Open Call for overSTATEment. An exhibition at Schmuck München 2027

The roots
Monstration (Novosibirsk, since 2004) is a Russian art tradition of processions carrying nonsensical slogans — «Hell is Ours!», «Return the Sun to Its Place!», «Back to the Factory with Us All» — invented when direct political speech became difficult and impossibility had to be answered with something. The form has since travelled, reactivated at Alytus Biennial in Lithuania (2009–2015) and picked up in other places whenever the political air grew thick enough to need it. It has roots in the Polish Orange Alternative of the 1980s, and by now belongs to a wider international lineage of irony and absurdity as a language when plain words no longer carry.

What we are looking for
We are opening this call to jewellery and body adornment artists worldwide — your Monstration is your own. We are looking for wearable or carryable jewellery objects with text on them: slogans, one-liners, wordplay, personal manifestos, jokes that turn out to be serious, serious things that turn out to be jokes.

- Irony, humour, absurdity, wordplay: not direct protest slogans. If your slogan could appear on a professional campaign poster, it's probably not for us.
- Oversized: think brooches the size of a placard, pendants that need two hands to carry. Go big.
- Visually loud: bright, high-contrast, poster-like. Should read across a room like a real protest banner reads across a square.
- Text in any language: you'll be asked to provide an English translation and, if there's a cultural reference or wordplay, a short note explaining it. Each work becomes a small window into how a particular language speaks when it's tired of speaking directly.

Practical info
Application fee: €10
Participation fee (if selected): €55
Application deadline: October 20, 2026
Selection notice: November 10, 2026
Exhibition dates: March 10–14, 2027 (Munich Jewellery Week)

For the full brief, examples, FAQ, and application form, visit: https://dvizh.co/overstatement-open-call/en