Sparks -  call for Artists

 

Disturbance: mistake, error, trouble, disorder, annoyance, intrusion, interruption, bother, disruption, irritation, default, entropy.

 

Last summer there was a war.  The damage to people, economy and infrastructures are well documented and known.  The nature reserves, forests and landscapes were hurt. Trees, plants and animals were burned, and clearances were formed in the Galilee landscapes.

 

The coming winter will wash, clean, revive and wipe the remains and the memories of this summer.

A moment before that happens, the Israeli Forum for Ecological Art calls for a creative response, reviewing or reflecting at the situation.

 

According to “Disturbance theory” as in the paper of  James S. Clark “Testing Disturbance Theory with Long-Term Data: Alternative Life-History Solutions to the Distribution of Events” published in American Naturalist, Vol. 148, No. 6 (Dec., 1996), pp. 976-996 –

 “Long-term disturbance regimes are summarized as density functions of intervals between fires parameterized from fire scars on trees and in sediment charcoal records. Changes in the density of fire intervals in the past are the basis for predictions that different taxes would dominate, depending on their life histories.” 

 

The other possibility, is the common one: what is the level of disturbance, where the natural system starts changing completely? What kinds of consequences are there for humans?

 

Such investigations are exampled in ecological artist Aviva Rahmani’s “Ghost Nets” project, which restored and monitored a degraded site by applying these principles.

In Yellowstone National Park, in the USA, there was a 20 year survey on the influence of fires. In Israel, there is not enough knowledge about the behavior of such ecological systems. There are no budgets for the  long term monitoring of and estimation of the damage which war inflicted. For instance, would the damaged ecological system responsively benefit from the disturbance or not? Are we talking about entropy situations, where you can identify disorders in pre-determined routines? In the ‘70^'s ,Artist Robert Smithson wrote about situations which can lead to decadence or blindness. (Alison Sky, Entropy Made Visible’, interview on site #4, 1973, The Writings of Robert Smithson, published by Nancy Holt, N.Y. Univ. Press 1979).

 

Exhibition/presentation theme

We seek your distinctive artist’s eye to find the hidden un-sensational details of the whispering pain of nature, the understanding of the disturbance we caused to the natural ecosystems and the response to the visual documentation or additional documentation which will be sent to registered artists. We look for your creative research & response to uncover the unseen details we discover in the bombed-open fields.

We look for a closer look at the inner details of nature, damaged during the war. These are events that may be passed by, thousands of times without perceiving them. We need your reflection on the state of disturbance .This is a call for eco-artists to create a piece, based on these ideas and on the larger meanings of disturbance.

 

Responses are welcomed in all media as a reaction to the existing documentation or to the affected area.  Ecological advice may be given to interested artists.

 

“Sparks” is an exhibition of artists from Israel and abroad reacting to war damage from fire with artistic means.  The Israeli Forum for Ecological Art sees this as its duty: to initiate the project, even though it has no budget to do so.

We will collect the works and show them in a special presentation, to raise awareness about aspects of the war that usually do not attract public attention.

 

Material to sent to registered artists:

1.       A visual chart – photographed right after the truce.

2.       Scientific information

3.       A visual presentation of a landscape photographer

4.       Photographs during the war.

 

Presentation program

1.       A virtual exhibition with all artworks

- According to finding sponsorships:-

2.       A projection of the artworks in various events .

3.       A traveling exhibition .

4.       Posters will be selected and printed from the artworks and will be situated in

      public places.

5.       Conference on - Ethics In Reclamation & Restoration, after the War.

 

 Participation terms:

1.       Please send through e mail, in 72 dpi resolution, Jpg. photos of the work, 

      between 1-5 artworks, title, and description no more than 200 words, material

      used, original size and space if it is photographed on site.sound - please send *wave files or link to your website.

2.       Approval form of each artist, to allow the rights to use them for any 

      presentation, virtual or printed, under the theme.

3.   Fee- For non israeli artists, we ask a small participation fee of 50$  from each artist on registration  to cover our administrative costs.  

4. Sending the material to us, will be considered as giving the rights to use it for Sparks exhibition ( virtual presentation in a disk ).

                                                    

 Selecting the works 

 1. Between one- five works will be shown from each artist selected, in a  

     virtual exhibition.

 2.  A committee from the Forum will select artwork for a possible printed

      exhibition and posters, but will not necessarily be required to exhibit or 

      accept any of the works.

      The committee includes members of the board of the Forum, a 

       representative of the Nature and  

       Parks Authority, the Director of ARCADA, and the curator of the

       exhibition, Ms. Shai Zakai, the  Director of the forum.

 3.  Deadline for the first event participation:  Nov. 29 .

 4. Deadline for the second event : Marsh 10. artworks are accepted from Jan.