Call for applications 2021/22

Tallinn Art Hall, Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art and Hertz-Lab of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media are jointly calling for European art practitioners/theoreticians to apply for one of three production residencies taking place in Karlsruhe, Tallinn, and Tirana.

What is the Residency about?
These residencies are programmed in the framework of the long-term project Beyond Matter and will be hosted by three of the partner institutions Hertz-Lab of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Tallinn Art Hall and Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art. On site, the fellows should develop an artistic production or theoretical concept that takes as a starting point the core questions of Beyond Matter project.

How can virtual reality tools and digitisation contribute to development of artistic practices that question materiality and offer possibilities to shift the discourse into other dimensions like experience, visualisation, imagination, sensory perception, atmosphere or spirituality?

How can artistic practices using virtual reality contribute to current political and social discourses? What is the potential of virtual reality within the art field? And how can virtual reality serve as a medial basis for overcoming physicality and temporality in order to create something new—based on today’s possibilities What can VR stand for? Virtual Reality, Variable Relations, Vertical Radiation, Valid Readings, Vaporous Restoration, or Visible Revision. With this residency we invite applicants to consider not only the multivalent applications of the latest representational systems, but also how they can be expanded. The future applications must be thought of as versatile as their fields of application are constituted. That is why the search is not for one answer, but for many solutions.

Who do we want to reach?
The residency provides artists and theoreticians working in the field of contemporary art from the EU and Associated Countries with the opportunity to live and work in Karlsruhe, Tallinn or Tirana for a period of two months. We want to expressly point out that not just cultural producers who work in the field of virtual media are asked to apply but all artists and theoreticians with variations of artistic and theoretical outcomes. Project proposals developed in relation to and conversation with the local realities of each of the locations will be prioritised. The residents will have access to the institutional Infrastructures and each residency will result in the presentation of a statement.

What do we offer?
For the two month stay each location offers the residents particular resources and opportunities:

Hertz-Lab of the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe: Workshops (wood, metal, electrical), dark projection room, set-up areas for bigger installations, green screen studio, sound studio with multi-channel audio projection and a volumetric capturing system available by appointment.

Tallinn Art Hall: Opportunity to hold workshops, sessions and/or seminars related to the overall themes of the project and in particular on the challenges with the latest XR-Applications, networking opportunities, research support, support to travel regionally, space for workshops and seminars.

Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art: Research and production of artworks engaging with the overall themes of the project and involving public space/Interventions in public space related to the city of Tirana, using Extended Reality Technologies.

How are you financially supported?
Each residency is fully funded and includes travel, accommodation, a stipend, and production costs.

How do you apply?
Applications have to include the following documents:
-Your contact information (name, address, e-mail, phone, website)
-Letter of intent explaining why you are applying and what would you like to focus on during the residence (max. 5000 characters)
-Brief informative curriculum vitae (max. 1 page)
-Which residency location you are applying for: Karlsruhe, Tallinn, or Tirana
-Portfolio (max. 10 MB)

Please note: Accepted candidates are required to use the residence in its full length during fixed periods of time. In the first round of residencies, two candidates will be selected for Karlsruhe, two for Tallinn Art Hall and three for Tirana Art Lab.

For all three locations, the dates are: September 1–October 31, 2021 and May 1–June 30, 2022.

Applications are accepted only in English and by e-mail until April 30, 2021.
Please send your application in PDF format with the subject “Beyond Matter Residency” to residencies [​at​] beyondmatter.eu

Selected participants will be notified latest until May 31, 2021. The jury for selecting the artists consists of curators of ZKM, Tallinn Art Hall, and Tirana Art Lab.

Due to the Corona Pandemic and the resulting travel restrictions, for which, in turn, no uniform European regulation has been adopted so far, we would like to note that, regarding the physical stay, the residency period may be postponed. On that account we also offer the possibility of applying with an online project instead that does not have to be implemented on site, but could be shown on a hosted website.

For further questions please contact:
Felix Koberstein, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe: koberstein [​at​] zkm.de
Corina L. Apostol, Tallinn Art Hall: corina [​at​] kunstihoone.ee
Adela Demetja, Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art: adela.demetja [​at​] tiranaartlab.org

The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union.