Hello World

The COVID-19 coronavirus seems to have brought a necessary slowdown, if not a downright halt to artistic and cultural gatherings, exchanges and cross-border productions. Although we believe—and know from experience—that face-to-face interactions are the best way to experience artworks and encourage collaboration, for the moment TransCultural Exchange recognizes that our usual practices would be inappropriate. Therefore, TransCultural Exchange suggests an alternative:

Hello World
Hello World is a virtual, global art project, designed to continue to promote international exchange among artists, showcase diverse works to new audiences, and foster dialog among peoples of different cultures—without anyone having to leave their homes.

In short, Hello World is a simple, but powerful gesture of global solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic—an online greeting to/from our colleagues around the world.

Artists (of all disciplines) residing anywhere in the world can participate. Artists need only submit a text, SoundCloud link, jpeg, or YouTube or vimeo link, and TransCultural Exchange will create a URL for their submission on Hello World’s website. Based on the information provided by each participant, TransCultural Exchange will also categorize each submission by geographic location, submission type and genre. Submissions will then be arranged in groups by categories. For instance, one group might consist of 4 vimeo links, but the 4 videos will be by artists in 4 different countries, somewhat like  what TransCultural Exchange did with Here There and Everywhere. Artists also must submit the name of a venue that agrees to post a link to Hello World on their website, by Hello World’s launch on June 20. Full details are available at Hello World. 

Venues (such as galleries, concert halls, theaters residencies, libraries, cultural organizations, artist collectives, record labels and the like) who would like to express their solidarity with their colleagues around the globe can also participate. For venues to have their website posted (and linked) to Hello World, they simply must email TransCultural Exchange that they agree to include the following text (or some version of it, adapted as they see fit) on their website, by June 20. “Below is a link to Hello World, an international project where artists throughout the world have submitted art works to share with all of us. We hope that you enjoy this gesture of goodwill and solidarity from our colleagues around the globe. transculturalexchange.org” 

In this way, Hello World will take place not only on TransCultural Exchange’s website, but on websites throughout the world; and both artists and others who have had to reduce their operations during this time of global isolation can have the opportunity to partake of Hello World’s international gesture of solidarity.

Already, The Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Theater without Borders, 079 Stories (Ahmedabad, India), B’Art Contemporary (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan), pARTage (Flic en Flac, Mauritius), International Association of Art, IAA/AIAP (a UNESCO official partner), Ville de Braine, Southlondonmuseum (SLM), Art Gallery at the International University of Sarajevo, Kubrick Cafe (Hong Kong), Goethe-Institut Boston, swissnex Boston, SANAVA (South African National Association for the Visual Arts), NAF (Stuttgart, Germany), the Art & Science International Institute (Paris), the Center for Research and Teaching Excellence (CRASE) at the University of San Francisco, Center for the Holographic Arts, China Residencies, artists-in-lab program at the Zurich University of the Arts, among many others have agreed to participate. Additionally, to date, Hello World has received artists’ submissions from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North, Central and South America.

For complete details visit: transculturalexchange.org.

Launch
The public unveiling of Hello World will take place on the summer solstice, or June 20, the longest day of the year. On that day, all the artists’ works and participating venues will be made public on Hello World and remain there as a permanent archive of the project.

TransCultural Exchange is a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster a greater understanding of world cultures through high-quality art projects, cultural exchanges and educational programs—most notably, TransCultural Exchange’s International Conferences on Opportunities in the Arts.