Arts 4 WASH

Let’s Talk Period. Let’s Talk. Period

Celebrating 10 Years of Global Menstrual Hygiene: Viva con Agua South Africa together with its partners, GIZ, The Spier Arts Trust, and the Millerntor Gallery are excited to announce an OPEN CALL FOR VISUAL ARTISTS.

From the beginning of time, women’s rite of passage, as they enter childbearing age, is The Sacred Flow. To begin your menstrual cycle is to enter womanhood. The arrival of the menstrual flow is often welcomed with anticipation but often mixed with dread as teenage girls are horrified by the idea of spoiling their uniforms in front of their crushes, or ‘leaking’ at school without sufficient sanitary pads. Working women around the globe are heard cursing the day Eve ate The Apple in the garden, and mothers sternly warn their young girls who have now become women to be careful – “if a boy even touches you, you will fall pregnant; so no boys before books!”. 

The social nuances, pressures, and stigma around the flow are many. We could go on, and on. 2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the global Menstrual Hygiene Day on 28th May with GIZ’s #LetsTalkPERIOD impact campaign contributing to the growing movement. Art speaks louder than words and can often time express more than worlds can. Viva con Agua South Africa often relies on a ‘universal language’ approach of art, sport, dance, music to advance our mission of promoting water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). 

This open call asks artists to dream, envision, and reimagine menstruation in this world. A world in which there is no shame, but sacredness. Women are not seen as dirty – but divine. For women to be compared to The Creator as they are able to conceive and create human beings. Menstruation in essence is a creative process in that it ensures the production of humanity. If we were to rebrand The Sacred Flow, what would it look like?  We therefore invite YOU to Let’s Talk Period. Let’s Talk. Period. 

To participate in the conversation and be part of the artist incubation programme, please submit your application by completing THIS form.

The artist incubation will be curated by The Spier Arts Trust in partnership with Viva con Agua South Africa, GIZ, and the Millerntor Gallery. The Let’s Talk Period. Let’s Talk. Period artist incubation will consist of a series of creative and health workshops surrounding female health, period poverty, and general menstrual health management.

Artists will be invited to create an artwork during the incubation in culmination of their lived and learnt experience. Selected works created during the incubation period will tour to Zanzibar and Germany and be auctioned worldwide by the Millerntor Gallery. 

The details:

  • The open call invites all South African citizens 18 years and over.
  • The open call is targeted at emerging artists; people making a living from their art, who are currently studying art.
  • Preference will be given to artists whose artmaking already speaks to the topic of the open call.
  • The open call is not limited to any specific art form, but two-dimensional art that can be displayed on a wall will be the preferred artform during the artist incubation.
  • The deadline for applications is 3 March 2024. Successful applicants will be contacted directly by Viva con Agua SA via email correspondence. If you have not heard from us by 15 March 2024, please accept that your application has not been successful.

OPEN CALL FOR EMERGING VISUAL ARTISTS application form: Let’s Talk Period Emerging Artist

For more inquiries email: arts@vivaconagua.org.za

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