Organizer Information
ArtSharing Roma is a Rome-based cultural association (ETS — Ente del Terzo Settore), founded with the aim of spreading and sharing culture in all its forms, with particular attention to the visual, performing, and literary arts. Operating from its base at Via Giulio Tarra 64 in the Monteverde district of Rome, the association runs exhibitions, workshops, courses, guided tours, and artist residency projects, and serves as a connector between artists and the public. Its statutory mission includes fostering artistic production, promoting intellectual exchange between artists, and supporting cultural tourism.
The IT-ALIEN exhibition is curated by Penelope Filacchione, director of ArtSharing Roma, and Alessio Trevisani, a choreographer and director based in Berlin and Leipzig, where he leads the Freies Tanz Ensemble. Trevisani is a former member of Tanzfabrik Berlin and served as director of Leipziger Tanztheater for eight years; his work combines movement, performance, and visual art across European contexts.
Title & Description
IT-ALIEN — Open Call for Italian Artists
IT-ALIEN is a travelling group exhibition conceived by ArtSharing Roma as a nomadic, self-financed art project exploring the many faces, sounds, and contradictions of Italian identity. The exhibition brings together postcard-format works by Italian artists — based in Italy or living abroad — into a compact, portable show designed to travel the world inside a suitcase.
The inaugural edition will be hosted in a private apartment adapted for the occasion on Tempelhofer Damm, Berlin, during Berlin Art Week 2026 (9–13 September). Following its Berlin debut, the exhibition will tour internationally until September 2030, visiting venues as they become available. Artists living in Italy are invited to respond to Italy as it is today; artists living abroad are invited to draw on personal or ancestral memory of their home country.
Works will not be returned to their makers after submission; they will remain with ArtSharing Roma for the duration of the touring project and may subsequently be auctioned to fund future artistic initiatives.
Theme
The multiplicity of Italian identity, otherness, and cultural self-representation — Italy's many faces, sounds, and colors as experienced from within and from abroad. The project takes its conceptual starting point from Jean Baudrillard and Marc Guillaume's Radical Alterity, treating the "other" both as foreign and as internal to identity itself.
Categories
- Visual Arts
- Painting
- Drawing
- Photography
- Printmaking
- Collage
- Mixed Media
- Sound/Music
- Performance
- Installation
- Multiple Disciplines
Eligibility
- Open to Italian artists only (citizens or those of Italian origin/heritage), whether residing in Italy or abroad
- Individual participation; no group submissions described in the source
- No career stage, age, or professional status restrictions are stated in the source
Program Benefits & Awards
- Exhibition curated by Penelope Filacchione and Alessio Trevisani, Berlin, Tempelhofer Damm, 9–13 September 2026 (Berlin Art Week off-program)
- Audio mix and live performance curated by Alessio Trevisani (Freies Tanz Ensemble)
- International touring of selected works until September 2030
- Graphic and printed materials were distributed at the exhibition
- Press office coverage
- Social media promotion featuring all selected works and artists' names (with author credits)
Application Fee
€10 minimum donation for the first artwork; €5 minimum per additional postcard for multi-card works.
Application Requirements
- Artist biography (in Word format; .odt, .pdf, and similar formats not accepted)
- Artwork/project statement (in Word format; same format restrictions apply)
- 1 to 3 images in JPG, 300 dpi
- Ambient sound recording from the artist's location: maximum 2 minutes, mp3 format, submitted via a link (Google Drive or similar)
- Technical sheet including title, technique, measurements, and contact details (in Word format)
- If accepted: signed authenticity form, artwork release form (for the touring exhibition), and image release form (for social media) — to be returned in a sealed envelope with the physical work
How to Apply?
Send all materials exclusively via SwissTransfer to: artsharing.roma@gmail.com
Subject line: CALL IT-ALIEN – NAME SURNAME (plus any stage name)
Materials submitted by other methods will not be accepted.
Key Dates
- Application deadline: 10 July 2026
- Notification of results: by 20 July 2026
- Physical works and signed forms must arrive in Italy by 7 August 2026
- Exhibition opening: 9 September 2026, Berlin (Tempelhofer Damm)
- Exhibition closing: 13 September 2026
- End of touring period: September 2030
Location
Berlin, Germany
Additional Details
- Works must measure exactly 15 × 10 cm (horizontal orientation) on 300 g paper. If the original support differs for technical reasons, the work must be mounted on 300 g cardboard of the same dimensions. Works not conforming to the required format will be excluded from the setup.
- Multi-card works are allowed: a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 16 postcards mounted in sequence, with a maximum total size of 60 cm wide × 40 cm high. Artists submitting a sequence must include a graphic indicating the exact order of the cards.
- Works of a vulgar, obscene, offensive, racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory nature will be refused. The curators' selection decisions are final and non-appealable.
- Works will not be returned; after the touring period ends, they will remain with ArtSharing Roma and may be auctioned to support future projects.
- The back of each postcard must carry the artist's handwritten signature, the title of the work, the technique used, and the date.
- The project is entirely self-financed. Donations beyond the minimum participation fee can be made via Buonacausa.org to support the touring costs.