Corona Call 2020
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Corona and art? Exactly what we’ve been missing! Indeed. The global pandemic has stoked distrust between people and nations and sabotaged the economy, and so the time has come, for art to make itself felt and tell stories that connect all of us across continents.

The art project Sana Sanaa, which is dedicated to the creative exchange between Africa and Europe, has launched an international open call competition to take a photographic stand on Corona. An international jury has now published the 10 best rated entires from 578 submitted projects. They will first be presented (together with a selection from the 25 shortlisted works) at the Fahrbereitschaft Berlin-Lichtenberg in October before moving on to several African metropoles, come from Turkey, Switzerland, Cameroon, United Kingdom, Morocco, Spain, Georgia, France, South Africa, Germany, Zimbabwe, Italy, Senegal, Belgium and Portugal.

Insistent reports tell of grand quarantine measures and the use of doctors to the point of complete exhaustion, but also report on the military, which seems to have taken the “state of war” message proclaimed by some heads of state very seriously. In humorous productions, fears of contagion are satirised and naturally the immediate consequences of the lockdown take up an equally imposing and multi-faceted space. Retreat into loneliness, boom of the funeral directors, deserted city streets.

While in recent months one could occasionally have the impression that there is only one official opinion on Corona and a confused bunch of conspiracy believers, the Corona project of Sana Sanaa now reveals a variety of views on the pandemic and thus also becomes a non-verbal and differentiated exchange of ideas.

This is also due to the fact that the positions are close to the people, to the sun-hungry who discover their roofs as new leisure regions, to the senior citizens in old people’s homes who are only cared for by masked people, but also to the neighbours who remained strangers for years and now, in a community of fate, come together emotionally and in solidarity.

The result of the competition exceeded all expectations. Perhaps the reason for the large participation was also the much-vaunted deceleration that Corona brought with it. The high quality of the contributions, however, is certainly due to the fact that all of the photographers are not reporting on anything, not only taking part, but are themselves part of the event.

Everyone seems to have realised that Corona is not only an event of historical dimensions, but that for once the whole world is facing the same problem. This is exactly what makes the pictures universally readable and understandable.