Call for a curatorial project 2016–17
The site
The Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art (National School of Art/ENSA) in Bourges is housed in a 17th-century building in the Old Town. Bourges itself is in central France, two hours from Paris. Covering some 7,000 square metres, the school offers its students extensive workspaces plus well equipped technical workshops that are regularly renovated and updated.
The School is qualified to award a National Postgraduate Degree in Fine Arts—a Master’s—and its emphasis is on the kind of inventiveness and creativity that are only possible in a setting where interpersonal exchange and ideas are part of the everyday scene; this is a generous, receptive place conducive to artistic encounters and intermeshings. The teaching programme is part of a study and research context whose constantly evolving methods stimulate creative thinking, open-mindedness and discussion, while also sparking students’ curiosity and combining practical applications with critical analysis.
The La Box gallery is one of ENSA’s principal teaching tools. Each year, it features artists from France and abroad in ten exhibitions relating to the study programme.
For more than ten years now, the gallery has entrusted part of its planning to young guest curators. Chosen and monitored by the ENSA teaching team, the curators work on experimental programmes involving the active participation of the students, who thus find themselves in close contact with major figures on the contemporary scene and with the realities of drawing up an exhibition project.
The aim
Part of the exhibition programme at the La Box gallery, running from January to March 2017, will be organised by a freelance curator, a critic or an art collective.
The project must fit with the School’s concerns, but there is no predefined exhibition format; it is up to the curator to decide on the mode of presentation, which may take the form of several exhibitions or a single, open-ended one. The curator (or the collective) is encouraged to come up with proposals for cooperative ventures with such local partners as the non-profit Emmetrop and Bandits-Mages contemporary art/image associations, the City of Bourges and secondary schools.
The curator will organise a seminar for ENSA students in the first semester 2016–2017.
As part of the study programme, the seminar must integrate the students into the designing and realisation of the exhibition programme while also providing a broader view of what is at stake in curatorial practice. It must also tie in with the school’s teaching themes, as outlined in ENSA’s Livret de l’étudiant (student handbook), which you can download on our website. If appropriate, the seminar can be designed to coordinate with an existing ENSA teaching module.
For any further information, please visit ensa-bourges.fr (La Box / Appel à candidature).
Call for candidates: artists’ residencies
The residency
Each year since 1991, the École Nationale Supérieure d’Art (National School of Art/ENSA) in Bourges has been providing residencies for young artists, with the financial backing of the Regional Cultural Affairs Office (DRAC) and the Centre-Val de Loire Region. These residencies are intended to give young artists from France and abroad the opportunity to carry out a personal artistic project connected with the School, its teaching, its students and other external partners.
The winning candidates are chosen by a jury comprising one representative each from the Regional Cultural Affairs office, the Centre-Val de Loire Region and the Centre Region Contemporary Art Collection, together with the School’s director, three members of the teaching staff, the La Box team, and an art world personality.
Financial terms and conditions
The successful candidate will be awarded a three-month residency during the academic year at a period to be decided on.
He or she will receive a grant of 3,000 euros, a production budget not exceeding 2,000 euros, and a publishing budget not exceeding 2,000 euros.
For any further information, please visit ensa-bourges.fr (La Box / Appel à candidature)
