OPEN CALL

Now Open                Now Open                Now Open                Now Open                Now Open                Now Open               

Deadline: Sun 22 Aug 2021

Kleió would like to announce an open call for a new virtual exhibition: Myth Interrupted: Reinventing The Mothers, Monsters and Muses of Greek Myth.

Myth Interrupted is inspired by Natalie Haynes’ fascinating book Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths , published in 2020. Each of us felt this book was a call to arms to revisit and reclaim these women, and we wanted to join the battle.

The female archetypes forged during the time when men genuinely feared the wrath of Zeus’ thunderbolt on a dark night, and women patiently awaited the sweet stab of Eros’ love- harbouring arrow, are still present today. Zeus may no longer reign supreme, but the binary ideas of femininity created during his rule live on, as if they themselves were caught in Medusa’s stony stare: We are good mothers or bad mothers, whores or virgins, monsters or muses.

Each version of these archetypes are sculpted to our times; they reflflect our societal values, beliefs, and prejudices - they reflect us. As expressed so aptly by Natalie Haynes, “as we change, so these characters have also changed as if to match us” (2020:54) .

Kleio wants to know, if the women of Greek myth have changed to match us,
who are they today?


Who is Pandora , the beauty who released all the world’s evils into our midst?



Who is Jocasta , the doomed mother-wife?



Who is Medusa , the snake-haired monster with the fatal gaze?



Who is Clytemnestra , the husband-murdering, daughter-avenging Queen?



Who is Penelope , the weaving wife, who waited twenty years for her husband’s return?

We want to see these women in their multiplicities, reimagined for the confused and crazed world that is the 21st century.

We are inviting creative practitioners working in all mediums to reclaim these women for our time.

Click on the character icons for the detailed character profiles.






How to Apply


Please submit your proposals to contact.kleio.collective@gmail.com. There is currently no deadline.Sucessful submissions will be in an online exhibition on our website, here on www.kleiocollective.co.uk , launching October 2021.


For more on how to apply, click the button below. ☟



The Open Call Guide is also available as a PDF. ☟