Art Events and Opportunities: February 2019

Let’s not pretend that January wasn’t a complete mess. The Brexit bonanza just kept on bringing bizarre images of Theresa May onto every screen in sight, and we were all holding our breath as to what on earth was going on. So before Brexit starts banging at our door and we see our arts funding dry up like the Christmas cake you’ve forgotten at the back of the cupboard, dive into our latest round-up of visual arts opportunities.

Exhibition Highlights

This month, the Fruitmarket Gallery presents Open Out – a week of performance, film, installation and music aimed at exploring new ways of collaborative, cross-artform working. Highlights will include an installation by artist Marco Giordano, and a selection of artists’ moving image works by members of Spilt Milk, a social enterprise promoting the work of artists who are mothers.

Also in Edinburgh, Talbot Rice Gallery will be opening their latest exhibition exploring the concept of borders at the end of February. Conceived to coincide with the UK’s exit from the EU, Borderlines is covered in more detail elsewhere in this month's magazine, including interviews with the curator and artists.

Dundee Contemporary Arts are exploring new work by Glasgow-based artist Margaret Salmon. At the heart of this exhibition is a new 16mm work that uses a female erotic gaze to look for places where love might be found in contemporary life and to explore what might constitute supporting, loving relationships today. This highly charged exhibition is open until 24 February.

The Tramway have already opened their spring exhibition, Extreme Imagination: inside the mind’s eye. It's a cross-disciplinary exhibition which explores looking forward, recollecting, yearning, regretting, day-dreaming and how this leads to the creation of ‘things’. On until the start of March, this exhibition goes about exploring the easily-missed and potentially startling differences between how individuals go about their inner lives.

Residencies, Awards and Calls for Entries

What better way to escape your Brexit woes than applying for a residency in Portugal? Curiosa are offering an intensive residential course bringing together visual artists and musicians to work collaboratively over ten days, creating new works combining photography, moving image, music, and sound art. The deadline is a way away, but still a nice thought to warm yourself to? Deadline: 25 July

Another residency which could see you getting a much needed vitamin D boost as well as a creative one comes from Terra Vivente: for three weeks, a group of artists interested in the theme of ‘neighbourhoods’ will have the opportunity to explore the island of Sardinia. Deadline: 20 February

Scottish Portrait Awards are back and looking for submissions for their 2019 season. The Awards are open to anyone over 16 years, born, living or studying in Scotland. Deadline: 30 June

Attention all moving image makers or performance artists: Syn Festival is inviting UK-based artists to participate with short films, moving image work and performance pieces that explore the theme of Utopia or Dystopia in the Short Film Night of Syn Festival 2019 that will take place in early spring at Summerhall. Deadline: 20 February

There’s even more opportunities for moving image makers with Barcelona International Short Film and Video Festival 2019. There’s plenty of time to submit your entries, as the deadline isn’t until early June. Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival are also on the search for submissions, including installation works, by the start of April.

Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada have two residency opportunities, one in the spring and another in the summer which are designed for visual artists exploring self-directed research themes, experimenting with production techniques, and cultivating new directions in their work. Deadline: 6 February (spring), 6 March (summer)