KIKK Art & Science Residency: Imagining Ecological Futures

The association KIKK which promotes digital and creative cultures at the crossroads between art, science, technology, and society, as well as its Creative Hub: Protolab & Medialab TRAKK, are launching an Arts & Sciences residency program around the theme ECOLOGICAL FUTURES, organized in partnership with the CCN/Namur Cultural Center.

Two artists and/or collectives will be welcomed in residence (one international and one from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation) in the beautiful studios (2 apartments that can each accommodate up to 2 people) located at the Centre Culturel des Abattoirs de Bomel from Monday, April 24 to Sunday, May 21, 2023. Each artist (collective) will receive a grant of 5.000 € to develop an Art / Science project on the theme of ecological futures, as well as curatorial and scientific support to develop their production project.

The residency gives artistic researchers from various fields the opportunity to work on the intersection of art, science and ecological questions. The aim is to develop useful arts-led interdisciplinary research tools and artworks to examine how cultural practitioners critically address and creatively negotiate ecological futures.

The call includes the research field of the climate crisis and global warming, loss of biodiversity, models of human and non-human co-existence and the interrelationships of different ecosystems, in relation to the following questions: How can we reduce our ecological footprint and decolonize nature? How do new models of human and non-human co-existences look like? What kind of promising changes does biotechnology offer? And how can we create a new consciousness and awareness regarding the imbalance of nature and culture?  

This programme is the result of a collaboration between three partners: the CCN/Cultural Center Namur providing exhibition and residency spaces, the KIKK Festival; annual festival of digital and creative cultures explores the intersections between art, science, technology and society. As well as the creative hub TRAKK (thanks to the support of En Mieux), a multidisciplinary co-creation space co-managed by the KIKK Festival, which will make its Protolab (Digital Fabrication Laboratory - Fab Lab) and its Medialab (media lab dedicated to the production of immersive XR, VR, AR, binaural experiences, sound studio) available to residents.

The residents will be able to learn to use the tools of the Fab Lab and will benefit from professional technical assistance. The project could also, with the agreement of the festival team, be presented during an edition of KIKK festival or at Le Pavillon, a new exhibition space managed by KIKK.

During their residency, the artists will have to participate to a cultural activity in which they share details about their work practice or research with the audience of Abattoirs de Bomel, it can be a workshop, a talk, a discussion or anything else. This will be decided with the artists during their stay in Namur.

The grant includes:

• A total budget of €10.000 (€5.000 per resident). This includes the expenses for materials, food, and travel for a period of four weeks.

• Accommodation (studio from 39 to 47m2) with a bathroom, a kitchenette, an office space and a bedroom space and an internet connection.

• Access to the Protolab TRAKK and its machines (3D printers, vinyl cutter, digital milling machine, laser cutter, electronic equipment, woodworking, ...) as well as technical support.

• Access to the TRAKK Medialab and its equipment (motion capture suits, VR headsets, computer optimized for game engines, sound studio, binaural microphone heads, ...)

• Use of the workshops of the CCN/Centre culture de Namur (on the site of the Abattoirs de Bomel: woodworking, ironwork and silk-screening workshops; assistance and initiation by the technical management)

Send your applications to adrien+ecoresidency [@] kikk [.] be until February 27, 2023, before midnight with the email title "ecological futures residency" and include the documents requested below. The winners will be notified on Tuesday March 14.

• Description of the project including images and technical drawings in French or English

• An artistic statement of the project (what are the questions, implications, influences, …) in French or English

• Estimated budget in French or English

• CV in French or English

• Portfolio

They accept projects in progress for which the residency budget would allow the project to be finalised. They also accept existing projects that justify an additional budget to improve them. In this case, a justification will be requested in order to understand how this additional budget will improve the project.

Deadline: February 27, 2023.