GENERAL INFORMATION: International call for any kind of artworks and creative projects dedicated to the plants world. The organizer invites the production of artworks and proposals dedicated to the plants coming to the forefront: from acting as a backdrop, plants must become true protagonists in human perception as above explained.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE: All authors of any nationality who have reached 18 years of age at the competition expiry date can take part in the competition. Individual authors, collectives and formal corporations can enter. No registration fee is required.

ARTISTS SUBMISSIONS: Artworks are to be submitted by email to: artistsforplants@gmail.com.

Submission should be in a PDF format including:

• Details of the Author/Authors: name, surname, nationality, date of birth, email address; • Title of the Artwork; • Explanatory text.

Please note that only artworks specifically related to the title of this Call will be accepted; more generic works will be considered off-topic. We accept maximum 3 works per Author; works that have already been published can also be sent. The submitted artworks will remain property of the artists who produced them. Submitting your work/works, you certified that the information provided is correct and true, and that you are the owner/legal owner of the artwork/artworks submitted.

DEADLINE for the submissions: September 15th, 2024.

EXHIBITIONS VENUES: The selected artworks will be displayed at the Otonga Foundation premises. The organizers plan to make a special event to celebrate the conclusion of the Call.

SOCIAL MEDIA COPYRIGHT AND AUTHORIZATION: The selected artworks will remain property of the artists who produced them. Submitting their works, the Artists (will) accept and allow that their artworks can be published by Artistsforplants and the Otonga Foundation, in their websites and social media channels within the framework of the 2024 Call “FROM THE BACKGROUND TO THE FOREFRONT” and various related activities, and without any further authorizations. Rights to use and publish the works will be automatically transferred free of charge and in non-exclusive form. Moreover the selected artworks that will be displayed will be accompanied by full credits, specifying that they have been created in response to the Call “FROM THE BACKGROUND TO THE FOREFRONT".

SELECTION COMMITTEE: the Jury will be composed by leading experts from different fields, from arts to environmental and social sciences.

Artistsforplants is an international network of creatives of various natures and backgrounds, born out of an artistic residency in the Amazon Rainforest in 2019.

In 2020, Artistsforplants in Italy made a documentary in support of plants world, with the participation of some of the greatest musicians and opera singers of the national classical world (among them Salvatore Accardo, Fiorenza Cedolins, Giovanni Sollima, Beatrice Rana and many others) and Stefano Mancuso, expert and author of many essays on plant life. The film concert has been presented at Biennale Cinema 2020 - 77 Mostra internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica (by Fondazione Ente dello spettacolo), and it can be viewed on the social channel of Artistsforplants or at this link: https://yewtu.be/watch?v=1PvG1ZClSUs

In 2021, Artistsforplants launched the international call "The Art Network” to support valuable green areas considered at risk. In particular, the Italian group was focused on the Alberoni Dune in Venice - Lido, and the Colombian representatives focused their efforts on the Tropical Forest of Chocò. Artists from all over the world responded through their installations, works and creative events of any form, throughout 2021.

In 2022, Artistsforplants launched the international call “Seeds planting Art” focused on artworks dedicated to seeds—symbols of hope and renewal—linked to generative emotions and to a vision of a future in harmony, in collaboration with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Over the summer of 2022, we received a highly diverse range of works from many countries around the world (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, and from a stateless person), which were then selected by a jury that included actress and writer Lella Costa, as well as a representative of the Norwegian Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The collaboration with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault was born to create a dialogue between art, science, and economy: each of them sustaining the other, in order to pursue new models for thriving on earth.

In 2023, Artistsforplants launched the international call “Rooting our cities - focusing on the unexpected guests” in collaboration with the Botanical Garden of the University of Palermo (Sicily, Italy). The aim of last year’s Call was to find new artistic visions of greener and more balanced cities of the future, collecting works dedicated to urban greenery and to the plants that grow in the city. We received an amazing richness of submissions: in terms of numbers (more than 230 artists sent in their works), in terms of location (they came from 47 different countries from all around the world), and in terms of artistic techniques (13 different genres, including photography, video art, digital art, installations, music, painting, dance, sculpture, poetry). From these entries, a jury of well-known experts selected 22 works of art and awarded a special mention to one school. The selected artworks were announced on 30 October 2023 at the Botanical Garden of the University of Palermo (Italy). At this occasion, Artists for Plants also launched the video gallery of the Call"s results.

The Otonga Foundation is a private, non-profit, non-governmental organization, established in 1998, dedicated to the conservation of Ecuador's biodiversity through scientific research, sustainable management of natural resources and environmental education, promotion of social ethics and environmental responsibility.

The Otonga Foundation manages several protected areas in the Ecuatorian Chocó, the Andes and the Amazon of Ecuador, protecting approximately 2000 hectares. Among the protected areas is the Otonga Integral Forest. One of the Otonga Foundation main objectives is the administration of the Otonga Integral Forest, a protected area established to conserve one of the last remnants of cloud forest in the western foothills of the Ecuadorian Andes.

In addition to research and biodiversity management, the Otonga Foundation promotes the acquisition of new conservation areas, and is active in youth education and community training programs. The Otonga Foundation has contributed significantly to the vocational training of Ecuadorian and foreign students by promoting research on local fauna and flora. Our facilities are visited annually by around 300 scientists, technicians and students, many of whom stay in the same facilities as the Centre for Environmental Education. The Otonga Foundation is also a destination for foreign universities that have chosen to bring their students to our protected areas as a living laboratory of biodiversity. These include: Dayton University, Ohio USA; Boston Latin School, MA, USA; University of Florence, Italy; McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Also many Ecuadorian universities (Universidad de Guayaquil, Universidad de las Américas, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador) visit the Centre for Environmental Education and its botanical garden to introduce their students to the local flora and fauna.