Based of the successful model of VAEFF, The Olympia Project will invite artists to submit work inside the concepts of the project and aims to curate and organize limited-edition shows.
Open submissions
Open submissions for the Photography Show will be done via the videoart.net website by following the VAEFF model that successfully received hundreds of paid submissions each year.
Artists submission fees, curation and everything else are running on a secure online curation data base. All information kept confidential and available only to videoart.net curation team. All submissions will be carefully reviewed by videoart.net curation team, directed by Dan Fine.
Selected works from the open call and invited artists work will be displayed at a pop-up gallery in NYC.
Prints will be available for sale during and after the show via Videoart.net website and other online platforms such as artsy.net.
The Project will maintain 1 copy of each print under its collection.
Olympia Project Collection
The project has started to collect vintage photographs from the 1850s to the 1920s which deal with subject matter related to “Beauty, Sex, & Shame.” In addition it will print limited edition reproductions of photographs from the collection.
Olympia Project Theatrical Series
In November 2016, the first event of the Olympia Project theatrical series took place at the VAEFF closing Gala. The audience was invited into a reconstruction of an 1850s brothel, built in DCTV’s historic French Chateau and became immersed in an interactive performance with 1850s artists, courtesans, and influencers. In the near future, the project’s series will continue to reminisce on an era of controversial artwork in Paris from the 1850s to 1920s, where new perspectives on sex and feminine beauty revolutionized art dogmas and influenced fashion and popular culture for decades to come.
Olympia Project Original Photography Series
The project will create its own original photography series which draws inspiration from vintage photographs and aims to revive this period with a fresh and modern lens, creating a photo series focusing on gender and sexuality as a reflection of contemporary mainstream and underground themes.
The title “Olympia Project” stems from Edouard Manet’s 1865 Olympia, a painting influenced by photographs taken within Parisian brothels during this time period. The artwork subsequently shocked the world upon it’s release at the prestigious Paris Salon, as it depicted a courtesan gazing directly at the viewer while at the same time resembling the mythological Venus within Titian’s, Venus of Urbino.
Olympia’s confrontational gaze shocked and astounded the public during it’s first exhibition since a number of details in the picture identified her as a prostitute.
