The Bat-Yam Biennale: Urban Action is due to take place for the third time in October 2012 in and around the city of Bat-Yam, following the two former editions, “Hosting 2008” and “Timing 2010”.

The open call invites artists, architects, designers, residents, social researchers to suggest ideas for improving the quality of life in the city. Selected proposals will be executed by the Bat-Yam municipality.

The Bat-Yam Biennale is an international bi-annual event dealing with the planning and design of urban life culture. During the Biennale, the city’s space becomes a laboratory for the creation of new, sustainable urban spaces and the exploration of novel modes of urban living. The Biennale wishes to strengthen residents’ sense of responsibility towards their shared public spaces, and to suggest ways of changing the traditional relationships between residents and municipal authorities – between the city’s people and its professional managing strata.

The Theme: Metamorphosis

For the coming edition of the Bat-Yam Biennale, the concept of “metamorphosis” will serve as a source of inspiration and general framework. They wish to draw on three properties of the metamorphic process:

1.Metamorphosis as an overall and unexpected transformation, an essential change of form, entity or functioning.
2. Metamorphosis as change emerging from within, a transformation undergone as part of that being’s nature. For example, the caterpillar’s metamorphosis into chrysalis and butterfly, or yet the evaporation or freezing of water, in what can be a permanent or cyclical transformation.
3. Metamorphosis as a dramatic change that does not attest to the exterior forces that generated it. On the contrary, often it is a meticulous and restricted action that caused the transformation – such as the kiss which made the frog a prince, or the clock striking midnight, which turned the carriage into a pumpkin. Change can occur by the waving a wand, by a gaze or a spell – and sometimes merely by wish, intention or possibility.

Submission of Proposals:

Proposals should include a written abstract (up to 2 A4 pages) and CVs of the team members (up to half an A4 page each). Visual materials may be added in a PDF file. The deadline for submission is15.6.2011.
Questions may be addressed to the following e-mail:
batyam.biennale@gmail.com

For more information on the open call, please click here.