The Unrequested: Group exhibition
NOTAGALLERY
10 JANUARY – 24 JANUARY 2025
Notagallery is excited to announce its upcoming group exhibition, The Unrequested. ‘The world is the totality of facts, not of things’ Using the words of Ludwig Wittgenstein, we challenge you to look beyond the tangible and interrogate the structures that shape our understanding of reality.
Art in this way becomes a means of discovering truth, reimagining systems and proposing new possibilities. In a world such as ours, dominated by market forces, institutional validation and algorithmic trends, art often finds itself constrained by external expectations, almost reduced to a product that must conform, appeal and perform.
Continuing to build on our literary foundations, we also decided to take a cue from Boris Groys, in Art Power. Groys' studies help us to analyse this state of dependency mentioned above. Hence, we can say that contemporary art, as it is conceived now, is often constrained by the structures that claim to support it: patronage, institutions and the market. Groys suggests that true artistic freedom lies not in these systems, but in acts of resistance against them. What does this mean? To create freely involves going beyond the dictates of collectability, profitability or public approval. In doing so, we are creating the possibility of entering a space in which art reclaims its autonomy.
We want to create an inner turmoil in every artist, collector, curator and art lover. That is why we are asking you to carry out an almost meditative exercise and find answers to these questions: What happens when art breaks completely out of these systems? What forms can emerge when creativity is freed from the need to meet external demands?
Notagallery, in this drive to create new possibilities and new spaces opens a “The unrequested” open call, an invitation to explore what it means to produce without thinking about the commercialisation of art. We want to offer a safe place to present works that challenge categorisation, that question the value structures of the art world and propose new ways of thinking about creation itself.
The Unrequested seeks artists who feel restricted in following the logic of the market. Be free to embrace the ephemeral, the experimental and the unwanted. We challenge you to produce without the pressure to please an audience or adhere to traditional parameters of value. We want your art to become an autonomous force driven not by consumption or third-party approval, but by the sheer necessity of its existence.
We want to imagine with you the possibilities that arise when creativity operates beyond these limitations. What value does art have when it does not have a predefined function? How might art freed from economic imperatives offer alternative visions of society, value and purpose? And what does such freedom mean for the relationship between artist and audience?
The Unrequested is a space for those who create not because the world asks them to, but because the act of creation itself is vital. It is an invitation to rethink what art can be and to explore the uncharted territories of creative freedom.
Curated by Matilde Dani
If you want to join us, all you have to do is fill in the form:https://forms.gle/cZpQgoZKzHsY3LLz6
