Soil Art Tales is a call for artists by The Global Network of Water Museums (WAMU-NET) in the frame of ‘SoilTribes - Glocal Ecosystems Restoring Soil - Values, Roles and Connectivity’, an EU Horizon project gathering 25 partners from 11 EU countries to foster soil literacy and connectivity.
The Soil Art Tales Call selects four artists proposing projects which face soil, water and land-related issues at all levels through innovative methodologies, which build on novel approaches at the nexus of arts, science, and technology, considering both traditional and new soil-related technologies. The objective is to trigger a new soil tale, adding emotional and motivational layers to human-soil connections, and offering new ways of visualising, interpreting, and interacting with soil.
Artworks must be produced in a timeframe of six months, starting from April 2025, and will be exhibited from November 2025 in seven different locations across Europe over a three-year period.
Artists from all fields are invited to participate, including video, photography, performance, installation, and digital arts. Selection criteria include the quality and innovation of the project, the engagement of the public, the relevance to the issues of traditional uses of soil, sustainability, use and reuse of materials, and previous experiences and artworks related to soil and ecosystems literacy.
There are no limits on nationality, age, race, ethnicity, religion and gender, and the active participation of underrepresented societal groups is encouraged. There is a particular interest in participatory approaches and proposals engaging the audience and triggering behavioural change. Next to the artworks, and under the guidance of an art curator, artists will have to produce a film teaser in which they present their vision for the Soil Art Tale and proposal to foster deep emotional connections.
The award for selected artists will include an artist fee of 6,000 EUR and reimbursement of production costs and materials not exceeding 3,000 EUR.
