CURRENT – ART AND URBAN SPACE 2025: Open call for new work
For the third edition of CURRENT – ART AND URBAN SPACE 2025, artists and artist groups are
invited to propose new works for the urban space that engage with the theme of air. The third
festival edition takes place from 26. June – 27. July, 2025 and will explore air in its social,
political, ecological and material forms.
Air – although invisible, it is ubiquitous. Fleeting, intangible and always in motion. Only can it be experienced indirectly. Air carries sounds, smells and vibrations, moves in winds, reveals itself in the flapping of sails, and allows birds to soar and clouds to drift. Air transmits sound waves, temperature, odors and particles; revealing itself through its impact on the environment and the senses. A mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases, air is essential for life on Earth. While the earth’s atmosphere is composed of the complete layer of gaseous matter that surrounds and protects the planet, air merely makes up one component of this. Air is a circuit that connects everything and everyone. For a long time, the air was not given much attention, but in the wake of air pollution, wildfires and severe storms caused by the climate crisis and as a source of breathing in (Covid) pandemics, it has become the focus of social and political discourse.
CURRENT – ART IN PUBLIC SPACE is a transdisciplinary festival held in Stuttgart every two years. By developing exemplary formats, CURRENT experimentally explores artistic forms, strategies and practices contextualized in the city. The festival is part of the Art in Public Space program of the City of Stuttgart, and also its major source of funding. It is a project of the non-profit association: Art Public Space – Culture Matters gemeinnützige UG (haftungsbeschränkt).
CURRENT – ART IN PUBLIC SPACE follows the streams and traces of air through the city. Air defines the paths of the festival, serving as both guiding principle and narrative, aesthetic and artistic element for the interplay of movement and stagnation. The invited artists follow the traces of air, use it as material and explore its properties in installations, performances, concerts and interventions in public space — video screenings, walks and readings. Two artistic positions will be invited via this OPEN CALL to examine the significance of air in its urban, historical and social dimensions. To be submitted are new works that use and investigate air as a material form, and explore its unique features.
Formats and media
One mediaboard at Stuttgart‘s Pragsattel and a total of eight flags mounted on flagpoles in the Stuttgart city center and in Degerloch are available.
In addition, the artworks can be accompanied by other artistic formats such as performances, walks, readings or talks. Two projects will be selected and presented as part of CURRENT 2025.
Info, dates and deadlines
- Theme: AIR
- Festival period: 26.06.-27.07.2025
- Application deadline: 06.01.2025, 11:59 PM (CET)
- Q+A / Consultation: 05.12.2024, 2:00-3:00 PM (CET), with prior registration by 03.12.2024 to program@artpublicspace.de (please include your questions!)
- Jury meeting: Beginning of January
- Announcement: Mid-End of January
- Jury: Laura Bernhardt, Marenka Krasomil, Nora Unger
- Media: Mediaboard, flags
- Eligible to participate: Professional artists/groups
- Only new, site-specific project ideas allowed
