OPEN CALL: Museumnacht Den Haag

Tech Povera: call for short video works 

Saturday 11 October 2025: screening during Museumnacht Den Haag 

Deadline submissions: 21 september 2026

Do you ever struggle with technology? Do you see the trees, worms, and sky as one big technological system too? Do you make videos? Are you an artist from The Hague, studying at the KABK (BA or MA) or have you graduated in the past five years? Then you are eligible to submit a work to show at Stroom Den Haag on Museumnacht Den Haag on Saturday 11 October. Stroom will then present a video programme by 5 artists and makers from The Hague based on the theme Tech Povera. 

Theme: Tech Povera 
Jenna Sutela's exhibition Ave bossa, bow ole is an intuitive, almost alien-like environment in which everything is connected — from microscopic life to self-built technologies. Sutela’s work is a tribute to interrelationships and to systems that feel, respond, and continuously renew themselves. The starting point for this exhibition is the concept of Tech Povera, an improvised genre coined by Sutela to describe her current approach to technology. It is her poetic response to the often detached and controlled world of tech. Tech Povera is raw, experimental, and vibrant. It is a nod to the 20th-century Italian Arte Povera movement, in which art was seen as a living process rather than a finished product. 

For this open call, we are looking for video works that use Tech Povera as a starting point. For example, videos that deal with multispecies intelligences, DIY technologies, or the relationships between beings at micro- to macro scales. 

If this resonates with your practice, we invite you to submit your video work for the Museum Night program at Stroom. 

How to qualify 

_ You want to engage with the theme of Tech Povera. 

_ You are a The Hague artist, are currently studying at the KABK, or you have graduated from the KABK in the past 5 years, or you have become an autonomous/self-taught artist during the past 5 years. 

_ You have a work that can be shown as a stand-alone, single-channel video, such as: a short film, an experimental video, a digitally animated image/collage with sound, a videoclip, an animation, etc.  

_ For this occasion, we are not selecting performance registration, gifs/screensavers or Internet works, installations or videos to be shown inseparably in an installation, no interactive works, performance registrations, or multi-channel works.   

_ The work you submit may be new/old, existing/adapted, work in progress or completed. 

_ The video is min. 30 seconds and max. 40 minutes long. 

_ Complete the application form by Sept. 21, 2025. 

_ If you have any doubts about whether your work qualifies, don't hesitate to get in touch! 

What will happen during the event? 
Five entries will be selected for this occasion.  The program on Saturday October 11, will consist of an evening opening of Jenna Sutela's exhibition Ave bossa, bow ole. The selected videos will be screened, in a sequence, on a loop, through a large wall projection with a high-quality beamer and sound system, in the entrance space of Stroom. Handouts will be made with descriptions of the works and visitors will be made aware of which video is playing upon entry. The selected videos will be compensated with an honorarium of € 140, - excl. VAT.