500 years ago, renaissance man Thomas More published his famous book Utopia. In Utopia Thomas More described in detail an imaginary island located in the Atlantic Ocean and how socio-economic organization of its society. The title of his book, resulted from the Greek: οὐ (“not”) and τόπος (“place”) and means “no-place”.
Utopia became a celebrated text, and has inspired the imagination of people for more than 5 centuries. Its influence was so important that even today, the book and the word, stand as a symbol of innovation, creativity and the human drive of sketching/inventing alternatives to better worlds. On a negative stance, Utopia came to symbolize as well the flaws of aiming for perfection. The book originated various sequels describing futuristic distopian worlds.
To commemorate the 5th centenary anniversary of Thomas More Utopia, IKLECTIK Art Lab in partnership with Dream economics, are organizing an exhibition entitled Drawing Utopias, that will happen between 5th October and 11th October
IKLECTIK Art Lab is a creative space located in Lambeth North, that began in 2014. The space is dedicated to the development of cross disciplinary lines that promote experimental contemporary art. One of its goals is to become a key hub and arts think tank for arts/new economics discourse and to foster conversations about the relationship between art, alternative economic practices and how these can be used to promote positive social change.
Dream Economics is an experimental project led by a group of artists based in London, that investigates the interconnection between art and novel economic models that are broadly entitled “New Economics”, through a series of exhibitions, events and various projects.
We invite artists to participate in “Drawing Utopias” with art works that are paper based, particularly drawings, photographs, artist books or mixed media. We are looking for works that explore the idea of utopia, dreams, alternatives for the future, failed and successful utopian projects, dystopia etc.
The event is organized following the values of gift economy. Even though the open call is free of charge, we suggest a gift/donation of at least 7 GBP to cover the exhibitions costs.
