Edition 8 "Yesterday's Contemporaneity": Call for Artistic Submissions

Art can be understood as a product of its Zeitgeist- a reflection of the time from which it comes. The temporal dimension of art has long been used by artists to understand their own position in time and to link themselves and their work both to the past and the present. The 8th issue of the journal Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture seeks artistic submissions that address the relationship between artists and their time and ask what it means to be contemporary.

Contemporaneity’s 8th edition, titled “Yesterday’s Contemporaneity,” uncovers how cultures throughout the global past have negotiated temporalities, modernities, and historicisms to come to terms with what it means to be present in their own moment. How can both history and modernity be visualized, contextualized, or conceptualized to create a sense of contemporaneity? How have institutions created temporalities for the cultures they study, and how can a historical object or space shape a person’s perception of an entire culture’s identity or agency? What is at stake in defining a work of art’s place in time? For the arts section of edition 8 Contemporaneity is seeking artworks engaged with these or other questions relevant to the negotiation of temporalities within one’s art practice. In particular, we welcome submissions concerning anachronisms, futurisms, revisionisms, as well as spoliation, re-use of the past, and appropriation. 

The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2019. Submissions should include the candidate’s full name, e-mail address and telephone number, a brief biography, an abstract about the artist’s work, 3-5 keywords, and a single PDF containing high-quality image(s) of each work to enable the selection committee to form as accurate an idea as possible of the applicant’s practice. 

There is no entry fee and no monetary publication reward. Applicants working exclusively in the medium of video are advised to provide a link to a video hosting site such as Vimeo or YouTube or to their own site where the video can be viewed.

To make a submission, visit contemporaneity.pitt.edu, click Register and create an Author profile to get started. We recognize that submissions may take many forms. As such, proposals and questions can be directed to the editors at contemporaneityjournal@gmail.com.

Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture is an open access journal organized by the History of Art and Architecture Department at the University of Pittsburgh. Visit contemporaneity.pitt.edu and constellations.pitt.edu for more information.