We are excited to announce that we will be opening a new project space in Thessaloniki, Greece! For our first exhibition, we invite artists of any nationality and at any stage in their career to submit work which responds to, reflects, or is inspired in any way by, the term ‘thresholds’. The exhibition will take place in June 2018. One artist will be selected as the exhibition winner, and will receive a two-week solo exhibition with us in our Thessaloniki space. Deadline: Friday 27th April 11.59pm (EET)

Call for Submissions 2018: Thresholds

Nottingham, UK founded, Gonzo Unit are excited to announce their first open call exhibition in a new project space in Thessaloniki, Greece. As we embark on a new international collaboration, we invite artists of any nationality and at any stage in their career to submit work which responds to, reflects, or is inspired in any way by, the term ‘thresholds’. 

The Exhibition: Will take place in our project space, Siggrou 24, Thessaloniki, Greece from 9 – 23 June 2018, with the preview to be held on Friday 8 June at 9pm. The exhibition opening days and times will be publicised on our website.

The Prize: One artist will be selected as the exhibition winner by a juried panel. The prize is a two-week solo exhibition in 2018. Gonzo Unit will work with the prize-winning artist to develop a solo exhibition to be held in Thessaloniki, Greece.

Thresholds: As the site of this exhibition, the city of Thessaloniki is situated at the gateway to Europe; in the region of Central Macedonia, it is a site of a rich shared history, with Turkey to the east and the Balkans to the north. Today Greece continues to have presence at the neglected forefront of the European politics of precarity, under the shadow economic hardship and recovery. The country is also an arrival site for thousands of migrants and refugees who are subsequently detained in continuing their journeys across the Balkans border. Beyond Greece, 2018 continues to be a time of uncertainty, challenge and change for countries across the globe.

As we enter into new and unknown territories, we recognise that at its most positive the term threshold is defined as a doorway. It marks a point of departure, and an opening to the both blind and dazzling possibilities of opportunity in a new beginning. However, a threshold remains in its physical state as an in between place. As both a link and a separator, it is the somewhat ghostly realm of passage between different sites, states, temporalities, histories and transitions. The threshold, too, marks a limit; it is the margin, the edge, the border; it is a set marker either to exist within or to be exceeded, a point of which to transcend.

As a far reaching word, our open call is non-prescriptive in approach, we seek artists whose practice explores the idea of ‘thresholds’ in their own subjective and creative contexts whether that is personally, philosophically or physically. Our final exhibition will be informed in collaboration with the artwork we select and the new vantage points that are created within the exhibition site.  

Eligibility: Artists at any stage of their career may apply, and we will accept work of any medium. You may submit one artwork per submission. We will also accept proposals for work which is still in progress, however you must be confident that the work will arrive in time for the exhibition.

Submission Fee: There is a fee of €15 per artwork for consideration. Gonzo Unit are currently unfunded, the fee will cover costs associated with the exhibition and winner's exhibition.  

To pay follow the Paypal link: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=9BMSSU7752YN2 

Deadline: Friday 27th April 11.59pm (EET)

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About Gonzo Unit:

Gonzo Unit is an art organisation, founded by Anna Schwanz and Rachel Murray in Nottingham, UK in 2012. Non-prescriptive and process led, we host, curate and collaborate on exhibitions, residencies and international projects. Our interests are situated at the juncture between experiential artistic practice and critical engagement with contemporary issues. Past projects have included a programme of residencies at a working hair salon, Twenty-Eight Boys and Girls Barbers, where invited artists had the opportunity to test out new ideas, culminating in a series of installations responding to the unique space. In all our endeavours our aim is to form long lasting and meaningful relationships with the artists and organisations we work with. In 2018 we begin working on a programme of exhibitions and projects in a new project space in Thessaloniki, Greece. We are excited to facilitate artistic exchange and collaboration between Greece and the UK and beyond.