short film, video and new media festival Ghent 2009 invites artists to submit! Online entry form http://www.courtisane.be/call-for-entry-6.htmlregulations / submission requirements requirements for all entries Non Dutch, French or English spoken films/projects should have Dutch, French or English subtitles Films/projects must have been completed after 2006. Films/projects must be submitted on DVD or mini-DV, labeled with title, filmmaker, aspect ratio and running time. Add

La Nau Côclea i l'Associació Cultural Telenoika us volem convidar a la presentació del projecte LABcelrà, un projecte de laboratori de recursos audiovisuals i noves tecnologies que s'implementarà progressivament els propers anys a La Fabrica de Celrà, amb el suport del Ajuntament de Celrà.  LABcelrà és defineix com un centre de...

Coming up deadlines (December 2nd - December 9th) in callsandopps.com, the new website for artists going international, brought to you by a dedicated group of artists.
We read the fine print, we boil the particulars down, we provide you the ability to search, sort and jump to those challenges that are meant for you, for us.
For November 26th - December 1st deadlines - please go to:
http://rhizome.org/announce/view/52365

>> Art - various/all media
3rd Triennial of Textile Art
Deadline: December 5th
Submission free, but if selected, a participation fee of 50 Euro is to be paid
Relevant to: worldwide
Briefly: The 3rd Triennial of Textile Art will take place in June 2009 in the Gallery of Szombathely, Hungary.
The theme is: presence = being present, and applications will be accepted in 3 categories: Miniature Textiles, Flags and Bands.
Awards/Artist fee/ sales option: Not specified in the call
Submissions accepted by post
http://www.callsandopps.com/index.php?item/71

>> Art - various/all media
City of Weimar Studio Program
Deadline: December 5th
Submission free
Relevant to: worldwide
Briefly: ACC Galerie Weimar and the City of Weimar (Germany) invite artists to submit proposals for works on the theme of "Failed Art - The Art of Failure",
to be realized during four months of living and working in Weimar.
Awards/Artist fee/ sales option: Rent-free furnished apartment + meals at reduced prices + 1,000 EUR monthly stipend
Submissions accepted by post
http://www.callsandopps.com/index.php?item/242

>> Art - various/all media
Buchsenhausen AIR
Deadline: December 5th
Submission free
Relevant to: worldwide
Briefly: ACC Galerie Weimar and the City of Weimar (Germany) invite artists to submit proposals for works on the theme of "Failed Art - The Art of Failure",
to be realized during four months of living and working in Weimar.
Awards/Artist fee/ sales option: Rent-free furnished apartment + meals at reduced prices + 1,000 EUR monthly stipend
Submissions accepted by post
http://www.callsandopps.com/index.php?item/243

>> Art >> Fine Arts >> Sculpture
UrbanGlass Visiting Artist Fellowships
Deadline: December 5th
Submission Free
Relevant to: worldwide
Briefly: UrbanGlass (Brooklyn, New York City), offers three Visiting Artist Fellowships to national and international artists wishing to work in glass.
Fellowships are for an eight week period (during 2009 - 2010).
Awards/Artist fee/ sales option: an honorarium of $1,500 to cover all costs, including travel, room and board
Submissions accepted by post, or by post + email
http://www.callsandopps.com/index.php?item/190

>> Art >> Photography
Moving Walls 16 Documentary Photography Exhibition
Deadline: December 5th
Submission Free
Relevant to: worldwide
Briefly: The Open Society Institute invites photographers and artists to submit a proposal and completed body of work for consideration in the Moving Walls 16 group exhibition. Opening reception in New York City, is Scheduled to October 2009.
Awards/Artist fee/ sales option: OSI will pay for printing, drymounting, and other production costs + $1,500 royalty payment + costs of returning work
Submissions accepted by post
http://www.callsandopps.com/index.php?item/238

>> Art >> Installation/ Performance
Viva! Action Art event
Deadline: December 5th
Submission Free
Relevant to: worldwide
Briefly: VIVA! Art Event (September 17-26 2009, in Montreal, Canada) invites artists, collectives, curators and theorists to submit proposals for performances, happenings, actions, infiltrations, public and participative interventions, workshops and debates. Residencies or durational works whose timelines (up to 4 weeks) overlap with the festival will also be considered.
Awards/Artist fee/ sales option: artist fee rates established by RAAV/CARFAC 2008
Submissions accepted by post
http://www.callsandopps.com/index.php?item/279

>> Art >> Photography
The Center for Fine Art Photography/ Perspective Exhibition
Deadline: December 9th
Submission Fee
Relevant to: worldwide
Briefly: The Center for Fine Art Photography (Fort Collins, Colorado) "Perspective" Exhibition is accepting submissions of works, on the theme: "Perspective - What is your Perspective?". Exhibition dates: March 20 – April 11, 2009
Awards/Artist fee/ sales option: Juror’s Selection award: $500. The Center retains a 40% commission on sales.
Submissions accepted online
http://www.callsandopps.com/index.php?item/239

The Mata gallery. Photo: Bruno Magalhães.

