OTO AWARD X DAR JACIR FOR ART AND RESEARCH

Applications are open until June 15, 2026
The winner will be announced in July 2026

We are pleased to announce the second open call for the OTO Award x Dar Jacir for Art and Research.

For the second consecutive year, Dar Jacir for Art and Research and OTO Sound Museum reunite to amplify Palestinian voices across borders through sound and listening. This opportunity is open to both emerging and established sound artists, providing a platform for their work to resonate with diverse audiences. 

The OTO Award is an annual contemporary art prize that recognizes outstanding Palestinian artists exploring and experimenting within the field of sound— artists whose work is conceptually relevant and pushes the boundaries of artistic practices and creative processes.

Contemporary sonic productions are eligible for submission, including pieces that combine sound with other media, computer-based compositions ranging from electroacoustic to experimental music, and sound installations. In addition to the quality of artistic practice, conceptual relevance and originality, the jury will pay close attention to technical and experiential innovation in both form and presentation, as well as the social impact and urgency of the work. 

The winner will be selected by a combined jury through an open-call application process and will receive 2,000 Swiss Francs, a digital exhibition at OTO Sound Museum, and technical support and mentorship during the production of their work leading up to the exhibition. 

Palestinian artists, regardless of their place of residence, are eligible to apply. If the selected artist is based in Palestine, they will also have the opportunity to participate in Dar Jacir’s Artist-in-Residence program.  

Jury OTO AWARD x DAR JACIR 2026 

Aline Khoury: Curator, Co-Director of Dar Jacir for Art and Research
Noor Abed: Artist, Filmmaker, Dar Jacir for Art and Research
Maya Khaldi: Singer, Composer, Dar Jacir for Art and Research
Francesca Brusa: Researcher and Curator, OTO Sound Museum 
Shatha Afify: Sound Artist, Fellow OTO Sound Museum
Camille Regli: Curator, OTO Sound Museum

Production conditions and time schedule 

The composition to be created should ideally have a duration of around 10 minutes, with a maximum length of 20 minutes in exceptional cases. The works produced during the residency will be premiered at Dar Jacir in Bethlehem.

The digital exhibition on the OTO Sound Museum platform will run from November 5, 2026, to January 3, 2027. www.oto.museum 

Financial conditions (prize) 2,000 Swiss Francs (CHF)  

HOW TO APPLY

Applications must be submitted via email to otoawardxdarjacir@gmail.com with the subject line "OTO AWARD DAR JACIR 2026_name of the artist" no later than June 15, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. CEST. Files larger than 3MB should be uploaded to accessible platforms, with links and access permissions included in the application. 

For any inquiries, please email otoawardxdarjacir@gmail.com with a subject line such as “OTO AWARD_inquiries.” Incomplete applications will not be considered. Results will be announced in July 2026. 

Conditions of participation 

The following documents are required for submission (please submit all materials in a single PDF file not exceeding 3 MB, except for audio files, which should be uploaded to a designated drive folder): 

• Short summary of the project idea to be realized (max. 1.000 characters including spaces) 
• Project description (max 4.000 characters including spaces) 
• Detailed biography with information on artistic education and career (max. 1.000 characters including spaces) and contact details 
• If possible, a professional portrait photo in landscape format (min. 300 dpi) with photo credits. The photo must be freely and unrestrictedly usable for internal and external press work 
• 3 music samples not older than three years to illustrate the artistic work to date. Of these, 1 piece should be representative of the application (please state "main_piece" at the end of the file name). The other two pieces to be submitted serve as additional illustration of the current artistic work 
• Please submit the music samples as audio file (.mp3 with 320 kbps) or as video files of the complete work(s) (1920x1080 px, h264 codec, 50 fps, .mov or .mp4) 
• Portfolio (documentation material, scores, documentary image files) is optional and can be enclosed if desired 

By submitting your application, you are sharing personal data with us. We take the protection of this data very seriously and have implemented measures to ensure compliance with applicable data protection regulations. 

