CIRCUIT, in partnership with the Physics Room, Composite (Australia), and Storage (Bangkok), invites proposals from artists for a short film commission as part of Homing Instinct, a collaborative international project which examines the human necessity for housing, shelter, and belonging.
CIRCUIT is offering one $3,000 commission to an Aotearoa artist to make a new short moving image work, which will become part of Homing Instinct and tour to partner venues in New Zealand, Australia, and Thailand.
Why this project now?
Homing Instinct is a response to living in a time that requires not only redress of housing inequalities, but as part of that, more expansive conceptions of housing-shelter-belonging. In awareness of the social and environmental climates effects which see the increasing displacement of people, the exchange of stories around housing and home is both politically and personally necessary. As a whole, the project intends to foreground empathetic, powerful, visionary discussion about the future of housing, shelter and belonging in our respective contexts, and to assert the importance of embodied, spiritual and psychological elements within any discussion of housing.
Where will Homing Instinct be shown?
The programme will initially be hosted across three international art spaces, with public screenings at: The Physics Room, Ōtautahi; Composite, Naarm, Australia; and Storage Art Space, Bangkok. There is potential for the programme to travel further subsequently.
What kind of works are sought?
We are seeking proposals that consider the following topics:
Housing
Works focused on the physical materiality and effects of built housing structures. This may span socially-oriented architectures, critique of and reflection on urban gentrification processes, renters’ rights, to imagined future housing. These works may register the disjunct between housing as something physical, that we can see, and its status as a human right.
Shelter
Works that focus on the metaphysical, considering the house or home or built architecture as an extension of the body, and asking what needs and desires are met through the idea of shelter, experientially and psychologically constituted as well as through tangible structures. This notion of home may be expansive, manifesting relationally between people, whenua/land and te tai ao/the environment more broadly.
Belonging
Works that focus on questions of belonging. These may include how to respond to the question “where are you from?” How are we able to connect and be located as diasporic communities? Are there relational modes of belonging found in care for other living beings—including ancestors and the cosmological beings—that are more-than place based?
How to apply
To apply, please submit a proposal that includes:
a description of the proposed project (up to 1 page in length)
a bio of the artist, and details of any proposed collaborators
video links to previous work
Please email your proposal to Mark Williams, director@circuit.org.nz.
Any enquiries can be sent to the same address.
Deadline
The deadline for proposals is 10am Friday 15 September 2023.
About the Project Partners
The Physics Room: Based in central Ōtautahi Christchurch since 1996, The Physics Room is a contemporary art space dedicated to developing and promoting contemporary art and critical discourse in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Composite: is a new space in Melbourne Australia dedicated to supporting experimental cinema.
Storage: is an artist-initiated space in Bangkok that aims to provide a platform for both local and international artists, and expose the city's art communities to a broader spectrum of artistic practices and concepts.