Open Call for Artists and Designers
Deadline: October 31st, 2024
On the occasion of visiting curator Cecilia Casabona and the support of @stimuleringsfonds, La Clínica is launching an #OpenCall directed to artists and designers with a strong affinity to craft. Cecilia’s research critically explores materiality, tactility, and the maker's background. Her work focuses on how a maker's personal and cultural background becomes entwined, or distanced from in their creative practice.
Contemporary Mexican design and craft have developed alongside a complex history of assimilation, rejection, and re-appropriation of Modernist ideals, this collaboration seeks to re-examine the role of the artist/maker/designer, questioning the conventional division between design and craft and and confronting the complexities of the auto-ethnographic turn in design, with all its inherent risks and contradictions.
The core ambition of this residency is to foster open dialogue with young and emerging designers in Mexico. Through this exchange, we aim to define modernity not just as a theoretical framework, but as a practice that through design, reshapes how we think and act in the world. By reframing contemporary (and future) design from a non-Western perspective, this project/exhibition seeks to break away from the dominant narrative that pits "modern design" against "traditional craft." This binary has been shaped by a history of systematic exploitation and the marginalization of “the other,” perpetuated by Western ideologies.
Guided by La Clínica's deep local expertise, this residency and invitation will focus on how these themes resonate beyond Europe, particularly in the region of Oaxaca.
Exhibition
The research will culminate in a physical group exhibition at La Clínica, featuring emerging Mexican-based designers selected through this open call. Each chosen designer will participate in a series of dialogues that will inform the creation of material/immaterial objects. These works, displayed in the exhibition space, will embody the collaborative process of rethinking the role of the designer in today’s world.
If this resonates with your practice, you can apply by sending an email to info@laclinca.art including:
- A brief description of your practice and how this OpenCall connects with your work (max 250 words)
- 2-3 visual examples of your work
- A short bio (max. 100 words)
Selected applicants are provided with a $15,000mxn production budget.
About the curator
Cecilia Casabona (she/her) is an Italian independent curator operating specifically in the field of design. She is also an associate curator of Onomatopee Projects in Eindhoven. Cecilia obtained a masters from the Design Academy Eindhoven with an emphasis on curating and writing. Her research investigates the role of the designer in their built environment, Cecilia investigates the tools and design research strategies that designers are using today. Based in The Netherlands, her curatorial practice contributes significantly to the cultural bridge between Italy and the Netherlands through various participations, and collaborations during Dutch and Milan Design Weeks.
https://ceciliacasabona.cargo.site/
https://ceciliacasabona.cargo.site/
Opening times during exhibitions:
Monday: 13:00 – 18:00
Tuesday: closed
Wednesday to Saturday:
11:00 – 19:00
Sunday: 11:00 – 18:00
-> Accessibility
Monday: 13:00 – 18:00
Tuesday: closed
Wednesday to Saturday:
11:00 – 19:00
Sunday: 11:00 – 18:00
-> Accessibility
La Clínica
C. Macedonio Alcalá 808
68000 Centro Oaxaca
México
C. Macedonio Alcalá 808
68000 Centro Oaxaca
México