Call for papers

GENERAL INFORMATION

Submissions must be sent in Word format (Times New Roman, 12 pts, 1.5 line spacing) to gcorto [@] espaceartactuel [.] com. Unless otherwise indicated, they should be original and previously unpublished work. Please include a brief biography of the writer (70-80 words for reviews, 80-100 words for other sections), as well as their mailing and email addresses.

The editorial committee reviews all submissions and reserves the right to accept or refuse any articles. Texts that present a potential conflict of interest between the author and subject will not be considered.

Submissions are evaluated on the following criteria: relevance to the mandate of ESPACE art actuel magazine, clarity of expression, quality of analysis and originality.

The editorial committee, overseen by the Editor-in-chief André-Louis Paré, consists of Manel Benchabane, Mélanie Boucher, Gina Cortopassi, Didier Morelli, Bénédicte Ramade, Julie Richard, Robin Simpson and Dominique Sirois-Rouleau.

The magazine will pay $65 per 250-word page (excluding footnotes), up to a maximum of $260 for exhibition reviews and $520 for texts in other sections.

Download the Editorial Protocol

1. EXHIBITION REVIEWS

a) An exhibition review will have 900 to 1000 words, and will address a solo or group exhibition in Quebec, Canada or abroad.
b) Apart from exceptional cases, the exhibition reviewed should not have ended more than four months prior to the release of the issue in which the review will be published.
c) The title of the review should be limited to the title of the exhibition, and include the artist’s name if it is a solo exhibition.
d) The header should also include the venue and dates of the exhibition.
e) Intertitles should be avoided and footnotes should be kept to a minimum, if at all.
f) Images, with full captions, to accompany the text are welcome but not mandatory.
g) A proposal should be sent by e-mail to gcorto [@] espaceartactuel [.] com as soon as possible before the deadline. The editor-in-chief’s preliminary approval of this proposal does not mean that the submission of the completed text is accepted. The editorial committee must still review the final text for acceptance or rejection.
➜ The next deadline for exhibition reviews is April 29, 2024 for issue no.138 (Fall 2024).

2. EVENTS

a) The texts in the Events section are reviews of large-scale exhibitions, particularly biennales or other artistic events involving several venues.
b) A review in the Events section will be 1500 to 2000 words.
c) Apart from exceptional cases, the event reviewed should not have ended more than four months prior to the release of the issue in which the review will be published.
d) The title should include the name of the event, but not necessarily limited to it.
e) The header should also include the venues and dates of the event.
f) Headings and footnotes are welcome but not mandatory.
g) Images, with full captions, to accompany the final text are welcome but not mandatory.
h) A proposal should be sent by e-mail to gcorto [@] espaceartactuel [.] com as soon as possible before the deadline. The editor-in-chief’s preliminary approval of this proposal does not mean that the submission of the completed text is accepted. The editorial committee must still review the final text for acceptance or rejection.
➜ The next deadline for exhibition reviews is April 29, 2024 for issue no.138 (Fall 2024).

3. FEATURE

a) For the Feature section, we would like original texts of 1500 to 2000 words (excluding footnotes) on the theme addressed, along with relevant case studies.
b) Headings are welcome for clarity, but not mandatory
c) Footnotes are welcome, but should not exceed 20.
d) The text will not include a bibliography.
e) Images, with full captions, to accompany the final text are welcome but not mandatory.
f) The author is invited to send us, as soon as possible (February 12, 2024), a proposal by email to gcorto [@] espaceartactuel [.] com before the final submission of his or her text. The preliminary acceptance of this proposal by the editor-in-chief does not, however, prevent the submission of the completed text to the editorial committee for final validation or rejection.
➜ The next deadline for the Feature section is April 29, 2024.

 

ESPACE art actuel, n° 138 (Fall 2024).

