Referring to the Qalandiya International theme of re-imagining the artistic conceptualisation of “Return”, the curatorial focus for this year’s Award welcomes applications that look at the related notions of repetition, recurrence, patterns, rhythm, rehearsal, and movement, as form and as an imaginary.

We seek bold and unconventional proposals that dare to break loose from nostalgia and traditional iconography, and embrace the fantastical and the aspirational. The intention is to create meaning through form and concepts that repeat, move, return and recur, and as such become poetical and political gestures.

Applicants are encouraged to engage with a wide range of current artistic practices. For example, but not limited to, forays into futurology (by i.e. examining possibilities/anxieties for the future, the latter’s construction and mythology; or bringing in science/science-fiction to seek an understanding of the past and the present); speculative fiction (by leaving reality and the quotidian behind and relying on the imaginary and speculation, as well as magic); or social choreography (i.e. the interrelations between bodily movement and the social order; the world as a stage; the interrelations between ‘individual’ and ‘group’).

Research topics that may lend themselves to further exploration may include the politics of rhythm in music and how music controls, disciplines or sets free; mechanical and digital reproduction; patterns and designs in textiles and fabrics; serial art (determined by rules and repetitions); and mutations in repeated narrative or storytelling (think Chinese whispers). The above is only an indication and the call is open to any innovative approach of the theme.

The Curator and the Programme invite artists to submit proposals that are in response to these ideas. Applicants should be between 22 and 30 years old at the time of submission (i.e. born between January 1^st, 1986 and December 31^st, 1993), and should be of Palestinian origin regardless of place of residence. Applicants may also be from the Golan Heights. The proposed artwork must be conceived and produced exclusively for YAYA 2016, and should not under any circumstances be exhibited before the Award exhibition.

The specialised selection committee, including the curator, will review the proposals and select 10 finalists. Decisions will be based on the perceived excellence, commitment, innovation, originality and creativity in the proposals.

The 10 finalists will be given a period of 6 months for the production of their works, which will then be submitted for the final stages of the Award. During these 6 months the artists are expected to be in communication regularly with the curator, who will, in conversation with the finalists, lay out a work plan of the 6 month period. The final artworks will be shown in a 3 week exhibition as part of Qalandiya International (Qi) in October 2016.

Each finalist will be given a grant of $1,000 USD towards production costs. A total of $12,000 USD in prize awards will be awarded to three winners of the YAYA 2016 by a distinguished Jury.

The Young Artist of the Year Award, which is named after the late artist Hassan Hourani, is considered one of the most important events in the Palestinian art scene. Since 2000, it has been organised every two years and has invited renowned artists, critics and curators – such as Mona Hatoum, Okwui Enwezor, Suleiman Mansour, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jack Persekian, Sasha Craddock, Emily Jacir, Samia Halaby, Sharif Waked, Khalil Rabah and Gerardo Mosquera – to act as Jury members.

Applications should be submitted electronically by no later than March 25th, 2016. The finalists will be announced no later than April 7^th 2016.

To download the application form and guidelines please visit this link.

For more information please call +972 (0)2 296 0544, visit www.qattanfoundation.org, or email [email protected]