artist and a curator in collaboration. 

Application Process

  • Application deadline: March 31, 2023, 1pm

Please submit your application via O–Overgaden’s online application platform. You can find the link for this at the bottom of this page, or by clicking here. Beyond filling in the form, please submit a CV and documentation as one PDF file, maximum size 5MB.

More information about the application material:

  • Summary & Motivation: Please submit a brief summary of your practice description, adding a few thoughts on why an exhibition at O—Overgaden makes sense now (maximum 1,000 characters incl. spacing).

  • Practice description: Please submit a description of your practice and artistic processes including thoughts on upcoming developments (maximum 3,000 characters incl. spacing).

  • CV and documentation/portfolio (to be collected in one PDF, maximum 5MB): Please submit image documentation of previous and current artworks and production. O—Overgaden recommends that the portfolio contains a maximum of 20–25 images. For performance, video, and sound pieces, please submit one or more links. For longer time-based works, we recommend preparing shorter preview clips with a maximum duration of 2–3 minutes. Please submit a CV of maximum 2 pages.

By uploading your material you consent to Overgaden keeping your application in our archive for up to two years.

Process, Deadline, and Response

  • Deadline for applying is 1pm on March 31, 2023.

  • It typically takes a minimum of two months to process the Open Call applications and reply to all applicants. The response will not be individualized.

Process and Program at Overgaden

In O—Overgaden’s Open Call programming, emphasis is put on experimental, emerging, and distinctive artistic practices, and on productions of critical and societal relevance. O—Overgaden focuses on offering support and shedding light on new artistic positions or new aspects of an artistic practice, which often coincides with inviting artists early in their professional development.

The Open Call is overseen by the Director of O—Overgaden. The Director and Curator at O—Overgaden will be processing the applications.

Overall, O—Overgaden aims to present a program that spans a breadth of discourse, voices, and media. The program is devoted to actively working against inequality and discrimination, whether based on gender, ethnicity, background, body, or regional or international kinship.

Collaboration

A solo exhibition typically occupies a larger part of either O—Overgaden’s 1st or 2nd floor.

Artists who are offered an exhibition at O—Overgaden are invited into a collaboration with the organization’s curatorial and technical teams on the grounds of their practice, with the objectives of supporting and contextualizing the development of an exhibition—often including a new, large-scale production.

O—Overgaden collaborates with the artists in planning and setting up a budget for the exhibition and supports the artists in their own fundraising efforts.

O—Overgaden is further offering the invited artists an exhibition honorarium of 16,500 DKK and support for the exhibition production, financially as well as technically. O—Overgaden will organize the exhibition opening, one or more events related to the exhibition, photo documentation of the exhibition, and a print publication accompanying the exhibition. As well, O—Overgaden will promote the show both locally and internationally.