Architecture of Silence Open Call — Digital Art, AI & Moving Image 19–25 April 2027 · Madrid City Centre, near Atocha Station

The Exhibition
Architecture of Silence is an exhibition about what is not said — and what that silence builds.

Silence is not empty. It is structured, inhabited, and charged with meaning. It holds grief and patience, disappearance and potential, the gap between a thought and the word that fails it.

This exhibition asks: what does silence look like? What forms does it take? What architectures does it quietly construct in the minds and bodies of those who move through it?

We are inviting artists working in digital art, artificial intelligence, photography, and moving image — video, film, AI-generated work, generative art, sound-image compositions, and screen-based practice to submit work that inhabits this territory.

We are interested in the silence embedded in algorithms, in the stillness of a carefully composed digital image, in the space between frames, in the uncanny quiet that digital tools can produce when turned toward the interior life.

This is a call for work that understands technology not as spectacle, but as a medium for stillness. For digital practice that slows the viewer down rather than accelerating them.

For AI-generated, AI-assisted, or algorithmically informed work that carries emotional weight and conceptual rigour. For a moving image that treats duration itself as a material. For photography and static digital work that holds its breath.

We welcome artists at all career stages — emerging digital practitioners, photographers, filmmakers, and established figures in the AI art space — who are drawn to silence as subject, structure, or sensation.

The Venue & Two Screens

The exhibition takes place in a contemporary space in Madrid city centre, near Atocha station — one of the most symbolically resonant locations in the Spanish capital, a place that carries its own profound architecture of silence.

The gallery is equipped with two dedicated screens, each serving a distinct purpose and a distinct mode of encounter:

The first screen is devoted to static digital work — photography, digital art, AI-generated imagery, and still-based practice.

Works are displayed on a rotating basis, each piece given time to breathe and be seen fully before the next appears.

This is a screen for images that reward stillness — for work that asks the viewer to pause, to look, and to look again.

The second screen plays video and film continuously throughout the opening hours of the exhibition — a loop of moving image works presented in rotating slots.

This is a screen for work that unfolds in time: short films, video art, durational pieces, and moving image works of any length are all welcome.

Both screens operate on a shared, rotating basis across all participating artists, giving each work repeated visibility across the full seven days of the exhibition.

Madrid in April is a city fully alive — the cultural season at its height, with local audiences, international visitors, and a thriving collector and curator community.

Viewings are by appointment, ensuring every visitor arrives with intention, meeting your work with genuine focus and curiosity.

What Artists Receive

This opportunity is built around giving artists something real — not just a screen, but a platform, a record, and a relationship.

Visibility & Promotion

• Instagram promotion (13.2K followers) — dedicated posts and stories featuring your work, process, and practice in the lead-up to and during the exhibition.
• Permanent post on our website — the exhibition poster, featuring your name as a participating artist, will remain permanently reachable on our website, ensuring the show and your involvement in it stays visible and searchable over time.
• Digital and/or printed catalogue — a professional publication contextualising your work within the full exhibition, suitable for grant applications, residency proposals, and portfolios.
• Targeted promotional campaigns — reaching collectors, curators, and digital art audiences in Madrid, across Spain, and internationally.
• Printed information at the open evening — printed materials listing all participating artists will be available to every guest on opening night, giving collectors, curators, and visitors a lasting record of your name and involvement in the exhibition.
• Promotion through the Madrid art scene — the exhibition will be actively promoted within Madrid’s art community, reaching galleries, cultural spaces, collectors, and art professionals across the city and placing your work in front of a locally embedded and internationally connected audience.

Professional Documentation

• Professional photography — high-resolution images of your work as displayed, taken during the opening evening, freely available for all professional and personal use.
• Professional video — footage capturing your work in context and the atmosphere of the opening; a living document of the exhibition for your career.

Your Story, Your Voice

• - Artist talks — selected artists will be invited to present their practice to audiences of collectors, curators, and fellow artists throughout the run.
• Mix-and-meet gathering — a relaxed, curated evening connecting exhibiting artists with invited collectors, gallerists, curators, and cultural figures from Spain and beyond.

The Opening Night

• - Public opening evening, 20th April — with drinks and live music, introducing your work to Madrid's art community in the best possible setting.
• Tapas & socialising with the audience

Care & Professionalism

• Technical setup by the curatorial team — your work installed and calibrated with full attention to display quality, correct aspect ratios, optimal brightness, and sound levels where applicable.
• Secure venue access — responsible monitoring of all equipment and works throughout the exhibition period.
• Certificate of participation — formally recognising your inclusion in Architecture of Silence.

Submission Details

Please indicate clearly in your submission which screen your work is intended for:

For the static screen — photography, digital art, AI-generated imagery, or still-based work. Submit high-resolution image files (minimum 3000px on the longest edge) along with your preferred display duration per rotation slot.

For the video screen — video art, film, moving image, or any time-based work. Submit a streaming link or file along with the duration of the piece. Works of any length are accepted; the curatorial team will work with you to determine your rotation slot within the programme.

You may submit up to three works for consideration. Please include a brief description for each piece and a short artist statement of no more than 300 words.

Works may be offered for sale where applicable (editions, prints, digital files, or associated physical objects); standard commission applies, with full terms provided upon acceptance. Works do not need to be for sale to be considered.

Fees

There is a participation fee of £75, payable within seven days of acceptance.

This fee directly funds the production of the exhibition, the opening event, printed materials, and the professional documentation and promotional support provided to every participating artist. After the payment is completed, there are no refunds.

About the Curator

Architecture of Silence is organised by Monica Mardare, MA Fine Art, an independent curator working across London and Europe, committed to producing thoughtful, sensory exhibitions that foreground emotional depth, conceptual rigour, and the quiet complexity of human experience.

Monica's curatorial practice is shaped by a conviction that exhibitions should create genuine conditions for encounter — between work and viewer, between artists and community, between the technological and the deeply personal.

Her projects are characterised by careful thematic coherence, spatial sensitivity, and a sustained investment in the artists she works with, before, during, and long after the exhibition closes.

Architecture of Silence marks her first major project in Madrid — a deliberate engagement with a city whose cultural energy, collector community, and institutional life make it one of Europe's most significant stages for ambitious contemporary art.

How to Apply

We warmly welcome submissions from artists working in digital and screen-based practice whose work engages — directly or obliquely — with silence, absence, stillness, the unsaid, or the invisible structures that shape experience.

Whether your work is a single still image held on screen, a generative piece that shifts imperceptibly over time, or a film that asks its audience to sit with discomfort and quiet — if silence is somewhere in it, we want to see it.

To submit your work for consideration, please follow the application instructions on CuratorSpace.

We look forward to seeing your work.