20 May 2013

Call for Applications: Jerwood/Film and Video Umbrella Awards

The Jerwood/Film and Video Umbrella Awards are major awards for moving-image artists in the first five years of their practice, presented in partnership by Jerwood Visual Arts (JVA) and Film and Video Umbrella.

The upcoming second edition of the Jerwood/Film and Video Umbrella Awards is called 'What Will They See of Me?' and opens to applications from artists on 20 May until 1 July 2013. The selected artists will receive a bursary and commissioning fund totalling £56,000, as well as production support from Film and Video Umbrella and an exhibition at JVA at Jerwood Space, London. During the first phase, an expert panel will select four moving-image artists who will each be awarded a £4,000 bursary to develop pre-production proposals for significant new works and will be supported to take part in a group exhibition at JVA at Jerwood Space. During this exhibition, two of the four artists will be selected to receive a £20,000 commission each and further support from Film and Video Umbrella to develop their ideas into finished works which will premiere at JVA at Jerwood Space and will tour to CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow in 2015.

Taking the title 'What Will They See of Me?' as its guiding theme, the project considers the importance we attach to individual expressions of personal identity, at a time when we all produce (and consume) so many images that it is hard for any more than a few of them to stand out from the crowd. As more and more photographs, videos and web clips go into circulation and compete for our attention, which ones will make it through to the future, and what, in turn, might the future make of them?

Social media and online image-sharing/video-sharing platforms offer unprecedented opportunities for people to make themselves known to the world. But it is also clear that our online activities can leave inadvertent traces whose permanence and visibility to data giants like Google and Facebook is a matter of current debate. As the lines between public and private continue to blur, what are the actual marks we leave behind in this new online universe?

Artists are asked to address and explore these themes, using all forms of the moving image, or working digitally, or online.

The final two commissioned artists from the first edition of the Jerwood/Film and Video Umbrella Awards: Tomorrow Never Knows are being exhibited at CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow from 8 June – 20 July 2013.

Application opens on Monday 20 May at 12noon at whatwilltheyseeofme.org.uk

The selection panel includes:
Ed Atkins, Artist, previously selected for Jerwood/Film and Video Umbrella Award
Steven Bode, Director, Film and Video Umbrella
Shonagh Manson, Director, Jerwood Charitable Foundation
Francis McKee, Director, CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow
Catherine Wood, Curator of Contemporary Art & Performance, Tate Modern