The Memory Place
Co-Created by Julieanne Ehre, Eli Newell, and YOU.
Cultural memory is the constructed understanding of the past that is passed from one generation to the next through text, oral traditions, monuments, rites, and other symbols.
Call for Artistic Partners and Creators:
Pivot Arts seeks creative collaborators for a promenade, site-specific, multidisciplinary experience about cultural memory. Our focus is to tell dynamic, untold stories – of populations, cultures, individuals, and/or groups that have been erased, excluded from history books, or hidden from prevalent narratives. The project will utilize architectural, spacial and topographic elements both inside and of the neighborhood surrounding the Edge Theater Complex at 5451 N. Broadway in Chicago. The Edgewater & Uptown neighborhoods may be a focal point and container for installations of performance and media. That said, the journey of memory is rarely linear, so the “playing space” may act as a portal to destinations far away. Artists are encouraged to expand their lens as inspired to locate their own voice and humanity within this exploration. The institution of memory and its applications upon human life vary across culture, race, ethnicity, time, geographic location, age and other variables. Memory may exist as much in the orbit of the future as in the past and present. Memory is often inconsistent. Time and place may be foggy, moving in a nonlinear fashion. Flickers come to us in our conscious or subconscious while we may not recall certain details. Memory sometimes exists as a dream.
The project will take place in both the flexible Black Box and Mainstage Proscenium spaces at the Edge Theater Complex 5451 N. Broadway in Chicago, its hallways/lobby areas, and potentially surrounding streets as a site-specific, performance experience. We are looking for individual artists or collectives to share their memory piece as part of a larger performance. Projects will be funded based on number of collaborators and production-related needs (i.e. the funding for a ten minute solo piece is different than one that requires more artistic fees). Pivot Arts provides production staff; rehearsal/performance space; technical equipment and supplies; marketing and press; design support and other needs depending on scope. Artistic fees range from $1,000 to $5,000 depending on scope of project.
When:
Monday, 5/29/23 thru 6/1/23 Load-In/Tech Rehearsals
Performances 6/1/23 thru 6/11/23 Exact Schedule TBD
What:
We are seeking proposals that create a living memorial in a way that feels exciting, surprising, healing and regenerative. What are your untold stories springing forth for cultivation and sharing? What memories must you hand down through generations? What cultural histories need to be told and preserved? What kind of living monument to a person, event, or idea might you create through performance or other means?
How to Apply:
Proposals should be about 600 words in length and address the above prompt as your vision statement. Along with your artistic vision/description of piece please include the following details:
- Modality of the work: artistic medium(s), audience-orientation, etc. We welcome a range of styles such as a story, a dance piece, short film/video, music, interdisciplinary, walking tour, visual installation, ritual, cooking lesson etc. Styles may be interactive, immersive or presentational
- Self-identification (could be explicit or implicit)
- Scope of the work: number of collaborators, individual/partner, organization/collective, technical infrastructure needs (i.e. space, design elements, etc), approximate length of piece (in general, we are looking for works in a range of 10 minutes to up to 40 minutes in length; film/videos may be shorter)
- Your piece’s specific connection to the performance site and/or neighborhood: why the Edge Theater, Edgewater, Uptown, OR how we are transported from the site of performance to your metaphysical destination through art. Artists who don’t feel a strong connection to the neighborhood are still highly encouraged to submit a proposal and consider the ways in which our performance environment could facilitate an on-ramp for your vision and story.
- Element(s) of research and/or personal inspirations for the piece, including self-identification (either explicit or implicit) as to the cultural focus of your living memorial i.e. LGBTQIA2S+, BIPOC, migratory experiences, ethnic or religious groups, other, and/or an intersection.
- Links to relevant work samples, personal/organizational websites, social media sites, LinkedIn, and/or upcoming public showings of work
- Resumes/bios for collaborators
- Budget including expenses and funding you may have from other sources
To submit a proposal please email your written statement, bios, and links to work samples and websites as part of a single PDF document to info@pivotarts.org with the subject: The Memory Place no later than 11pm CST on Monday, February 20, 2023.