OPEN CALL – FANTOMAS

DEADLINE: Saturday, 1 October 2022

Lab Duration: 4 days a week from 5 October to  2 December 2022
Lab Days: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday
Lab Times: 11 am to 4 pm
Location: Medrar for Contemporary Art

Medrar for Contemporary Art, the Visual Arts Forum (Palestine) and Flyer (Italy) are happy to announce the open call for our upcoming lab: FANTOMAS. 

This alliance was implemented in the framework of the All-Around Culture programme by L’art Rue & MitOst and co-funded by the European Union in Egypt and EUNIC – European Union National Institutes for Culture in Egypt.

Fantomas is an 8-week lab that will take place from October to November 2022 at Medrar for Contemporary art where 5 visual artists will create VR experiences that embody future imaginations of collective realities. In the first 3 weeks of the lab, artist and curator Maha Maamoun will support the participants in the conceptual development of their projects and later on, artist Jean-François Robin will accompany them in the production phase.

As we shift from the world of magic to the realm of science fiction in the 1950s, in Egypt, writers and filmmakers alike begin to imagine new ways and places to be. From Tawfik Al Hakim’s plays entitled ‘Lunar Report’ and ‘A Poet on the Moon’ to ‘Journey to the Moon’ directed by Hamada Abdel Wahab, an interest in imagining other worlds through narratives of moon exploration grew. The latter movement and the entire sector of arts and culture was deeply impacted by the socio-economic and political transformations the country suffered since the defeat of 1967.

Today, having access to more technological innovations and tools, a desire and need to reconnect with the present moment and imagine or potentially produce alternative worlds reemerges. Medrar for Contemporary Art (Egypt), the Visual Arts Forum (Palestine) and Flyer (Italy) invite artists to take part in the Fantomas lab and reflect on the current socio-economic contexts as well as build VR artworks that embody conceptions of a future that goes beyond the colonization of distant planets. It is an invitation to dig deeper into the relationship between the literary form and virtual reality as a way to expand our imaginations of what lived realities are and could be. How would the future look, sound, or feel if we remain in the same space?

Guidelines and Requirements:

• The call is open to artists from different disciplines willing to experiment and integrate their artistic practice with Virtual Reality (VR) technologies, game engines and modeling softwares to create VR artworks.
• A minimum experience/familiarity with 3D modeling is required.
• A minimum experience/familiarity with Unity is a plus. 
•  A dedicated technical team from 412Labs will work closely with the participants and provide technical support throughout the Lab. During the first week, the participants will be introduced to Unity and during the second week will take part in hands-on exercises on Unity.
• ِA good level of spoken and written English is necessary.
• Participants must have their own computers and the ability to run the required programs.
• To apply, the applicants are required to fill in the application form with all the required material and information. Applications missing any required information will not be considered.
• The selection criteria of participants is based on originality and feasibility of the proposals within the duration of the Lab and proven understanding of how the proposed projects can make use of available technologies to create artworks. 
• The Lab will encourage artists to work together in groups. Yet, the participants have the option to work individually.
• Medrar provides a limited budget to support the production of the artworks, as well as a participation fee granted for the participants upon completion of their projects within the set deadlines
• The participants have the possibility to work on their projects during Medrar’s opening times and also outside of Lab hours.

The DEADLINE for submissions is Saturday, 1 October 2022 

To apply, kindly fill in this form: https://forms.gle/F7sWRcbaEcnazXTw6

*Medrar announces this program within the framework of MedRX, its newly launched umbrella project consisting of a series of activities (workshops, labs, exhibitions, screenings, meet-up sessions etc ) aiming at building a community of artists from different disciplines interested in developing their arts practices through the exploration and integration of available XR technologies. To know more: https://staging.medrar.org/projects/medrx/ 

“All-Around Culture aims to foster a vital cultural ecosystem in the Southern Mediterranean countries as an enabling environment for the social and economic inclusion of young people. The programme is co-funded by the European Union.’’

Visual identity by Amr El Kafrawy

3D: Mohamed ElMaghraby