FinnAgora and INOTA-festival Open Call for Finnish Light Artists
FinnAgora, the Finnish institute in Budapest, is organising an open call together with INOTA-festival for a site specific light installation by a Finnish artist in August 2025. The open call is part of pARTir, a collaborative project with ten other Finnish institutes in creating ecologically and socially sustainable mobility in the Finnish arts field.
The open call is arranged for creation of a site specific light installation at the INOTA thermal power plant close to the city of Várpalota in Hungary. The power plant area is unique and the chance to create a large-scale light installation there is a great creative and artistic opportunity.
INOTA-festival will be held on the 28-30th of August 2025 and a light exhibition will be open to the public from the 15th of August. The installation construction is possible from the beginning of August. Exact dates of setup would be agreed on between the artist and the festival, depending on the type of installation and the exact location in the power plant area.
The artist would travel to Budapest and the power plant in June for 2 weeks and then return for the construction and the festival as well as dismantling of the installation in August.
Background
FinnAgora
FinnAgora is the Finnish Institute in Budapest with the aim to create networks between Finland and Hungary in the fields of culture and science. This open call is part of the pARTir collaborative project. The aim of pARTIr is to establish and support socially and ecologically sustainable practices for international mobility in the arts field. The perspective of social and ecological sustainability should be present throughout the project. We encourage the applying artists to have this sustainable perspective in consideration, and strongly encourage travel by land which will be covered by the project.
pARTir project is financed by the European Union and NextGenerationEurope.
https://instituutit.fi/en/what-is-partir-project/
INOTA-festival
The INOTA Festival was held the first time in 2023 as a joint initiative of the Budapest NVC event management collective and Centrum Production. The festival was a highlight event for the Vezprém European Culture Capital of 2023 program.
The objective of the festival is to establish Hungary's largest audiovisual festival focusing not only on forward-thinking music acts, but also light installations, mappings and other contemporary visual works - in many cases as an integral part of the musical performances. Shapes of the past and the future merged into an exceptionally original unity in the stunning grounds of the Inota thermal power plant near Várpalota, one of the largest Hungarian industrial projects of the socialist era.
The festival was nominated in 2023 for a European Festival Award in the category of Best Small Festivals.
What we offer:
- A chance to create an unique and a large scale site installation at the INOTA power plant
- Budget to cover the following expenses; artist fee, technical expenses, accommodation and travel
- Chance to network with many Hungarian and international artists and be part of the INOTA festival
- Chance to experience the Hungarian art scene
- Visibility of artist and art work on INOTA’s sites, social media, and FinnAgora’s communications channels
- INOTA will also offer the materials and rented technical equipment to create the installation
To apply:
- This open call is for Finnish artists only and to support international mobility of Finnish artists
- To apply please fill in the application form here.
- The decision of the chosen artist will be made in collaboration with INOTA festival and FinnAgora. The decision will be made in the beginning of April.
- We encourage the applicants to have a perspective of ecological and social sustainability in regards to the artwork creation, themes of the installation and throughout the project.
- Any further questions you can contact: rebecka.vilhonen@finnagora.hu
Deadline for application submission: 28 March 2025.
Implementation dates:
Visit to Budapest, the INOTA power plant and local art scene in Budapest 2.6-10.6 (dates are only preliminary and can be changed).
10.8-1.9 (construction, exhibition and festival, dismantling the installation)