08 Aug 2016

Wschodnia Residency, Lodz, Poland - open call

Despite the fact that Lodz is a third biggest city in Poland with very strong modern art traditions it doesn't have an ongoing artist residency program. We feel that this place needs it in particular because of its unique history and culture. It's a rather young city but it has developed very rapidly in 19th century from a small village to one of the biggest industrial centres in Europe. Its main trade being textile. Its growth is attributed to the common effort of Poles, Jews, Germans and Russians, so it has been a very multicultural city since its beginnings. Right now it's a place full of contrasts and colours which can be a great inspiration for visiting artists.

It's a place where in the 1930s a revolutionary avant-garde group of artists – 'a.r. group' started to establish an international collection of modern art, which became a base for a new Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz.

For this year's edition of A-i-R 'Wschodnia Residency' we would like to invite international artists, working in the fields of visual arts, performance, sound art or experimental music, with no geographical, age or gender restrictions. Each participant can stay in Lodz for not longer than one month and in the end present the project they will develop.

Wschodnia Gallery is a small non-profit artist-run space, located in a flat in the city center. There are two joint exhibition spaces, 60m2 altogether. This space can be used as an exhibition space or as a studio, according to the artist's wishes and needs.
We encourage artists to propose projects not only to Wschodnia Gallery's space. We can arrange a possibility to realise a project in public space or a different indoor space according to project's needs.

Interested artists are asked to send us the following materials:
1. Biography (up to 500 words)
2. Artist's statement (up to 500 words)
3. Portfolio – images, video and/or audio and short descriptions of previous works (up to 5 pieces)
4. A proposal for the project to be realised in Lodz.
to: fundacja@insearchof.pl

Deadline for submitting applications: August 15th 2016.

All sent proposals will be assessed by the selection committee comprised of members of the Foundation In Search Of… board (Ewelina Chmielewska, Izabela Robakowska, Jerzy Grzegorski, Adam Klimczak, Tomasz Matuszak) and director and curators from Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz: Jaroslaw Suchan, Maria Morzuch, Joanna Sokolowska, Daniel Muzyczuk.

The selected participants will be provided with accommodation and per diem. We can also help with the travel costs, especially for artists from countries with no mobility grants. We will also provide a grant for materials and execution of the work – around 700 Euro, depending on the cost of the project.
For more information, please contact Ewelina Chmielewska – project manager: fundacja@insearchof.pl, chmielewska@gmail.com

The program is supported by The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and by The City of Lodz.