Curatorial Fellowship 2022/2023

Partition in the Modern World: Transdiasporic Perspectives

Call for Artists: 2022/2023 Curatorial Fellowship Exhibition

Submissions due: April 30, 2023. APPLY TODAY.

Exhibition Dates: July 8 - August 13, 2023

Exhibtion Venue: Evanston Art Center, 1717 Central St, Evanston, IL 60201

Opening Reception: Sunday, July 16 at 1-4 PM CDT

Partitioning countries has been a recurring motif in modern politics since the 17th century worldwide. Just a few examples are the Partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795, the Partition of Mexico in 1854, of Ireland in 1919, of India in August 1947, of Palestine in November 1947, of Bosnia in 1992, and Sudan in 2011. Many other countries around the world have been subjected to a partition due to geopolitical factors, such as Korea, Vietnam, Germany, and Cyprus.

A partition is a change of political borders cutting through at least one territory considered a homeland by a community. The 20th century saw over 25 countries partitioned worldwide, which caused a lot of bloodshed, ethnic violence, and forced migrations of large segments of populations in the partitioned countries.

We are looking for artworks that engage with the various facets of partitioning a country, in the registers of the human experience, the political factors, and the gendered fallout. The splitting of a nation along religious, ethnic, or other political lines is a watershed event and has a profound impact on the people on the ground.

The exhibition seeks to poetically probe the reverberations of the Partition motif locally and globally. This exhibition will seek to answer questions about Partition as a political tool - why is the Partition motif relevant now in the 21st century? Why is the Partition motif relevant here, in post-9/11 America?

The goal is to create an inclusive art exhibition that makes transdiasporic connections between disparate histories of partitions. The Transdiaspora Project has created a curatorial framework that brings artists together from disparate diasporic locations around overarching themes. Our hope is that the artists in this exhibition examine the geopolitical phenomenon of partitioning a country and it’s aftermath through the dual lenses of cultural memories and multiple diasporic locations.

An exhibition catalog is envisaged along with artist panels and exhibition walkthroughs at the Evanston Art Center. Subsequently, the exhibition will transition to a virtual exhibition in the Online Partition Museum.

Curator

Pritika Chowdhry is an artist, curator, and writer whose artworks are in public and private collections. Pritika's Partition Anti-Memorial Project was exhibited in the South Asia Institute of Chicago as a solo retrospective, from August 6 to December 10, 2022. It is currently on view at the Online Partition Museum as a virtual exhibition.

Pritika has exhibited her works nationally and internationally in group and solo exhibitions in the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Queens Museum in New York, the Hunterdon Museum in New Jersey, the Islip Art Museum in Long Island, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, the DoVA Temporary in the University of Chicago, the Brodsky Center in Rutgers University, and the Cambridge Art Gallery in Massachusetts. Pritika is the recipient of a Vilas International Travel Fellowship, an Edith and Sinaiko Frank Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts, a Wisconsin Arts Board grant, and a Minnesota State Arts Board grant.

APPLY TODAY.

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: April 30, 2023, 12 AM CDT 

Exhibition Dates: July 8 - August 13, 2023

Exhibtion Venue: Evanston Art Center, 1717 Central St, Evanston, IL 60201

Opening Reception: Sunday, July 16 at 1-4 PM CDT


Keywords

Partition, Partitions, Partition of India and Pakistan, Bangladesh Liberation War, Partition of Mexico, Partition of Ireland, Partition of Palestine, Partition of Bosnia, Partition of Germany, Partition of Vietnam, Partition of Korea, Partition of Sudan, Partition of Poland, Partition of Ukraine.

Learn more about past Curatorial Fellowships

Learn more about our past 2021 / 2022 Curatorial Fellow: Melissa Raman Molitor.

Learn more about our past 2020 / 2021 Curatorial Fellows: Alpha M. Bruton & Adero Knott.

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This project is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and a grant from the Evanston Arts Council an agency supported by the City of Evanston, IACA, and the NEA.