Melly X Amarte Open Call: Music for My Oma

Please note: this deadline has passed!

Are you a musician or sound artist based in the Netherlands? Are you interested in performing at Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam? If yes, then this Melly X Amarte open call is right for you! Application deadline: 18 September 2023.

Kunstinstituut Melly partners once again with the Amarte Foundation to host live music on December 8 and 9, 2023. The concerts are performed within Kunstinstituut Melly's galleries and event spaces and commence the international group exhibition My Oma.

Music for My Oma will include live performances, of fifteen to thirty minutes each, throughout two evenings during Kunstinstituut Melly’s exhibition-opening festivities of My Oma. An international group exhibition of contemporary art, My Oma considers the grandmother figure to explore interpersonal relationships, oral histories, and ancestral knowledge, as well as different notions of feminism and heritage. You can find information about the exhibition here.

As applicants to the open call for Music for My Oma you are asked to describe whether and how the grandmother figure is relevant to your music. For example, a grandmother who is, or has been, an artistic influence or mentor to you; a grandmother who is, or has influenced, the theme of a musical work or a song; a work of yours explores your experience as a grandmother; or, a thematic exploration of your work has, like in the exhibition My Oma, deals with ancestral knowledge and legacy. A video of the most recent performances for Melly X Amarte during Museumnacht 010 2023, can be viewed here.

The deadline for applications to the Melly X Amarte Open Call is 18 September 2023 at midnight (00:00). You can apply by filling out an online form on the Amarte Foundation’s website, which can be completed in English or Dutch. Please carefully read the following notes before filling out the online application:

Melly X Amarte: Music for My Oma takes place in Rotterdam at Kunstinstituut Melly on December 8 and/or December 9, 2023. Solos, duos, ensembles, or bands are eligible to apply to this Open Call. For performing, selected applicants receive:

- A 300 Euro fee per musician/artist (inc. VAT)

- Production and technical support for the performance

- Promotion of the event

- Photographic and video documentation of your performance

Please note: this year a number of selected candidates will get the opportunity to develop and present an entirely new work within the thematic framework of the My Oma exhibition at Kunstinstituut Melly. The selected candidates will receive an additional budget for this purpose (the additional amount is limited and depends on the time investment required). Please indicate in the online application if you are interested in this opportunity.

Applications will be reviewed by an expert panel convened by the Amarte Foundation and Kunstinstituut Melly, who together make the final decision and program the event. Selected participants will be informed by mid-October 2023.

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Applicants to the Open Call should take into consideration the parameters of working in a visual arts gallery space, and thus not a fitted-out musical venue; where a small set-up with no or minimal amplification is preferred; where performers and performances will co-exist with art and audiences; where some sound leakage will likely happen with simultaneous concerts taking place within the building. As in our previous iterations of Melly X Amarte editions, audiences may be both sitting in as much as coming in and out of the performances and exhibitions, flowing with the different rhythms and installations staged on site.