BAK 2019/2020 Fellowship

Post-academic research fellowship open to advanced practitioners working at the intersection of art, theory, and social action

Application deadline: March 14, 2019

Since 2017, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht conducts a post-academic Fellowship Program with, at its center, research on reframing and rethinking conditions of the contemporary through politically driven art-making and inquiry. The 10-month Fellowship Program offers 10 research positions per year (September–June) to Netherlands- and internationally-based practitioners at the intersection of art, theory, and social action. The Fellowship Program develops talent and critical practice in concert with the public projects of BAK, advancing the notion of art as a public sphere and a political space.

The Fellowship is predicated on ongoing, active development of an individual research trajectory, as well as participation in collective research and exchange with other Fellows. Fellowship research proposals should speak to and with BAK’s core research, aesthetico-political practice, and program itinerary Propositions for Non-Fascist Living (2017–ongoing). Successful Fellowship proposals correspond to one or more of this program’s foci: conditions, politics, and genealogies of contemporary global migration; ecologies, ecological crisis, and naturecultures; the potentials and dangers of technology in struggles for justice and transformative politics; and thinking and enacting institutions differently.

The Fellows gather at BAK approximately every six weeks (seven times in total) for Fellows Intensives with visiting artists, scholars, as well as other cultural practitioners. The Fellows have the opportunity to participate in and/or organize public components engaging an audience beyond specifically academic and cultural fields. Intermittently, the Fellows present to and/or facilitate workshops with the student community in Utrecht. The BAK Fellowship Program involves collaborative partnerships with HKU University of the Arts and Utrecht University, allowing Fellows to connect their research practices to an artistic and academic institutional field through tutorials, leading workshops, and exchange with students.

Five Fellowships are awarded to Netherlands-based practitioners. The five internationally-based Fellows are low-residential (applicants based outside Europe may be accepted on the condition that additional travel funding is independently secured).

The Fellowship Program is dedicated to facilitating collective, intergenerational practice, and is committed to engaging a critical group. We therefore encourage people with uncanonized practices, of marginalized identities and experiences, and of a variety of ages to apply. The Fellowship Program is conducted in English and is a paid position.

The current (2018/2019) Fellows: Haseeb Ahmed; Katayoun Arian; Jessica de Abreu; Thiago de Paula Souza; Yasmine Eid-Sabbagh; Patricia Kaersenhout; Charl Landvreugd; Lukáš Likavčan; Jeanne van Heeswijk; and Mick Wilson.

The 2017/2018 Fellows: Sepake Angiama; Isshaq Al-Barbary and Diego Segatto (Campus in Camps); Matthijs de Bruijne; Luigi Coppola; Quinsy Gario; Ola Hassanain; Otobong Nkanga; Wendelien van Oldenborgh; and Pelin Tan.

Application procedure:

–March 14, 2019: Final deadline for Fellowship applications
–End June 2019: Public announcement of selected Fellows
–Fellowship term: September 1, 2019–June 30, 2020

For more information, an overview, and the application form, please click here.

Questions about the application:
Whitney Stark, BAK Fellowship Program: fellowship [​at​] bakonline.org