Othering Nature
“A society that is ever more sick, but ever more powerful, has recreated the world—everywhere and in concrete form—as the environment and backdrop of its sickness: it has created a sick planet.” – Guy Debord
We live in a world where the boundaries between the natural and the constructed have collapsed, where economies of excess fuel ecological devastation, and where art must contend with the unsettling proximity of life, death, and loss.
In South Asia, where the climate crisis manifests in extreme heat waves, vanishing coastlines, and poisoned air, artists are documenting, critiquing, and imagining alternative relationships between humans and their environment. But beyond representation, what does it mean to create art in a region where vast populations lack access to fresh water or clean air? How do artists navigate the tensions between sustainability, institutional structures, and the very real material impact of their work on the environment?
At Serendipity Arts too, we have long engaged with these concerns, from ‘The Everlasting River’ by Niranjan NB and Dayananda Nagaraju, winners of the Food Matters Grant, 2023 and showcased in 2024, ‘Time as a Mother’ curated by Damian Christinger and Ravi Agarwal in 2023, to ‘Concrete Skies’ curated by HH Art Spaces, showcased in 2019. With this open call, we seek to further this dialogue.
For the eighth edition of Write | Art | Connect, we invite critical essays that explore how South Asian artists are responding to ecological collapse through photography, performance, installation, and mixed media. From institutional exhibitions to grassroots interventions, how is contemporary art shaping climate discourse? What are the implications of witnessing, creating, and exhibiting in an era of crisis?
- Final selection of proposals will be made by May 26, 2025.
- If your abstract is selected, we would require an essay of no more than 1200 words.
- We would encourage you to include images, audio, or video links with your essay. Kindly do clear the necessary permissions if and where required.
- We will offer a fee of INR 6,000/- for your essay.
Ecologies of place: Rethinking nature, urbanity, and coexistence
How can public art serve as an exploratory medium to interrogate the fluid and often contested relationships between natural and the built environments? This category invites practices to reflect on the intertwined futures of ecology and the human condition, thinking about alternative cartographies, languages and behaviours in the landscapes that surround us, and those that we inhabit. Projects can think about how we live within and move through shared environments, reconsidering routine perceptions and permeabilities. They can pay close attention to histories and vulnerabilities of a site, taking the form of works that traverse the visible and the unseen, foregrounding ecological networks, natural cycles, or the tensions between conservation and urban development. Additionally, projects can also address the convergence of physical and virtual spaces—the mediatic environments that shape contemporary life as digital spaces, screens, and virtual realities—exploring their impact on our understanding of ecology and habitation.
Please submit brief outlines of no more than 200 words for a proposed essay to [email protected] with the subject line “Othering Nature” latest by May 10, 2025.
Cultural currents, hybridities, fusions and flows
How does public art offer a unique platform to investigate how cultures intersect, evolve, and transmit knowledge across time and space? By thinking about how dialogues between generations and communities can be fostered, public art can become a catalyst for exchange, reinterpreting traditions, practices, and histories to create new forms of shared understanding. Projects are invited to explore how knowledge is transmitted—through oral traditions, performances, rituals, or other embodied practices—while challenging conventional hierarchies of knowledge production. They can consider innovative visual and spatial strategies that respond to the vibrancy and contemporaneity of cultural hybridity. Projects can also probe deeper into how public art becomes a vital site for exploring the fluid intersections of tradition and modernity, the personal and the collective, and the local and the global, generating new forms of cultural connectivity.
The site-specific in flux
How does public art continually expand the concept of the “site,” extending beyond physical locations to include virtual, symbolic, and imagined spaces? How do sites travel or transform when uprooted from their origins, and what creative possibilities emerge from these shifts? By revisiting site-specificity, public art can explore how the meaning of a site evolves across contexts and translations. Projects in this vein can examine the fluidity of public spaces and the publics that inhabit them. They can look at the boundaries of publicness, examining how physical spaces interact with digital environments or how transient sites contribute to our understanding of public art. Projects could also interrogate the layered identities of a site—its histories, ecologies, and sociopolitical dimensions—formulating new interjections and interpretations, challenging static notions of space, while thinking creatively with what it means to inhabit, share, and reshape public realms.