Sorry for the long silence, this visit to Brazil is far more absorbing than i expected. On Sunday, the organizers of arte.mov (the festival for mobile media art) took us for a school trip to the Instituto Cultural Inhotim. An hour drive away from Belo Horizonte, Inhotim is a contemporary art museum, made of pavilions and installations spread over a lush botanical garden.

By garden i mean 600 hectares of natural reserve and a Tropical Park, with 45 hectares of gardens with botanical collections and five ornamental lakes, which together form an area of 3.5 hectares. Part of it was designed following the suggestions of landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. The enormous variety of plants makes it one of the largest botanical collections in the world, with rare tropical species and a forest reserve which is part of the Atlantic Forest biome.

Simon Starling, 'The Mahogany Pavillion' (Mobile Architecture No.1), 2004

Since its opening in 2005, Inhotim has opened new pavilions to house permanent as well as temporary exhibitions and commissioned new site-specific projects to artists such as Doug Aitken, Matthew Barney, Victor Grippo, Chris Burden and Pipilotti Rist.

It is a breath-taking place. You walk around and think 'Wow! If the Xanadu of art existed it would be this place. Or at least something disturbingly similar.'

There is some 350 works to discover. I'm not sure i managed to track down all of them but here's a brief overview of my favourites:

Chris Burden, Samson, 1985, mixed media, photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

Chris Burden's work is often reduced to the stunning performances in which he explored personal danger as artistic expression. For Shoot (1971), he had an assistant shoot a bullet in his left arm by an assistant from a distance of about five meters. Why stop there when you can do better? He set fire to himself, nailed himself on a car, had himself cut, starved, drowned, sequestered, etc.

Chris Burden, Samson, 1985, mixed media, photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

The work on show at Inhotim, Samson, is of a different genre. It is potentially dangerous but not for the artist. The piece consists of a 100 ton jack connected to a gear box and a turnstile. The jack pushes two large timbers against the walls of the gallery. To enter the gallery, visitors must pass through the turnstile and each turn of the turnstile slightly expands the jack. If enough people visit the exhibition, Samson could, theoretically, destroy the building. The installation speaks volume of Burden's opinion of museums and art institutions which the artist identified with "the establishment." By forcing spectators to pass through the turnstile in order to satisfy their curiosity, Burden assigns them equal culpability in the potential destruction of the gallery space.

The True Rouge Gallery contains only one installation: True Rouge (1997) by Brazilian artist Tunga.

True Rouge Pavilion

Tunga, True Rouge, 1997

The work of Adriana Varejão has also been given its own beautiful pavilion, designed by architect Rodrigo Cerviño Lopez. Among the works exhibited, I particularly liked the Panacea phantastica (2003-2007). You don't need to know that the tiles portrays 50 species of hallucinogenic plants from different parts of the world to be slightly troubled when you see it.

Adriana Varejão Gallery, photo: Bruno Magalhães

Adriana Varejão, Carnívoras, 2008, oil and plaster on canvas

John Ahearn's murals are often the outcome of a long immersion by the artist and his frequent collaborator, Rigoberto Torres, into a community. They spend time observing its people, their character, values, and vitality in order, in order to better portray everyday people, who rarely have a say in how they are portrayed.

John Ahearn e Rigoberto Torres, Rodoviária de Brumadinho [The Bus Station of Brumadinho] (2005)

The protagonists of Inhotim's murals are the people living in Inhotim's surrounding region of Brumadinho. A first mural, Rodoviária de Brumadinho [The Bus Station of Brumadinho] (2005), depicts the bus station of Brumadinho and the people who move through it, a place that is not only a center of transport but of social life as well, as it is also home to popular dances.

John Ahearn e Rigoberto Torres, Abre a Porta, 2006, automotive paint on fibre glass, 530 x 1500 X 20 cm, photo: Eduardo Eckenfels

The other mural, Abre a Porta [Open the Door] (2006), depicts a solemn and spirited religious procession that takes place every year at the church just behind this mural and uphill from it, that is enacted by the Congado and Moçambique, two branches of a local population of pure African lineage descended from slaves who practice a kind of Catholicism that has absorbed animistic deities.

And of course any collection of contemporary art has its Olafur Eliasson. There's actually more than one at Inhotim. The one i found most engaging is the Viewing Machine.

Olafur Eliasson, Viewing machine, 2001-2008, stainless steel, photo: Pedro Motta

Looking like a grown-up and luxury version of the kaleidoscope gadgets for kids, the work creates an effect of reflected light with six mirrors forming a hexagonal tube. Visitor can maneuver the machine toward any point of interest. Through superimposed reflections, a myriad of forms is exposed.

More images in my flickr set.

El otro día me escribió John a través del formulario de contacto para decirme que le echase un ojo a esta selección de baños “deluxe”. Lo que pasa es que no conocía esa web y me encontré con otro artículo que me impresionó más.

8 of the best treehouses in the world [en] es un minirecopilatorio de curiosas y/o extravagantes estructuras que mantienen algo en común: el estar encaramadas de algún modo a árboles.
Algunas me suena de haberlas puesto ya por aquí pero otras (como la de la imagen que acompaña al texto) las he descubierto ahora y me han parecido muy originales. Eso sí, no sé si yo me atrevería a entrar en una de ellas.