Counter-imagining the dystopia
OCT 26 – NOV 5, TOKYO 2022
[NELIS Arts4Sustainability Fest 1.0]
THE SPIRIT BEHIND
If we want to transform our collective path and inherit our descendants a livable world, we’ve got to envision it first. We’ve got to overcome our imagination crisis at the core of the interconnected crises we face today.
As the people from Films for Action put it, we’ve got to imagine ten thousand localized versions of this livable world. “That’s how things change. Fortunately, visions of a more beautiful, compassionate, regenerative future already exist. But since they’re not being broadcast daily on the evening news, we’ve got to dedicate a little more energy towards broadcasting them ourselves.”
The first OML Photo Exhibit wants to showcase these other possible worlds. We believe that imagining and shaping our future shouldn’t be the luxury of those with the time to do so. We are confident that those busy facing their local challenges and seeking solutions for the pressing urges of their communities usually have a profound imagination and can co-inspire us all.
Imagining is not always about hope, The Funambulist writes when speaking about futurism: “(…) visions are not wishful thinking or dreamy fables about the possibility of ‘better’ futures. They are instead a manifestation of tactical optimism; a constructivist envisioning that gives itself the means to exist through its very own formulation.”
How can we dismantle the multiple dystopias that shape our present narratives? Imagination is an unstoppable force of nature, and we are also nature, so let’s reclaim the weapon of our imagination because, as Puerto Rican poet Martin Espada (2016) wrote, “no change for the good ever happens without it being imagined first.”
THE ONE MILLION LEADERS (OML) PHOTO EXHIBIT
NELIS (Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability) and its flagship project, OML (One Million Leaders), are thrilled to invite amateur and professional photographers worldwide to participate in the OML Photo Exhibit – 2022: “Counter-imagining the dystopia.”
This first photo exhibit will be launched in an autumnal Tokyo (Oct 26th), first at FlaGinza Gallery in the Ginza area and later at Sophia University during the NELIS 4Revs Summit. After this, it will become a virtual exhibit.
The OML Photo Exhibit – 2022, which is paving the way toward the NELIS Arts4Sustainability Fest, aims to:
- Showcase the diversity of stories and angles we can capture through a camera lens when we dare to counter-imagine the dystopia;
- Financially support the OML Programs running worldwide (OMLA -Africa-; OMLATAM -Latinamerica-; OMLAS -Asia-; OML-MENA -the Middle East & North Africa-), and;
- Support local doers, dreamers, and their communities or initiatives working towards “one world in harmony.”
Through the different NELIS projects, the NELIS members and staff work to create a platform for connection and change, a source of hope and inspiration, and an enabler force of empowerment and communication.
Through this phygital exhibit, we want to bring together local2global realities of active resistance that challenge our social, cultural, economic, environmental, and imagination crises and open thresholds to foresee the shape of what can become possible.
We want to trigger our abilities to envision other possible worlds and facilitate cross-pollination between diverse local realities through the nakedness of photography. This is why we won’t only be sharing voices and visions in-between territories but also directly supporting the funding of such processes.
It’s all about collecting the visions of earthlings from all walks of life willing to contribute and partner up to reshape our present and future!
HOW TO PARTICIPATE?
- Participation is free.
- To apply, please send the following to arts4sustain@nelisglobal.org:
– A maximum of 3 photos/participant, in JPEG format, max. 5 MG weight/each. High-quality scans of negatives or transparencies are also accepted. It could be an old photo or one you take for the occasion (please include the original photo resolution and dimensions).
– A description of your photography/s, highlighting its relation to the call’s theme (max. 200 words).
– A short profile/bio of yourself -including any information you find relevant about yourself or your organizational affiliations (max. 200 words).
– Share the call on your social media (hopefully several times, at least once)! Remember to tag @nelisglobal so that we can validate it. If you do not have/use social media, send it by email to at least three of your contacts you think might be interested (cc’ing: arts4sustain@nelisglobal.org).
- The call closes on September 15th, 23:59 JST
- An internal NELIS team (+ some external guest juries) will consider the applications and curate them appropriately for both physical and digital exhibition platforms. The selecting criteria are:
(1) Formal quality;
(2) Conceptual coherence with the call’s theme;
(3) Creativity, authenticity, and discursivity.
- Artworks/photos will be available to purchase (final prices yet to be defined). The income will be shared in a balance of 50% Photographer ~ 50% Nelis/OML (remember, this is a fund-raising photo exhibit). We will primarily use the NELIS/OML percentage to finance One Million Leaders (OML) fellowship programs and cover basic exhibit expenses (copy printings, installation, etc.).
- The on-site exhibit will take place in Tokyo (Japan) between Oct 26th – Oct 28th at FlaGinza Gallery and on Nov 5th at Sophia University. After this, the virtual gallery will remain activated on the NELIS website.
* The entrant must be the sole copyright owner of all images entered. Any persons featured in the entries must have permission to use their likeness. Entrants must not have acted in any way unlawfully in obtaining the image.
