Call for applications: SA's Spier Festival of Light Art 2020

How to apply

• Expressions of interest must include a short response to either of the themes (no more than a page), concept sketches and a provisional budget indicating whether this is to be funded in part or total by the Spier Arts Trust.
• Submission of video-based artworks must include a short conceptual outline with web links to the work or examples of previous work.

The above application material should be emailed to the project manager at lightart@spier.co.za. The submission deadline is 20 November. A more thorough proposal may be requested after the initial shortlist is announced.

The Spier Arts Trust will either fund or part-fund the installations chosen by the selection committee, which will be headed by curator Jay Pather.

Thematic directions

• The whimsical/ethereal: works can reflect light-hearted engagement with one of the multiple sites.
• The conceptual: works can reflect and integrate more topical conceptual interests that frame the current socio-political landscape as well as COVID-19 directly.
• Works could also reflect on the shifting relationship of technology and its disruptive influence.
• There is a specific call for existing video-based artworks produced during lockdown which reflect and integrate more topical conceptual interests that frame our current socio-political landscape.

“Light art installations are mercurial by nature,” curators, Jay Pather and Vaughn Sadie said. “Transcending the confines of their materiality, light artworks are also defined by what they illuminate or hide.

“These experiences – of walking and pausing, catching a glimpse or settling down to absorb – invited introspection, adventure and playfulness. Scattered across the Spier estate, each work offered an opportunity to experience the complex, multi-hued, multi-faceted texture of our environment and ourselves.”