Imagining Ecological Futures - STARTS - Art & Science Residency Namur
STARTS in collaboration with KIKK Festival, its Creative Hub & Fab Lab TRAKK, Goethe-Institut, and the cultural center Les Abattoirs de Bomel are awarding a grant for a residency project on ECOLOGICAL FUTURES. The residency program will take place in Namur from the 2nd to the 30st of September 2020.
The project is aimed at artists, students and recent graduates in the art and/or design field. People with backgrounds in other disciplines are also welcome to submit their applications. We are inviting two residents in total: one from Germany and one from Belgium. To be eligible you need to be resident in one of the 2 countries (for at least 2 years) or to have the country nationality.
Image header © Alain Wergifosse, Microscopies, 2018.
The subject of the residency is the imagination of ecological futures.
The residency gives artistic researchers from various fields the opportunity to work on the intersection of art, design, and environment. The aim is to develop useful arts-led interdisciplinary research tools and art works to examine how cultural practitioners critically address and creatively negotiate ecological futures. The call includes the research field of climate change and global warming, 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?
The project is a cooperation between three partners: the Goethe-Institut Brussels, the globally active cultural institute of the German Federal Republic, Les Abattoirs de Bomel, a new, interdisciplinary cultural center of the Wallonian capital Namur with rooms for exhibitions and residencies and the KIKK Festival. This annual festival for creative and digital culture researches how new technologies will affect art, science and design. The creative hub TRAKK, which belongs to the festival and is a space for collective, multidisciplinary design, places its laboratory (Fab Lab: FABrication LABoratory) at the residents’ disposal.
The residents’ main focus should lie on acquainting themselves with new technologies within the TRAKK laboratory while benefiting from professional assistance. A final product is not compulsory. The residents are free in the realization of their projects. They may choose to create a project in collaboration with the other resident. After consultation with the organizers, the project may also be exhibited at the KIKK Festival in November.
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.
A private flat (39 to 47m2) with a bathroom, kitchen nook, space to sleep and work and access to the internet.
Access to the TRAKK Fab Lab, including the use of all machines (3D printer, cutting plotter, milling machine with numerical control, laser cutter, wood working tools, and other technology) and on-site assistance.
Use of the studios within the Abattoirs de Bomel (wood working, iron working and screen printing studios; assistance and introduction by the technical management)
Application:
Please submit your application to residenceprogram.belgium@goethe.de until May 15, 2020, including the following documents:
CV in French or English
Personal statement in French or English
Project outline with images and technical drawings, if possible in French or English
We also accept unfinished projects, which could use further funds in order to be completed, or finished projects, which could use further funds in order to be expanded upon. In the latter case, please outline how further funds will help your project.
Budget planning in French or English
The jury meeting will take place in mid June. The applicants will be informed about the decisions in June.
Download the open call in pdf:
Contacts:
Goethe Institut Bruxelles: Jana.Haeckel@goethe.de
Centre Culturel de Namur - Abattoirs de Bomel: jeanfrancoisflamey@centrecultureldenamur.be
KIKK: marie@kikk.be
Project organized thanks to the support of the Digital Arts Commission of Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
Co-funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme in the framework of STARTS initiative (Science, Technology & the Arts). STARTS supports collaborations between artists, scientists, engineers and researchers to develop more creative, inclusive, and sustainable technologies.
