Personae - Behaviour & Authenticity

Open call by SomoS Art House, Berlin, for artists working with installation, (durational and/or participatory) performance, multimedia, sculpture, 2&3D works, text, spoken word, and other techniques that are inspired by their reflection on authenticity, subjective reality, behavioral patterns and performativity of the self.

The tension between inner being and public persona is described by Jorge Luis Borges as a sharp divide, while in Hannah Arendt’s view, “nothing and nobody exists in this world whose very being does not presuppose a spectator.”
Arendt’s view seems fitting in a time where, for better or worse, our public behavior is constantly under close scrutiny. Enabled by rapidly changing technologies, it is measured, and influenced by outside factors. Governmental, political and commercial monitoring and psychological profiling are all pervasive. The interest in our genuine private selves behind the public persona is enormous.
At the same time, to protect ourselves, behavior and self-presentation are used as performance. Both on-and offline, we often rely on masking our identity. Ironically however, genuineness has become a fluid idea, as our masks and personae may actually portray ourselves in an ideal way.

Deadline 20 April 2018

SomoS Arts, Berlin, Germany
@somos_berlin
@somosberlin
www.somos-arts.org