Gallery Siva invites artists, curators and artist collectives to apply to its open call for 2024.
The application deadline is August 15th 2023.
You can apply by filling out the form HERE
Authors selected will be notified up until the end of December 2023.
For all questions, please contact: galerijasiva@attack.hr
The program of gallery Siva is based on presentation, production and education – closely related to street art, graffiti art, design, comics, illustration and other fields of visual art with the main criteria being unconventionality and creating outside of the mainstream.
What distinguishes gallery Siva from other venues and programmes are Siva’s location and founders. It is located inside of Medika – an old medical factory which was squatted by various subcultural collectives under the umbrella of the Autonomous Cultural Centre Attack, who transformed the old factory into an independent, autonomous social cultural centre. The centre functions as various similar European spaces, by the principle of revitalisation of abandoned venues with an aim of transforming them to venues for production and work of various artistic and cultural collectives, that act by do it yourself principles, and realized primarily by voluntary work. The second specificity arose from fulfilling the needs of one subcultural group – graffiti artists, who formed the gallery in 2012 – to create a space for work and presentations.
Even though one specific subcultural group formed it, gallery Siva does not have programmatic and conceptual restrictions – one of its main objectives is the affirmation of artists creating in various styles and media, as well as ones who do not have an opportunity, or refuse to, exhibit in institutional galleries. The functioning model of institutional galleries today does not focus on artists and their needs, or on new coming authors, and because of that, they necessarily turn to themselves, self-organize and create their own autonomous spaces.There isn’t enough space provided by institutions to unknown or young artists, while those who are oriented towards younger or not affirmed artists base their program on strict selection, blocking presentation opportunities for the majority of underground artists. For these reasons our goal was to create a gallery specifically oriented to both – institutionally educated and artists without formal institutional education, creating street art, graffiti art, illustration, comics, researching new media, and dealing with artistic experiments and / or subcultural currents.
The majority of gallery Siva’s program is created and based in do it yourself (DIY) poetics, realizing exhibitions important for the underground scene as low-budget productions, but sometimes even with hundreds people attending the opening nights. The programme is designed to provide support to artists in the form of a contemporary art gallery venue, and an unconventional Croatian and international cultural / subcultural exchange spot. The featured artists are free to exhibit in different formats – starting from a classical exhibition setup to a total transformation of the whole space by means of 3D scenery, light or paint.
Gallery Siva offers:
– travel expenses for artists from Croatia, up to 100 euros directly related to the realization of the programme
– travel expenses for international artists, up to 300 euros directly related to the realization of the programme
– accommodation in organization’s guest rooms in artist in residence programme
– partial coverage of production expenses (only for new work produced at a residency)
– basic technical conditions and full coverage of technical expenses for an exhibition
– promotion and marketing support
– full expense coverage of promo materials
– documentation of exhibition
– administrative support in case of application in various mobility funds ( providing invitation letter or other organization documents if needed)
