Social Distancing Art Festival Examines Coronavirus Impact on Social Life

Is this Social distancing floor marker an art? Social Distancing Art Festival seeks answers on the impact of social distancing on artists and creativity. Image: Calistemon via Wikimedia

Social Distancing Art Festival searches for answers on how artists have been using their creativity and time at home to address the challenges posed by the coronavirus.

BY KAZAD

SAARBRÜCKEN, GERMANY- By now, everyone knows the meaning of social distancing. The new idea ensures that people stay home and away from other people to avoid catching the coronavirus. For many artists, the implementation of social distancing is an opportunity to create. That is the reason for the Social Distancing Festival (SODA) organized by the Arrival Room.

For the Social Distancing Art Festival, Arrival Room is calling on artists to send in a work dealing with the new phenomenon of social distancing. As many people continue to deal with involuntary quarantine and isolation, the hope is that many of the works submitted would help answer questions that have plagued many minds for weeks, highlighting the challenges of staying at home indefinitely.

Some of the questions organizers of the Art Festival hope artists will address include: What does it do to humans? What happens to the public space without the usual dynamic? How does this dynamic shift into private, at home? How does it change interpersonal relationships when social distancing becomes everyday life? Do we all currently live in long-distance relationships? Is the journey currently going inwards? In addition, what comes after this general isolation phase?

The submitted works will appear on the Arrival Room platform and made accessible to everyone. In the future when things return to normal, the submitted artworks would be presented in the Arrival Room Gallery in Saarbrücken, Germany, explained the organizers of the event. Additionally, a separate real-live exhibition will be organized under the name of the Social Distancing Art Festival.

To apply for the Art Festival, applicants should include a statement about social distancing, information about themselves and where they live. Submit works here.