Open call for Re-Directing: East Curatorial Seminar and Residency “Hospitality”

Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art invites curators, researchers and art managers to apply for a one-month-long curatorial residency.

Re-Directing: East is a platform for carrying out research and meetings between curators, representatives of the most interesting grass-root initiatives, and people in charge of organising artistic events from all over the world. It is a peer-learning workshop, a curatorial seminar, an extended site exploration, and a research opportunity for groups of four to six individuals together with the U–jazdowski team and local participants. The notion of “re-directing” refers here to a need to facilitate collaborations between art initiatives which due to geopolitical conditions have not had many opportunities to collaborate thus far.

The participants are expected to share their experience and understanding of respective artistic and socio-political contexts, as well as to prepare themselves for participation in this year’s exploration of the topic: hospitality.

The term “hospitality” is derived from the Latin word hospes meaning both a person playing host to someone, and a guest: an alien, a wanderer. Here is the beginning of an ambiguity which prevents us from determining the roles. A guest turns out to be both the saviour, and the one who disturbs order. Letting the host welcome him, he therefore offers hospitality of his own: by visiting the host’s hearth he symbolically takes it over. That is why “hostis” in Latin means both an alien or a visitor, and an enemy. That ambiguity was noticed and thoroughly described by Jacques Derrida who also came up with the neologism “hostipitalité” (“foespitality,” expressing both welcome and hostility) which best displays the ambiguity in question. From the angle of hospitality we will observe contemporary artistic and curatorial practices, rooted in contemporary reality and aimed at studying, understanding and changing it. We are going to ask questions about the efficacy of art and analyse that issue in all the fields where it overlaps with activism, society-focused activities, artistic creation, research or education.

The month-long residencies: June 2018
Submission deadline: February 25, 2018
The results will be announced by March 18, 2018

Selection will be based on the professional excellence of the applicant’s work and their plans for sharing the benefits of the exchange with artists and institutions in their home country/site of activity. Due to the programme agenda, aimed at creating collaboration opportunities beyond the existing cultural policies, applicants must have sufficient command of English to function independently, and communicate with the U–jazdowski’s staff and other residents.

What we offer:
–Individual living space connected with working space
–A grant of 4000 PLN / approx. 1000 USD
–Reimbursement of travel costs
–Organising a customised programme of lectures, presentations and study visits in and outside Warsaw
–Organising the final seminar including participants’ presentations created collaboratively during the residency
Please note that we do not cover visa fees or insurance costs connected to visa applications.

How to apply:
Please send an electronic version of your application in one document to the following e-mail: opencall [​at​] u-jazdowski.pl—preferred format: pdf (in English).
The application document should include:
1. professional work experience in form of a portfolio containing descriptions of up to five projects
2. a cover letter
3. a paper proposal (max. 300 words)
It should describe the presentation subject which you would like to develop in relation to this year’s topic “Hospitality.” The presentation will contribute to the seminar during the RDE residency.
4. your CV
Please label the portfolio as follows: your surname_your name_application.pdf.

The project is implemented with financial support from the City of Warsaw.