"What's the deal?" – A Transnational Project on Young Urban Cultures …

Between 4 and 6 July, a unique mural appeared in the city centre on the building of Ljubljana Administrative Unit, created by Finnish artist Pallo Ollap.

MURAL ARTS RESIDENCY

As part of the international multidisciplinary project What’s the Deal? (WTD), Kino Šiška has hosted an international Mural Arts Residency. In 2014 the participating artist was Pallo Ollap.

In recent years, Ljubljana as well as other cities have been faced with the issue of inconsiderate and mostly unrestricted growth of billboards, large public LCD displays and other types of invasive advertising. Almost any large portrait area near main urban arteries is being transformed into an area designated for advertising and marketing. With the help of murals, WTD and Kino Šiška wish to redistribute some of these areas for artistic purposes.

And who is Pallo Ollap? This young Finnish artist is a student of applied arts and design at Aalto University, Helsinki. He creates illustrations and paintings, mainly for fun, but occasionally also to make a living. For more than ten years, he has been an active street artist and his murals can be admired in the streets of several Finnish cities.

Kino Šiška will be holding an international artist-in-residence programme. To fill the position in 2014, the Finnish artist Pallo Ollap has been chosen from among the 24 artist applications.

Pallo Ollap is a student of applied arts and design at Aalto University, Helsinki. He works in illustration and painting, mostly for fun, but occasionally also to make a living. For more than a decade, he has been active in street art; his murals can be seen and admired on the streets of several Finnish cities.

The artist-in-residence programme in Ljubljana will be held in July 2014. During this period, the artist will create a unique mural in the city centre.
Stay tuned for more information.

Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture (Ljubljana, Slovenia) is pleased to announce its mural arts initiative as part of the transnational project about young urban art: What’s The Deal? The project explores the phenomena of consumption and sustainability in connection with young urban cultures and uses street art, design, and digital media as exemplary fields.

Between 2013 and 2015, partners from several European countries will organize a series of sustainability-related activities in all partner cities: from theme-related mapping of respective scenes to art intervention workshops as well as creative and innovative art work and installations – made visible in public events.

MURAL ARTS RESIDENCY

Project Description:

For the last decades, not only Ljubljana, but also other cities have been facing the problem of unbridled and poorly regulated sprouting of billboards, large public LCD displays and other types of invasive advertising. This is leading to the conversion of almost any large vertical surface along urban arterial roads into a surface used for advertising and marketing purposes. Kino Šiška will initiate mural arts activities to reclaim some of the space for artistic use.

This call for entries is due by Monday, March 3, 2014 at 12 a.m. CET and is open to all areas of visual arts. Proposals that combine visual arts with other media (e.g. painting + sound) are also welcome.

Two mural arts residencies are offered to artists who want to develop and present their work addressing the theme of consumption and sustainability.

This residency offers a four-week stay in Ljubljana. Artists for each of the two residencies will receive a fee of 1000 EUR net. The residency will take place for three to four weeks in the June 2014 – July 2014 period. The final dates will be set in an agreement between Kino Šiška and the selected artists.

A basic budget for materials and services for realizing the work will be covered by the organizer (Kino Šiška). Travel costs to and from Ljubljana will also be taken care of.

Participants must be EU residents or residents of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey, Former Yugoslav republics or Turkey. Slovenian artist will not be accepted.

Younger artists (under 35) will receive a more favourable treatment. Inclusive approaches that would involve an active role of Slovenian artists, designers or other practitioners in development and/or realization of the project are also preferred.

To Inquire:

Please send your project ideas via e-mail (piera.ravnikar@kinosiska.si). The submission should include:

–                  A short written explanation about the proposed work plan or project concept. We would like the topic of the proposed artwork to resonate well with our concern about contemporary consumer culture and long term sustainability. (Please limit your explanations to one page – make it short and to the point! Less can be more. You are welcome to include sketches or visual materials).

–              Provisional technical specification (materials and services you will need for making your project happen).

–             A short CV or Bio (please limit it to half of a page).

–             A maximum of 10 images from past works are welcome, pictures of murals are preferred (Images should be at least 800px in width or height, but not bigger than 2MB per image). Please include an image listing document with your filename, title of artwork, media, size, and location of mural. Please name your files as follows: imagenumber_lastname_title: i.e. 001_eisenberg_untitled.jpg.

–              Your basic contact data (name, address, date of birth, email, mobile phone No).

and

–              Anything else you might find crucial.

In the selection process Kino Šiška might require more information about the project and your entry. Email will be the predominant means of communication, so stay tuned and check out this page for possible updates!