DLECTRICITY

Our open call has ended, but this is just the beginning!

And that’s a wrap! Our 2020 DLECTRICITY Open Call for Entries closed last night at midnight, and we are both inspired and impressed by the range of ideas that have been submitted! We are grateful for the interest shown in the festival. Artists from 33 countries sent in proposals, including many local Detroiters (see above map). We deeply appreciate each artist for taking their time to develop such awesome ideas for DLECTRICITY.

THANK YOU!

DLECTRICITY is grounded on the mission to support both emerging and established artists, local or international. Each festival has been at once spectacular, innovative and a worthwhile experience thanks to the artists selected from our open call. We value their skillsets, creativity and drive—these are the people that make up DLECTRICITY! And we have the utmost respect for all the artists who pursued this open call opportunity.

Our reach grew this year, and for that we can thank our community partners for helping us spread the word: The Cranbrook Academy of Art, Design Core Detroit, the DTE Foundation & DTE’s Beacon Park, Mercury Sound & Lighting, MOCAD and the Toledo Arts Commission. We’d also like to thank all of our past artists for sharing their experiences with others—the arts community is strong and resourceful, and we’re happy to be a part of it as well as support it.

Here’s what’s next:

Mid-March: The curatorial committee convenes for the first phase of selection.

Late March–Late April: the projects selected by the curatorial committee go through a technical vetting process. This takes about six weeks.

Summer: project selections are confirmed and publicly announced!

This is just the beginning… we are really looking forward to reviewing everyone’s submissions and seeing which ones will come to life at DLECTRICITY! Stay tuned for now.

DLECTRICITY Site #10: The Detroit Institute of Arts

The Detroit Institute of Arts is known to be one of the most culturally significant institutions in the Midwest. With over 65,000 works of art in its collection, the DIA is home to notable masterpieces such as Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescoes, and houses Vincent van Gogh’s Self Portrait—the first artwork by van Gogh to enter a U.S. collection. The DIA is also a strong community partner to all of the Metro Detroit area. In addition to supporting local contemporary artists, the museum has made it a priority to build an art collection that reflects the diversity of metro Detroit and has also embarked on educational endeavors that encourage visitors to engage with artworks, history and each other.

The DIA’s lawn is spacious and offers the perfect spot for DLECTRICITY to host “Electric Park”—a family and kid-friendly site for interactive installations on the North-West lawn. This DLECTRICITY feature is one of our most eventful, and the open green space, winding path and plethora of trees is very welcoming to fun projects. Among these, Arts & Scraps hosted a workshop that allowed DLECTRICITY visitors to explore how white light is made up of primary colors.

Across from Electric Park, on the South-West lawn of the museum, is the same topography to accommodate bold and experimental works. The museum’s building provides smooth, flat and light-colored surfaces at different parts for video projections and dazzling light shows. The perimeter of the building offers other wall surfaces and more. The back staircase was transformed into a theater by Apetechnology in 2017.

The museum sits as one of the first sites at the entrance of the DLECTRICITY footprint, and each festival year it is one of the most bustling. We thank the DIA for their contributions to past DLECTRICITYs and again for 2020!

DLECTRICITY Site #5: The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

Since its doors opened in 2006, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) has been a point of intersection in the contemporary arts. At the core of the museum’s mission is to educate, embolden and invigorate the Detroit community through contemporary arts. As a hub for artists and thinkers, MOCAD exhibits and collaborates with local Detroit artists, and often brings internationally acclaimed artists into the city to learn and experience it, typically resulting in a moment of convergence between that artist’s practice and the essence of Detroit. For each DLECTRICITY, MOCAD’s offerings make it one of the most vibrant sites of the festival.

The outdoor campus of the museum is spacious with a lot of wall space. Its West-facing facade sites directly on Woodward Avenue, and its East façade welcomes visitors in the parking lot. Both spots are large and have before showcased neon lights, as in the case of Martin Creed’s Work No. 790: Everything is Going to Be Alright on the West façade (2017), or video projections, like Zeynep Dagli on the East façade (also 2017). The front façade also provides plenty of wall space, and in 2017 it hosted E.S.P. TV’s You Don’t Say Much, Do You?

The Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead is a landmark for the Midtown arts community, and it is MOCAD’s only permanent installation. Conceived as a work of art by the artist Mike Kelley himself, the installation is a life-size replica of his childhood home in Westland, Michigan. The interior space maps out exactly as Kelly’s Westland home, and it generously offers additional spacing for public programming at the Museum, and often houses smaller exhibitions. Like what most homes have, the Homestead has a large, spacious and green front lawn that can accommodate sculptural works or even outdoor performances. DLECTRICITY artists in the past have incorporated the Mobile Homestead into their projects, like the Munich-based duo, Mayer + Empl had done in 2017.

Other artists that have displayed works around and inside MOCAD for DLECTRICITY include Shaun Gladwell, Nicola Kuperus, Adam Lee Miller, Mikki Olson, and Sameer Reddy. We look forward to another DLECTRICITY at MOCAD!