Call for proposals: Deuils/Mourning

In 2021, the New Museum (New York) presented Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America, an exhibition conceived by Okwui Enwezor (1963–2019) on how Black American artists have represented the subject of mourning. Bringing together the works of thirty-seven artists, the exhibition “addressed the concept of mourning, commemoration, and loss as a direct response to the national emergency of racist violence experienced by Black communities across America.” More recently, the exhibition Exposé·e·s, presented at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris) in 2023, was inspired by Élisabeth Lebovici’s book, Ce que le sida m’a fait: Art et activisme à la fin du XX e siècle (JRP editions, 2017) and showed many works by artists who have given a voice to those exposed to the virus. In the same context of the fight against AIDS, art critic and curator Douglas Crimp (1944–2019) has characterized “the work of mourning” as a way of maintaining contact with the dead.

Mourning is an affective state of feeling sorrow over the loss, absence, or death of someone. It can be a difficult ordeal to go through, marking a transition in the course of a life. In the two exhibitions mentioned above, the need to publicly show grief turns mourning into a political event, especially if the mourning is the result of an injustice, indifference, or even armed conflict. In all cases, mourning requires a process of adapting to the loss of people or to a sudden change in lifestyle. According to psychoanalysis or other forms of healing, “the work of mourning” should aim to separate the living from the dead, the time before from afterwards, and to accept that the deceased person is gone. Sigmund Freud (1865–1939) proposed that this does not mean that the mourner must renounce the dead or no longer miss them, but make peace with the dead by letting them die. Faced with the process of adapting to this “absence of being,” this nothingness, philosopher Vinciane Despret believes that we must resist the desire to control the work of mourning. In her book Our Grateful Dead: Stories of Those Left Behind (Minnesota Press, 2021, translated by Stephen Muecke), she describes experiences in which the presence of the dead haunts those in mourning. Unlike psychoanalysis, which claims that we must kill the dead, Despret is sensitive to stories that show how the dead can live among us in their own way, leading to new ways of mourning.

For a long time in the West, the expression “to be in mourning” was symbolized by attire. Black or dark clothing was the apparent sign that we were in mourning. Yet as we know, Western societies have found dealing with death increasingly difficult. According to historian Philippe Ariès, death has replaced sexuality as a major taboo in industrialized countries. As a result, rituals around mourning have become less and less noticeable. The mental process associated with mourning is accomplished out of sight. And since death often implies unspeakable pain, artistic expression becomes a way of conveying suffering in a different way. In a recent book, beautifully titled Les morts à l’œuvre [The Dead at Work] (La découverte, 2023), Despret emphasizes precisely the transformative dimension of art, defending the idea that the dead have the power to act on the living. She gives as example the French program Les Nouveaux Commanditaires, which involves selecting an artist and deciding together on a commemorative artwork that will pay tribute to the unknown dead. In addition to this approach that encourages citizen initiatives, the dead are also at work in many artistic gestures. Whether in literature, the performing arts, or the visual arts, the need to express the experience of mourning is vital to giving meaning to the absence of people we need to remember.

Based on theoretical analyses of case studies, the “Mourning” feature wishes to explore the many ways in which artists reflect on the question of mourning. Although for many decades, many of these ways drew on the suffering caused by death to pay tribute to the dead, this feature section wishes to examine the role that the work of mourning has had in recent experiences (from 2010 to the present). We seek to mobilize diverse cultural communities that can highlight the importance of mourning through a range of traditions, disciplines, and worldviews. How can contemporary art, through various sculptural, installation, or performative expressions, attest to the fact that mourning is a practice that permeates the social and emotional realities of many groups of individuals? Given that rituals are increasingly absent, how can art symbolize the continuation of life? How are funeral rites expressed in Indigenous communities? Can various forms of art teach us how to collectively commemorate mourning once again? These questions, which encompass notions of memory, survival, commemoration, and ritual, lead to anthropological, sociological, and philosophical questions that are beyond art practices. They try to shed light on our way of keeping alive the memory of those who are gone so that they can keep being part of our lives in their own ways.

If you wish to contribute to this feature section, please email a brief proposal (250 words) to the magazine’s assistant editor (gcorto [@] espaceartactuel [.] com) before February 12, 2024. We’ll let you know as soon as possible if your proposal has been accepted. Your full text should not exceed 2,000 words, excluding footnotes, and must be submitted by April 29, 2024. The fee is $65 CAD per 250-word page.