Beyond Matter Residencies

Tallinn Art Hall, Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art and the ZKM I Center for Art and Media are proud to jointly call for European art practitioners / theoreticians to apply for one of the three production residencies taking place in Karlsruhe, Tallinn, and Tirana. These residencies are conceived within the framework of the long-term project Beyond Matter and will be hosted by either one of the three partner institutions: the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Tallinn Art Hall and Tirana Art Lab – Center for Contemporary Art. On-site, fellows are expected to develop an artistic production or a theoretical concept that builds on the core questions underlying the Beyond Matter project. How can virtual reality tools and digitisation contribute to the development of artistic practices that question materiality and offer possibilities to shift the discourse into other dimensions, such as 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 finally, how can virtual reality serve as a media 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 various ways to expand them. 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.

This residency gives artists and theoreticians working in the field of contemporary art from the EU and Associated Countries an opportunity to live and work in Karlsruhe, Tallinn or Tirana for a period of two months. The organisers want to expressly point out that they invite to apply not only those working in the field of virtual media but also artists and theoreticians with various artistic and theoretical practices and outcomes. Priority will be given to project proposals developed in relation to and conversation with the local realities of each of the locations. Residents will have access to institutional infrastructures. By the end of their stay residents are expected to produce a statement presentation.

Each location offers residents access to particular resources and opportunities for their two-month stay:

• ZKM | Hertz-Lab: workshops (wood, metal, electrical), a dark projection room, set-up areas for bigger installations, a green screen studio, a sound studio with multi-channel audio projection and a volumetric capturing system available by appointment.
• Tallinn Art Hall: institutional support to hold workshops, sessions and/or seminars related to the overall themes of the project and, in particular, on the challenges of 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 or interventions in public space related to the city of Tirana, and the use of Extended Reality Technologies.

Each residency is fully funded and includes travel expenses, free accommodation, a stipend and coverage of production costs.

The applications should include the following:

• your contact information (name, address, email, phone, website)
• letter of intent explaining why you are applying and what you would like to focus on during the residency (max. 5000 characters)
• brief informative CV (max. 1 page)
• portfolio (max. 10 MB)

Please, do not forget to specify which residency location you are applying for: Karlsruhe, Tallinn, or Tirana. Please note: accepted candidates are required to use their residence for the full duration of two months in specified time frames. 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, 2020 and May 1 - June 30, 2021.

Applications should be submitted in English by email and received by April 30, 2020. Applications sent by post or in other languages will not be considered. Please, make sure to send your application to [email protected] in PDF format with “Beyond Matter Residency” in the subject field.