BEYOND #2 is closed for applications.
BEYOND #2 is the latest edition of a new commissioning initiative from Film and Video Umbrella, which we first launched at the start of lockdown in Spring 2020. As before, we were looking for proposals for new moving-image works that are self-sufficient and self-contained, and can be produced in keeping with any government Covid-19 restrictions that are in place.
We are thrilled to announce the artists to be commissioned for Beyond #2: Joanna Callaghan, Michael and Chiyan Ho, Rene Matić, Candice Nembhard, Toby Parker Rees and Craig David Parr. The six projects will be presented over the course of the next year on FVU Watch.
About BEYOND
We issued the first call for entries for BEYOND at the height of lockdown in Spring 2020, and we are pleased to announce that we are running the initiative again in 2021. Launched in response to the urgent, unprecedented challenges of the first wave of the pandemic, the scheme was intended to provide fast-turnaround support for a wider and more diverse cohort of artists, and to offer a platform for their distinctive, personal responses to these extraordinary times. One year on, amid continuing uncertainty about the prospects of a return to ‘normal’ (or, indeed, what that ‘normal’ should be), the need to promote a plurality of voices is as urgent as ever, and we are looking to commission six new projects along similar lines to before.
As lockdown imposed restrictions on both film production and social interaction, it forced people back onto and into themselves, but also inspired new forms of creativity and connectivity. In the spirit of necessity being a spur for invention, we wanted BEYOND to make a virtue of self-sufficiency, to be an opportunity for artists to make work under their own steam and on their own terms. In the face of a universal instruction to limit contacts and to stay at home, we were also keen for the commissions to offer a space to imagine new horizons and a chance to think outside the box.
The works produced as part of the scheme are all testimony to artists’ longstanding ability to think outside of the parameters of the present and stretch the boundaries of the possible. In their resourcefulness, invention and imagination, the different projects showcased so far have gone above and beyond our expectations. We are now looking for a further six to follow the examples they have set.
In edition #1 of BEYOND artists Nadeem Din Gabisi, Reman Sadani and FVU Team Assistant and Productions Officer Leah McGurk selected De’Anne Crooks, Kyla Harris and Lou Macnamara, Kondo Heller, Cal Mac, Moyin Saka, Maryam Tafakory and Chris Zhongtian Yuan to make new work. Four of these films are so far available to view on FVU WATCH.
You can view demographic monitoring data for applicants to BEYOND #1 and #2 here.