Grasping accessible futures
How can public art critically engage with notions of accessibility and the lived experiences of diverse bodies? How can public art help envision accessible futures, not just in the built environment but in cultural and social spheres? This category invites projects interested in platforming the different experiences of bodies in public spaces, creating opportunities for engagement and dialogue across abilities. Projects can consider critical toolkits of awareness-building, advocacy, and storytelling, and how these may be translated into the domain of public art. They can also toy with the possibilities of art as a medium to critique, subvert, and reimagine norms that govern public spaces, offering multisensory, participatory, and inclusive modes of engagement at the crossroads of creative practice, policy, and accessibility innovation in technology and design. Projects can pursue the realities of intersectionality and belonging across a spectrum of abilities today, pushing the boundaries of what it means to inhabit and traverse shared environments.
Fellowship Ambit & Funding
- The program will support recipients with the development of their proposed public art projects through aspects of research, production, dissemination and other routes of mobilisation as required.
- It will entail financial support of Rs. 3 Lakh each for the project detailed in their application through the time period of the programme (May 2025 to March 2026).
- Recipients will be required to participate in a public forum during the course of the Program which will be discussed with them in advance. Further details on the nature of this participation will be shared post the selection process.
We invite prospective applicants (both individuals and collectives) to consider the following while applying for the Public Art Program:
Eligibility
- Individuals and collectives may apply.
- The applicant/s needs to be 18 years or older.
- The applicant/s should be an Indian citizen/s, currently residing in India.
Submission Guidelines
- The proposed project must be located in India, and the proposal must ensure adequate details on the location(s). The project can include staging across multiple sites within the country if necessary to the execution of the project. Applicants are advised to consider the feasibility of the same with regard to the program amount of Rs 3 Lakh and the program period of one year.
- The project should have the specific intention of being sited or staged in the public domain. Applicants are encouraged to reflect upon the role of public art practices, the nature of publics and public spaces today, and are free to refer to the various free-flowing categories outlined above.
- We invite interested applicants to propose projects whose creative outcomes could take various forms: From mixed and multi-media installations, community-led initiatives, tech and design , experimental archives, site-specific and traveling modules, performative interventions, alternative pedagogies and interactive design projects, to list a few.
- Modes of engagement with the public and/or any specific audiences should be clearly defined within the proposal.
- Please ensure a detailed project proposal to allow greater clarity about the potential and practicality of the project.
- Outcomes of the proposed project should be clearly defined.
- Applicants should be open to sharing their work at different stages of the program, as we imagine the scope of this platform as one that will host dialogues and conversations of various textures, bolstering the development processes for each project.
All requisite documents (listed below) must be submitted. Please read through the submission guidelines carefully before submitting your application. The project should be feasible in terms of costs and scale, and should meet the dates set in the timeline.
Timelines
Open Call: 5th Feb 2025
Application Deadline: March 23rd 2025
Program Duration: May 2025 – March 2026
Application requirements
One PDF with the following:
- Project proposal (1000 – 1500 w) with processes, engagements and outcomes clearly defined.
- A detailed budget break up of the project
- A detailed, well-explained timeline of project development.
One PDF with the following:
- Updated CV and bio. If applying as a collective, please include CVs and bios for all members of the collective.
- An updated portfolio of your individual or collective practice with not more than 15 ongoing and older projects. Please include images and open access links to video files or other supporting material within this PDF itself. If applying as a collective, please include portfolios for all members of the collective.
Please upload these PDFs to the Google Form linked below, with open access links.
Please answer all questions in the Google Form.
(Please note that applications are to be submitted only via the Google Form. Applications sent via email will not be considered.)
About Serendipity Arts Foundation (SAF):
Serendipity Arts Foundation is an organization that facilitates pluralistic cultural expressions, sparking conversations around the arts across the South Asian region. Committed to innovation and creativity, the aim of the Foundation is to support practice and research in the arts, as well as to promote sustainability and education in the field through a range of cultural and collaborative initiatives. The Foundation hosts projects through the year, which include institutional partnerships with artists and art organizations, educational initiatives, grants and outreach programmes across India.
About The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA):
The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) is a non-profit organisation that aims to broaden the audience for contemporary Indian art, enhance opportunities for artists, and establish a continuous dialogue between the arts and the public through education and active participation in public art projects and funding.
FAQs
Q: How many pitches can I submit?
You can submit up to 3 pitches only.
Q: Do I have to submit images/videos alongside the pitch?
You do not necessarily have to submit images with the pitch. However, if selected, you would have to provide images/videos alongside your essay.
Q: Is there an age limit for applying?
No, there is no age limit for applying for this initiative.
Q: Can we apply as a writer duo?
Yes, you can. However, kindly note that the payment will be made to you as a single entity.
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