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Welcome Back Ye Annunaki!
Friday, November 16, 2012 (All day) to Friday, December 21, 2012 (All day)
Welcome Back Ye Annunaki
Part of the HomeStay project
Call for submissions is now closed.
The exhibition will open on Friday, November 16 and run until December 21, 2012.
How would you host an imaginary friend, a special guest from an alien world returning to Earth after a 3600 year journey? What would you make them to eat? Where would you set them up in your house to sleep? What kind of gift would you give them to welcome them to your home?
Submissions are invited for Welcome Back Ye Annunaki, an exhibition that merges inquiry about home and hospitality with speculation on the ancient alien theories of Zecharia Sitchin and others, who hypothesize that at the end of 2012 a race of space travelers known as the Annunaki will be visiting the Earth. All contributions that meet the submission guidelines will be included in the exhibition. Select contributions will be chosen for elaboration by the curators, and will be developed in larger scale--or as installations--in dialogue with the artists.
The exhibition will be curated by Ted Hiebert and Doug Jarvis and will be held at Open Space Arts Society in Victoria, BC from November 16 to December 21, 2012.
There is a curious version of the human story that comes from the pseudo-archeologist, Zecharia Sitchin, who claims that humanity is a product of alien intervention, genetically engineered by a race called the Annunaki. Sitchin claims that the story of the Annunaki is engraved on the clay tablets of the ancient Sumerian people, along with details of the planet they come from, called Nibiru or Planet X. According to Sumerian myth, Nibiru is on a long elliptical orbit that brings it into proximity with our solar system only once every 3,600 years. If the Sumerian myths prove correct, the winter solstice of 2012 may mark the return of the Annunaki, as Nibiru re-enters proximity to the Earth. The science and the story may be contested--but we might nonetheless wonder what it might mean if these gods of ancient times returned to a world they helped to create--even if such a story exists only in our imaginations.
Welcome Back Ye Annunaki invites gestures of hospitality--host families willing to open their homes, hearts and imaginations, to guests from another world. One might think of an ancient alien as an imaginary friend waiting to be made, an ethereal companion to whom one might extend a spirit of Earthly generosity and community. The idea of hosting ancient aliens is--in this way--a questioning of our own personal space, speculating on what it means to make it accessible to others, and in so doing expose us to a larger imaginary community. This act of hospitality is meant as a way to reveal to us, and our own community, the biases and assumptions that we hold close to our heads and hearts, as our ways of being in the world. In the spirit of cultural exchange, this exhibition seeks to bring together communities--real and imaginary--in a celebration of home and Earthly hospitality.
Submissions are invited that merge inquiry about home and hospitality with speculation on ancient alien theories, imaginary friends or other ethereal manifestations. All contributions that meet the submission criteria will be included in the exhibition, and on the project website. Select submissions will be chosen for elaboration by the curators, and will be developed in larger scale--or as installations--in dialogue with the artists. Submissions should include the following:
A statement of interest, expressing what the idea of hospitality means to you and why you would like to host an ancient alien in your home;
A drawing, photograph or other artistic rendering that represents your gesture of hospitality. This could be a picture of the room in which your guests would stay, a meal you might make for them, or a gift you might offer to welcome them into your home;
A brief biographical statement and print resolution picture of yourself or your family.
Submissions should be sent by email to: noxious@noxioussector.net with ATTN: WELCOME BACK YE ANNUNAKI as the subject line.
For further information please email us at noxious@noxioussector.net
Deadline for Submissions: September 1, 2012
Ted Hiebert and Doug Jarvis collaborate as part of Noxious Sector Arts Collective, a formalized forum for informal inquiry. Dedicated to the exploration of questions of the imaginative, the paranormal and the absurd, Noxious Sector attempts to redefine the meaning of artistic possibility through extended propositions that challenge consensual norms while also provoking stimulating forums for dialogue and discourse.
Welcome Back Ye Annunaki is part of the HomeStay project. Please visit the following links for more information:
http://www.openspace.ca/homestay
http://www.noxioussector.net/annunaki.php
510 Fort Street, 2nd floor
Victoria, BC V8W 1E6
openspace@openspace.ca
Open Tuesday to Saturdays, noon until 5:00 p.m.
Street parking available.
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Open Space respectfully acknowledges that we are located on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, now known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations. We seek to honour and uphold these ongoing relationships to the land and its stewards as we work on these territories.
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