Open call: Selection of exhibition project of IEB at ARCOmadrid 2025

Open call for the selection of a curatorial project for the International Contemporary Art Fair ARCOmadrid 2025

1. Purpose of the call

The Instituto de Estudios Baléáricos (IEB), together with the organizers of the International Contemporary Art Fair ARCOmadrid 2025, creates an open call for the selection of a curatorial project for the IEB stand at ARCOmadrid 2025, which is held from 5 to March 9, 2025 at IFEMA Madrid, Spain.

2. Description and objective of the project

The IEB is an organism of the Government of the Balearic Islands dedicated to the promotion of the language and culture of the archipelago. Through its area of ​​culture, its strategic objective is to consolidate the Balearic Islands as a structured cultural market, in addition to promoting the external projection of music, performing arts, literature and the visual arts of this territory.

In order to promote and give visibility to artistic creation in the field of visual arts of the Balearic Islands, the IEB participates in the ARCOmadrid 2025 international fair with an institutional stand in the ARCO Espacios Culturales section, where an individual exhibition project is shown of a Balearic artist presented by a curator of contemporary art.

The project is accompanied by a small promotional publication, with a short curatorial text and information on the trajectory of the participants.

The IEB exhibition project at the ARCOmadrid 2025 fair is conceived as a project to promote Balearic artistic creation, with no commercial activity or objective.

3. Conditions of participation in the 2025 edition

To participate in the 2025 call, the curatorial proposal must be a single project by an artist born in the Balearic Islands or resident in the archipelago. Both the format and the exhibition concept of the project are free and any of the artistic practices related to the visual arts can be used.

Curators who have the profile described in point 6 can submit proposals.

In relation to the selection of the artist, it must be taken into account that the ARCO fair is one of the main contemporary art fairs on the international circuit.

With the objective of disseminating and consolidating recognition of the latest artistic trends, this fair pays special attention to the works that best reflect their time and position in the world.

The works included in the exhibition must be produced. If necessary, a budgetary item is foreseen for the framing of the works or similar.

The exhibition project proposal must adapt to the dimensions of the stand contracted by the IEB and be viable in terms of the technical and budgetary requirements raised. That is to say, the technical and economic-financial viability of the winning project is stipulated as a requirement, which must be checked by the evaluation committee of the call.

The curator and the artist selected in 2024 cannot participate in the 2025 edition.

4. Stand

The IEB stand will be 24 m² and will be located in the ARCO Espacios Culturales area. The configuration can be 8 x 3 meters or 6 x 4 meters (end wall x side walls).

5. Budget and technical coordination

The forecast of the general budget of the exhibition project is €25,000.00 (see annex 1) and includes the concepts of renting the stand; concentration and dispersion transport; nail to nail insurance; fees of suppliers, professionals and artists; dissemination material; framing, and displacements.

The final exhibition proposal must conform to the technical and budgetary specifications provided by the IEB, mainly for the items of transport, framing, nail-to-nail insurance, and assembly and disassembly.

The IEB is responsible for the organization and management of the project, which includes the hiring of suppliers and budgetary control and supervision.

The curator must coordinate closely with the IEB for the correct and punctual fulfillment of all curatorial tasks stipulated for the project (see point 11, "Curator's tasks").

If the curator does not live in the Balearic Islands and it is necessary, the IEB will cover the travel and stay expenses of a maximum of two days in the Balearic Islands to facilitate the preparation of the final exhibition proposal. For this purpose, only the costs of a round-trip airline ticket in tourist class with origin and destination at an airport in the European Union will be covered.

The artist and the curator must attend the installation and participate in the fair during the days reserved for professional visits (until Friday at noon).

The IEB is responsible for the travel and accommodation expenses of the artist and the curator.

6. Recipients

This call is aimed at art curators who have led relevant projects in fairs, festivals and spaces for the diffusion of contemporary art in the Spanish and international spheres.

Considering that ARCOmadrid is defined as one of the main contemporary art fairs on the international circuit, special consideration will be given to those profiles that demonstrate experience in projects and initiatives focused on the international promotion of artists.

Interested professionals may be individuals or legal entities and apply to the call individually or collectively (in the latter case, they must appoint a representative of the authors of the curatorial project).

7. Project evaluation criteria

The evaluation criteria for selecting the winning project are as follows:

a) The project's suitability to the conceptual framework of the ARCOmadrid fair (up to 15 points)

The contribution made by the project to the dissemination and visibility of the latest artistic trends is assessed, as well as the interest and opportunity that it is presented by the IEB at the fair.

b) The quality, artistic interest and rigor of the project (up to 20 points)

The thematic interest of the proposal, the clarity of the writing and the coherence of the project, the degree of innovation and originality, and the impact and/or contribution to reflection in the field of contemporary art are assessed.

c) The professional profile of the curator (up to 15 points)

Projects and collaborations carried out with relevant contemporary art dissemination spaces at the national and international levels are valued (up to 10 points).