Arabic version of the call here

Recipient of OTO AWARD x DAR JACIR 2025 
Dahaleez Collective

Jury OTO AWARD x DAR JACIR 2025 

Emily Jacir, Artist, Founder of Dar Jacir for Art and Research 
Nicolas Jaar, Musician, Founder of Dar Jacir Sound Studio-Dar Jacir Sound Studio Residency Program 
Dirar Kalash, Musician and Sound Artist. Dar Jacir Sound Studio 
Francesca Ceccherini, Curator and Researcher, Founder of OTO Sound Museum 
Francesca Brusa, Researcher and Curator, OTO Sound Museum program 2025 
Chloé Dall’Olio, Artist and Host, Social Facilitator OTO Sound Museum 

About us 

Dar Jacir for Art and Research is an interdisciplinary experimental learning hub that fosters cross-cultural and intergenerational exchanges. Founded in 2014, it houses multiple projects grounded in shared encounters and hospitality. A process and practice-oriented platform, it is devoted to educational, cultural, and agricultural exchanges and productions deeply rooted in Bethlehem and from there  extending outwards across the world. Through a participatory approach, collective knowledge is created, experimental new works are produced, and structures for care and repair are fostered. Dar Jacir is the only artist-led space in the Southern West Bank that provides arts education and residency programs for both Palestinians and internationals, operating across visual arts, sound, cinema, performance, dance, literature, and agriculture. Together with its diverse community of artists, archivists, musicians, farmers, researchers and cultural workers Dar Jacir brings together a broad public that is deeply involved in community activity and collaboration in a particularly shattered territory. Artist-led and women-led, intimacy is at the heart of Dar Jacir.  Dar Jacir has participated and organized symposiums, exhibitions, and festivals around the world, including: So We Could Come Back, Kochi Biennale(2026), 'AʿMĀL AL-'ARḌ Landworks, Collective Action and Sound, Spore Initiative Berlin (2025); Water like tears, flour like soil The Space - ICD Brookfield Place, Dubai (2024); SOUTH WEST BANK. Landworks, Collective Action and Sound Collateral event of the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (2024);
ARCO Madrid (2023), CiMAM Annual Conference (Spain, 2022), MANIFESTIAMO-Villa Romana (Italy, 2022), National College of Art and Design (Dublin, 2022), Rethinking Residencies (New York, 2021), KORA-Contemporary Arts Center (Italy, 2021), Experimenter Curator’s Hub (India, 2021) and others. Dar Jacir was a finalist for the Visible Award (2019), a winner of KADIST CIRCLE AWARD (2018), and was one of five finalists for the Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice (2018-2020).  

OTO Sound Museum is a nomadic space dedicated to fostering sound experimentation, listening, and amplifying voices. Founded with the mission of producing, disseminating, and collecting recent or unpublished sound works, the museum invites contemporary artists from different backgrounds, geographies and generations. Iconoclastic in nature, the museum was born digitally in 2020 as a utopian architecture aiming to host sound exhibitions accessible on this platform from all over the world. Simultaneously, OTO Sound Museum migrates through different places in the urban context of Switzerland and beyond, transforming its identity along the way. Among its objectives is the regeneration and interrogation of residual spaces of historical relevance through performative and installative interventions. In the past years OTO Sound Museum developed projects at Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, Migration Museum in Zurich, La Voirie in Biel/Bienne, La rada in Locarno, Wasserturm Zurich, Sonic Matter Zurich, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’Art Contemporain, Klang Moor Schopfe, Biennales Festival für audiovisuelle Kunst in Gais, and Biennale Son Valais. 

Since 2023, OTO Sound Museum has launched the OTO Award, a prize created with the intention of providing space for artistic voices, those at the beginning of their professional journey, and/or those whose work might otherwise not be heard. 

Zaira Oram is a curatorial collective engaged in experimental displays across visual arts, performance, sound, and data. Zaira Oram was founded by Francesca Ceccherini and joined by Chloé Dall’Olio, Camille Regli, Francesca Brusa, and Elisa Bernardoni, and she expands to include other practitioners along her path. Her work weaves the themes of memory and identity, marginalization and resistance, rituality and healing with artistic processes. Zaira believes in the practice of listening as a vessel for transformation. Zaira Oram is the mother of Oto Sound Museum since 2020. Among her other projects: A Symphony of Archives (Ultima Festival, Oslo, 2025), Eart_ض (Switzerland/ Morocco, 2024), Observatory on Deculturalisation (Oxyd Winterthur, 2023), DOOM DOOM DOOM, notes from the planetary garden (Klang Moor Schopfe, Gais, 2023), A Symphony of Archives, Abdellah Hassak (Sonic Matter, Zurich, 2022), Derrière la mer, Anna Raimondo (Casino Luxembourg, Forum pour l’Art Contemporain, Luxembourg, 2022), and more. Since 2022, Zaira Oram has also evolved into a non-profit association formed in Switzerland.