The 24th China Shanghai International Arts Festival R.A.W.! Calling for Commissioned Works of Visual Arts
Established in 2012, China Shanghai International Arts Festival Rising Artists’ Works program (hereinafter referred to as R.A.W.!) is a leading comprehensive original artwork incubation platform in China. It provides young artists with high-quality soil for their all-round growth and mutual collaboration, and has set up a broad platform for international cooperation. In 2023, R.A.W.! established Visual Arts project. To this day, R.A.W.! has commissioned 118 young Chinese artists in various fields and created 100 diversified original artworks. Close connection has been made between R.A.W.! and Asia Society, USA; Budapest Spring Festival, Hungary; Southbank Centre, UK; New Vision Arts Festival, Hong Kong; and Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania. For 29 times, R.A.W.!'s commissioned works have been showcased in USA, Hungary, UK, Australia, Isarel, Norway, Romania, South Korea, Germany, Hong Kong China, etc.
In 2025, R.A.W.! will play a greater role as a platform, promote the incubation and display of global young artists' works of stage performing arts and visual arts, and reflect the new developments, trends and characteristics of this field. All artists in the world under 45 years old (45 included) are welcomed to apply for R.A.W.!, including but not limited to professional young artists, amateur young artists, and curators. Both individuals and teams are accepted. Encourage and support the submission of debut works and premieres, integrating art and technology works.
The selected artists will receive multi-aspect support in work/project production funds, premiere venue, technical equipment, and publicizing, and may receive one-on-one guidance from arts panel formed by leading figures in each discipline. To promote cultural exchange among countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative and to support young artists from these countries, R.A.W.! encourages submissions of works created by individuals or teams from Belt and Road countries, or works that reflect the themes of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Visual Arts
CSIAF’s RAW For VISUAL is launching its 2025 global call for applications as from today and will continue until March 31st, 2025, selecting both emerging artists and emerging curators as planned. Selectees will have the opportunities exhibiting his/her artworks and curation plan at Shanghai' s featured art spaces during the 24th China Shanghai International Arts Festival.
Exhibition production funds, exhibition venue, publicizing, and may receive one-on-one guidance from arts panel formed by leading figures in visual art discipline.
I. Requirements
1.The space for the selected artist's solo exhibition is approximately 500㎡. The theme is not limited, and categories can be painting, sculpture, photography, installation, sound, video, new media, etc. The works submitted shall be recently created original works, with a specific quantity, as well as artistic, meaningful and creative content.
2. The space of the group exhibition designed by the curator shall not exceed 800㎡. There is no limit to the exhibition theme. The quantity of participating artists shall not exceed 8, and the number of works shall be clarified. The exhibition shall demonstrate high-level professionalism and social vision, conducive to promoting the artistic communication between Chinese and foreign young visual art talents.
II. Application
Only email application is accepted for the first-round review. The applicant shall submit the complete works and related materials, and the Application Form as an essential (a scanned copy of the signed or sealed form) to the organizer's email box: RAW101@artsbird.com, with "2025 RAW Commissioned Works of Visual Arts + Applicant Name" as email subject. The attachments shall include the following materials:
For participating artists:
1. Photos of the works (one photo for each graphic work; 2-3 photos from different angles for each multi-material work; a full-length file for video work. The photos shall be in JPG format, each with a size of less than 5MB and a resolution of over 300dpi).
2. A full biography of the author.
3. An introduction to the concepts of the exhibited works (no more than 1,000 words, in a Word or PDF file).
4. No less than 5 works for each applicant. If the works are selected in the preliminary evaluation, another notice will be given about submitting the original works for the re-evaluation and solo exhibition.
For participating curators:
1. Curatorial proposal for the group exhibition (including a description of the exhibition theme, an introduction to the participating artist and their works, budget and other implementation measures).
2. A full biography of the curator.
3.Previous successfully implemented curation cases (including complete curatorial proposals, media reports, etc., in the form of text or video).
For non-Chinese-speaking artists and curators, please provide an English version or an English translation of the above application materials.
III. Evaluation
A panel of experts jointly organized by the China Shanghai International Arts Festival and the Shanghai Artists Association shall select one artist and one curator from the applicants. The selection consists of three stages: Preliminary evaluation, Re-evaluation, and Create/Curate Guidance and Assessment.
Preliminary Evaluation: The organizer will establish a judging panel consisting of authoritative experts, who will be invited for a half-day review meeting based on the online submission materials.
Re-evaluation: Applicants entered the second round are required to attend an offline presentation, and interpret their works or exhibition proposal to the authoritative experts in turn.
Create/Curate Guidance and Assessment: The expert panel offers guidance and assessment opinions regarding the artistry, creativity, operability and rationality of the selected artist's solo exhibition proposal and the selected curator's group exhibition proposal.
IV. Deadline
March 31st, 2025 (subject to the date when the email is received by the organizer's email box: RAW101@artsbird.com).
V. Terms of application
1. All works or proposals shall be original. The applicant shall be fully responsible for the copyright of the works involved and ensure that no infringement of any third party's copyright will occur during the use of the works. The organizer will keep all the declaration materials strictly confidential, and no returns for the materials once submitted, whether chosen or not.
2. The allocation and use of commissioned works production funds are subject to the organizer’s review; the implementation rules and process must comply with government policies. The organizer is entitled to make reasonable adjustments to the project budget based on actual conditions.
3. The exhibited works must meet the requirements for at least one month of exhibition period in terms of technical safety and operation and maintenance.
4. To ensure the quality of the displayed works, the organizer is entitled to disqualify a selected applicant and terminate cooperation if the following situations occur: 1) The selected applicant is incapable of actual implementation; 2) The selected applicant does not cooperate with the organizer's work; 3) The selected applicant does not abide by the cooperation agreement, or 4) The selected applicant is unable to complete the work according to the predetermined requirements.
VI. Contact
BAO Jing, ZHU Yilei
Tel: 0086-21-52654017
Fax: 0086-21-52654026
Email: RAW101@artsbird.com
Note:
The organizer reserves the right to final interpretation of the program.
For more information, please visit the WeChat account: RAW_CSIAF (RAW扶持青年艺术家计划).