Think you have something cool to say? Apply to Gender Bender 2017!

Do you have a cool idea floating in your head that the rest of the world should see? A dance, maybe, or a play? A graphic novel, a movie perhaps? Something that you hope will pierce through the static and get people talking about the important stuff.

It’s time to put those ideas to good use. This year, just like last year, The Ladies Finger is proud to co-curate Gender Bender with The Sandbox Collective and the Goethe-Institut.

Back on popular demand, Gender Bender is an arts project that invites artists and others working in the field of the arts to send entries for projects that take a fresh, innovative and new look at notions of gender or approach questions or issues of gender with ingenuity and imagination — if you have something to showcase, this is the time to bring it. This year’s Gender Bender will be held at the Goethe Insitut, from August 23 to August 27 — and if we learnt anything from the last two years, it’s that Gender Bender only gets bigger and better every year.

Selected applicants will receive a grant (minimum Rs 10,000, up to Rs 30,000) to fully realise their artwork. And this art can be anything — they could include fiction or non-fiction writing, poetry, film, theatre, music, visual arts, photography, installations, drawings, dance, or a mix of media and artistic forms.

Some of the highlights from earlier editions of Gender Bender include –

Reading Room, by Kadak Collective. This was also exhibited at Cuckoo Club, Mumbai, and the Numa, Bangalore, as part of the Under25 Summit.

Rorschach Touch by Diya Naidu, which juxtaposes sensory perception, movement, and ideas of the gendered body.

Photosynthesis by Moonlight by Varun Narain, an adult puppet show that has been developed into a  full performance, and has also received additional funding from the Embassy of Switzerland.

Goef Josef by Zui Kumar Reddy, which was later selected from over 300 submissions to be exhibited at Femmes’ Video Art Festival, and has exhibited at the LA Contemporary Exhibitions

Brief History of Your Hair by Deepika Arwind, that combines text, movement, stories and music; and it went on to receive a grant from the Indian Foundation Foundation for the Arts.

Still not convinced by us? Take a look at everything that went down in 2016.

If this sounds like your thing, take a chance, and apply here, before June 15, because who knows, the idea that you almost threw away might have some more life in it.

To know more, visit the Sandbox Collective website.