Call for Artists | Otherness and Disability in Art

What works are we looking for in particular?

As part of this call, we will accept high-quality digital documentation of existing works of any nature (or you can provide us with works in physical form and we will arrange for their photography), digital works, or digital records of events. If you deliver the works to us in physical form, we will return them back to you afterwards. In addition to the works themselves, a verbal accompaniment will also be required, please see below for instructions. Submitted works will be accepted based on their quality and compatibility with the theme of the exhibition.

How can we perceive and display disability? What does it mean to refer to disability as a social construct? How sharp is the line between normality and otherness?

The accompanying text, which is one of the requirements for participation, will contain the following items:

1. Name and surname of the author;

2. Biography of the author with a portrait photo;

3. Title of the work and text counterpart in the range of min. 600 characters, which will offer an insight into the author's thinking and their way of approaching the given theme, or will make it possible to understand the process of creation of the work.

How can we perceive and display disability? What does it mean to refer to disability as social construct? How sharp is the line between normality and otherness?

The theme of the virtual exhibition

The theme of the virtual exhibition is the phenomenon of otherness or disability and the transformation of these constructs over time – just like the forthcoming monothematic issue of the peer-reviewed journal Kultura, umění a výchova [Culture, Art and Education]. Works of art, documentary photography, illustrations, recordings of events or applied works, e.g. from the field of design, will reflect on the very concept of disability in the context of current deconstructive approaches developed theoretically, e.g. within disability studies or practically in partial artistic self-determining and emancipatory activist groups or movements such as crip culture, Deaf art, etc.

How can we perceive and display disability? What does it mean to refer to disability as a social construct? How sharp is the line between normality and otherness? Is there such a thing as a defining norm for body and mind, or has normality lost its power in a diversified pluralistic society? Or, is the dictate of the ‘correct’ body and mindset within the contemporary Instagram culture even more poignant? Doesn't the very concept of otherness lose its meaning when we are each unique and therefore different? Is it correct or sustainable to see disability as the subject of a ‘remedy’ or charitable approach? How to visually represent people with disabilities in public discourse? Are people that use advanced compensatory aids ‘cripples’, paupers, or rather cyborgs, already heralding a future in which the human body and technology will be routinely combined?

The keywords of this call for artists are otherness, normality, normal vs. different body, beauty vs. ugliness, limits of normality, impotence vs. heroism, inspiration porn, ableism, different perception and thinking, absence, incompleteness vs. integrity, fear of disability and imperfection, (in)accessibility, movement vs. immobility, ability vs. disability etc.

The theme can be conceived as a visual essay on the theme of disability in social and cultural contexts or as a critical visual documentary. We welcome the works of artists with sensory, mental, physical or other differences and their authentic expression of the reality of disability.

Dates and contact

Submission date: we accept works until June 1, 2023

Assessment of works, selection and notification of authors: until June 30, 2023

Realisation of the exhibition: until the end of 2023 (to be specified)

Contact: the curator of the virtual exhibition is Petra Šobáňová, petra.sobanova(v)upol.cz