5 additional points are awarded to curators who are residents of the Balear Islands or natives of the archipelago.

The maximum score that can be achieved is 50 points.

8. Selection of the winning project

The selection of the winning project corresponds to an evaluation committee.

The winning project will be the one that achieves the highest score of all the projects presented.

In the event of equality in the score, the tie-breaking criterion will be to give priority to the project that has obtained a higher score in section 7.b), corresponding to the quality, artistic interest and rigor of the project.

9. Evaluation Committee

The committee responsible for evaluating the projects submitted and selecting the winning project is composed of:

- Pilar Cruz, curator (with voice and vote)

- Bartolomé Marí, curator (with voice and vote)

- Sofia Moisés, member of ACCAIB (with voice and vote)

- Gisel Noé, curator and director of Mataró Art Contemporani (with voice and vote)

- Juan Riancho, gallerist (with voice and vote)

-Llorenç Perelló Rosselló, director of the IEB (with voice and no vote)

- Karen Müller, head of the visual arts area of ​​the IEB (with voice and no vote).

The decision of the evaluation committee is final.

10. Fees and payment of fees

The fees for the curator of the winning project of the call are set at €2,500.00 (taxes included) and include the performance of the tasks described in point 11.

The fees for the artist of the winning project are also set at €2,500.00 (taxes included) and include the preparation of the exhibition and the assignment of the rights to reproduce and publicly communicate the project.

The fees do not include travel and stay expenses at the fair, which will be managed and covered by the IEB.

Payment of the fees will be made against invoice at the end of the ARCOmadrid 2025 edition.

11. Curatorship tasks

The curatorship tasks are the following:

a) Development of the concept and exhibition proposal.

b) Selection of the artist and the works.

c) Preparation of the list of works in the exhibition, indicating the technical sheet and all relevant information for the hiring of suppliers.

d) Preparation of the final project, agreed with the IEB regarding technical and budgetary feasibility.

e) Writing of a curatorial text (maximum 500 words) and biographical notes of the curator and the artist, which will be included in the publication that accompanies the exhibition and will be used as dissemination material.

f) Provision of low and high resolution images of the selected works.

g) Support for the IEB in supervising the design, layout and printing of the promotional publication.

h) Design of the stand assembly, with assembly instructions.

i) Support for the IEB in supervising the assembly of the exhibition, with assistance during the days scheduled for assembly.

j) Attendance at the opening of the exhibition, with availability for a two-day stay at the fair (from 5 to 7 March).

k) Media attention. To carry out these tasks, the curator must coordinate closely with the IEB in order to comply with the proposed schedule (annex 2).

12. Project submission

Those interested in participating in this call must send an email and attach the following documentation:

a) a brief introduction,

b) a scanned ID or passport,

c) the project proposal in a single low-resolution PDF file (identified with the name and surnames of the curator).

The proposal can be submitted in Catalan or Spanish and must include:

a) the cover with the full name and contact details of the curator presenting the candidacy;

b) a descriptive dossier and the proposal of the participating artist (maximum 2 pages of text, not including photos);

c) the curator's professional career, with a dossier with a representative selection of the projects carried out;

d) the artist's professional career, with a portfolio with a representative selection of the projects carried out;

e) low-resolution images of the proposed works;

f) the calculation and breakdown by item of the planned budget;

g) the instructions relating to the assembly or any technical specifications to be taken into account;

h) in the case of curators from the Balearic Islands, a certificate of historical registration or document proving that they are native to the Balearic Islands.

Only one project proposal will be accepted per participant.

13. Deadline for receipt of projects

The deadline for receipt of projects ends on January 12, 2025, at 11:00 p.m. Any request for participation sent after the deadline will not be taken into account.

14. Submission of projects

Projects must be sent to the IEB email address <opencall@iebalearics.org>. The subject of the email must include the text “Open call registration: curatorial project for ARCOmadrid 2025”. The IEB will confirm receipt of the registration to the call.

The IEB will assign a reference number to each submitted project, which will be used to communicate anonymously the total points obtained for all projects.

15. Resolution

The IEB will send an email to the curator of the winning project to inform them that their project has been selected. The selected curator must respond to the email accepting the commission from the curatorship. Once this procedure has been completed, the IEB will inform all participants of the final result of the selection by email.

The result can also be consulted on the IEB website.

More information If you have any questions or queries, you can contact Karen Müller, visual arts technician at the IEB (kmueller@iebalearics.org; 971 17 89 96).

 

Annex 1

Indicative maximum budget for the relevant items for the design of the exhibition proposal

Annex 2

Cronogramme