Call for Applications Does The Blue Sky Lie?: Testimonies of Air’s Toxicities 2021
Application DeadlineMarch 31, 2021
Project Duration
May 2021 – October 2021
Khoj invites proposals for “Does the Blue Sky Lie?: Testimonies of Air’s Toxicities,” a 3-year project supported by The Prince Claus Fund to explore the troubled ecology of Delhi’s air.
We are looking for projects by artists, designers and creative practitioners that mobilize attention to the micro-encounters we have with the atmosphere, create testimonies of toxic air, and imagine alternate atmospheric futures. These projects will be site-specific public art projects and will culminate in a city-wide public art intervention in October 2021. We are open to applications from across India that span disciplines and mediums and are especially at the intersection of art, ecology, science and environmental justice and activism.
At the cusp of an ecological and public-health emergency, air-pollution related deaths are rising. In 2019, 1.7 million Indians died due to air pollution, while millions more suffer poor health outcomes because of it. There is an urgent need to think about the ways in which the toxicity of the atmosphere unfolds in human bodies and across hyperlocal public spaces, its inequal effects along socio-economic, gender and caste-lines and the various ways in which it intersects with health, livelihoods and ecologies.
Khoj’s experience and learnings from past projects have strengthened and reinforced its belief in the need for artists to participate more actively as stakeholders in conversations of social and climate injustices, as well as lead the conversation on human entanglements with non-human entities and interconnected ecological systems.
Through this Open Call, we hope to ask :
How can artists and creative practitioners conceptualize public interventions to interrogate, draw attention to and propose alternatives to how we breathe and live?
Details
-We will be awarding up to 1.25 lakh rupees per project.
-We are looking for on-site projects with a strong focus on engaging publics and on incorporating interactivity and participation. We are looking for projects that propose artistic interventions in public spaces such as schools, hospitals, banks, shopping malls and mixed neighbourhoods across Delhi, while actively engaging with air pollution and inquiries into the atmosphere.
-We are also interested in projects realized on online platforms, with a focus on creating awareness, reaching wider digital publics and creating avenues of participation, through interactive games, memes, zines, social media interventions and other formats to create immersive and participatory experiences drawing attention to the various facets of air pollution in Indian cities.
To Apply
Please fill up this form to complete your application process
https://forms.gle/ZFdXTCm1UPz56PhU9
Selected applicants will receive a production budget as well as curatorial and administrative support to realize proposed projects. Khoj will be able to support travel and accommodation at Khoj Studios for selected applicants based outside New Delhi where possible.
