[artinfo] call for works - Family Happiness

[Beata Hock]

Mutual Coexistence o.s. in cooperation with Ministry of Labour and
Social Affairs ČR
Announces an open call for an exhibition
Family Happiness

Dates of realisation:   September / October 2008
Place of realisation:   Lichtenstein Palace (Kampa, Prague) commercial
advertising spaces, Subway information system Metrovision
Curators:       Zuzana Štefková, Lenka Kukurová


The Mutual Coexistence o.s. initiated educational programs whose aim is
to prevent the wide spread practice of withdrawing children from
socially handicapped (predominantly Roma) families and their placing in
state institutions of child care. By means of the Family Happiness
exhibition project the association in cooperation with contemporary
artists tries to draw wider interest toward this issue and engender a
public debate. The title of the exhibition tackles the problematic
presumption that children are better off in these institutions than in
their own families.

Part of this exhibition should be a presentation of videos, posters and
photographs in public spaces, i.e. in subway, on billboards and other
commercial spaces, also as a part of a web site presenting all the works
and providing basic information.

We call upon artists interested in taking part in the project who would
like to react to the problems connected to the issue of (in)complete
families, be it from political, social, cultural or religious
perspective.

Among the Czech and foreign artists who accepted the call already are
the co-initiator of the project Tamara Moyzes, as well as Tanja Ostojić,
Lenka Klodová, Eva Koťátková, Pavlína Fichta Čierna, Jana Štěpánová,
Kateřina Fojtíková, Richard Wiesner, Eva Jiřičková, Michal Šiml, Dušan
Záhoranský, Pavla Sceranková, the group Mothers and Fathers etc.)

Documentation of your project should be delivered by the 1st of
September 2008 to the following  e-mail address:
zuzana.stefkova at fcca.cz, or sent via regular mail to: Zuzana Štefková,
Za Strahovem 19, 169 00 Prague 6. The documentation should include the
visualisation of the work (photograph of the realised work or a sketch),
its written description and a your CV. Should the work be realised
online, we need to obtain the definite version of the project by the
15th of June 2008.
The proposals will be assessed and chosen from by the curators Zuzana
Štefková and Lenka Kukurová.

We hope that you will find the project interesting and join us in our
attempt to show the alarming numbers of children that unnecessarily end
up in the state run child-care institutions (the number of children
under the 3 years of age placed in these institutions in Czech Republic
is the largest out of all European states). We believe that contemporary
art has the potential to show these problems from an unexpected angle
and stimulate a critical reflection of the issue as well as a
transformation of the public opinion on it and ultimately provoke the
change within the approach of our state representatives.
    
Project is supported by the European Committee, Ministry of Labour and
Social Affairs of Czech Republic, Statutory City of Ostrava, Foundation
of Tereza Maxová and Foundation of Olga Havlová.