26 Mar 2018

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: AFFECT Research Program for Collaborative Artistic Practices in Berlin / Summer 2018

Agora Collective is pleased to announce the fourth edition of AFFECT: Agora's Program for Collaborative Artistic Practices in Berlin. AFFECT 2018 is formatted as an international research residency & summer academy under the theme: 'Micro-Utopias: Cartographies of Relational Art in Berlin'. The program is initiated by Agora Collective, and curated by Paz Ponce.

Taking place during June and July 2018, the program consists of four modules offered as intensive week-workshops, each led by an international artist, who open their research practice as a context for experimentation, learning and collaborating across disciplines.

Content wise the modules renew the question about the social function of art, offered as case studies to support residents contextualizing the program's main question in Berlin, triggering autonomous research strands at AFFECT based on the insights gained through the exchange of practices during their stay.

The residency outcome consist of an e-publication project, with growing contributions by residents issued by topics, shaping a self-styled cartography of subjectivities, encounters and methods within Berlin's micro-utopias of art+life.


AFFECT PROGRAM STRUCTURE:
** Application Deadline: May 20th | 15th April Early Bird registration

4 – 10th of June 2018 / Module #1: PROMISCUOUS ANOMALIES: A practical philosophy to encounter and mix with alterity. Facilitated by Diego Agulló.
How much do you risk in the process of art making and researching? How much chaos can your practice deal with? How ready are you to de-territorialize your identities? Can art inject anomaly and challenge the social order?
Agullo's intensive collective investigation suggests mixing with alterity to stimulate the emergence of something new, embracing disorder, chaos, confusion, confrontation and affection as transformative aspects of exchange. In this immersive workshop, exercises, dialectal discussions and concept diagrams will be employed to confront practical problems and enter the process of value finding in heterogeneity.

11 – 21st of June 2018 / Module #2: DISTURBANCE & DEVELOPMENT - Participatory Art interventions in Berlin 2000-2020. Facilitated by CLUB REAL COLLECTIVE.
What possibilities did Berlin in the early 2000s offer to participatory art in public space? What happened to the spaces where such interventions took place? Where can we find inspiring cracks and voids in the body of the city today?
In a city that is becoming more and more dense and utilized, the Berlin-based artist collective Club Real aims to explore the above questions and some of the city's projects in order to widen the perspective on the possibilities and limitations of participation in art and art interventions in public urban spaces.

2 – 8th of July 2018 / MODULE #3: WHO NEEDS ART ANYWAY? - Laboratory of social sensitivity.
Facilitated by Zorka Wollny.
Under what conditions could smaller communities benefit from art, and artists benefit from contact with specific groups? How to do it with the full respect to the people and contexts within which one wants to work?
In an intensive week workshop testing ideas through the district of Neukölln, Zorka Wollny proves there is no escape from the context, putting forward ideas on collaboration from her experience in site-specific and socially involved projects. Discussing all the stages of the art production and using various exercises, the workshop will cover the conceptualization, organization and evaluation of contextual projects.

16 – 26th of July 2018 / MODULE #4: TOOLS FOR CONVIVIALITY. Hospitality & the art of hosting.
Facilitated by Susanne Bosch.
What makes a heterogeneous group of people ease into a situation to collaborate? Do you dream of really collaborating or of a participatory process within an art work? What does it mean to be the host of such a process? What does hosting include?
To answer these questions is to accept the complexity of the collaborative practices and their multiple layers, investigated by Susanne Bosch in her extensive research experience in participatory public art. In this module, concepts such as friendship, equality and otherness, relationships of power, leadership and negotiation, will be explored as essential tools for every cooperation and hosting. Through presentation, discussion, reflection and storytelling, we seek to find new models of togetherness and interdependence and revisit the idea of conviviality.

PARTICIPATION

No previous collaborative experience is required to participate in AFFECT, the unique combination of participatory workshops, studio visits, guided walks, public lectures, open reading groups and series of interventions planned for each module, serve international applicants as a practical research base & capacity network for the implementation of future projects in the city.

Participation fee is 450€ for each module. A small production budget will be provided for the final event. Our hybrid model between a research and formative type of residency, experimenting with models of art and education, opens up more possibilities to apply for financial support. Previous AFFECT participants have been successfully granted to attend our program by university career departments, academic research fellowships, cross European and overseas mobility funds for artists, etc. Get in touch with coordination and we will provide you a list of funding possibilities. Agora can provide individual acceptance letters with a description of the content and nature of the modules to support grant application processes. Letters can be issued to applicants upon request.

PROGRAM SUPPORT

Residents will be assisted by AFFECT Coordination team during their stay, via:

* WEEKLY EDITORIAL MEETINGS / COLLECTIVE EDITING STUDIO: Led by Paz Ponce, AFFECT Project Coordinator / Curator of Education at Agora, the sessions are arranged to support collective and individual research strands along the 8 residency weeks, monitoring and offering curatorial guidance to participants about their contributions to the final publication.

* DOCUMENTATION: A photographer/videographer with a background in visual anthropology will be engaged in the daily activities of the residency, supporting with tech resources related to research needs.

* AFFECT PUBLIC LAB: A new feature of the 2018 edition. An ongoing mediation lab assisting residents in the involvement of specific communities in Neukölln related to their research along their stay. AFFECT PUBLIC LAB transverses all modules with the aim of extending the discoursive program to local audiences. Directed by Paz Ponce in cooperation with Kulturnetzwerk Neukölln (communication partners for public outreach).

* ADMINISTRATION OF ACTIVITIES & EVENTS BUDGET: every module allocates a budget to cover production costs associated with the organization of public activities, as well as group visits and studio talks with other artists as part of the program of each module.
* RESIDENCY VENUE: AGORA offers seminar rooms for all indoor residency meetings (50% indoor / 50 % outdoor activities), and for the hosting of 4 public activities


CONTACT & APPLICATIONS

affect@agoracollective.org
www.agoracollective.org/affect/apply
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AFFECT 2018 Call For Applications & Information Brochure
drive.google.com/file/d/1WT9K38w98Ju9_ryschSkut0I7ovMcjBs/view


ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS

The Agora Collective - Berlin-based Center for Contemporary Practices - was originally founded in 2011 by a multidisciplinary team as an independent project space in Berlin. Since then, Agora expands its mission to be a place to conceive and experiment with models of working together; providing stable spaces for artists to engage within collaborative and community-based practices.

In 2017, the project has been totally relocated to the former Kindl-Brauerei Area in Rollbergstrasse / Am Südhaus, being proudly part of the 'Vollgutlage', a 38.000 sq. meters area acquired by the Swiss Foundation Edith Maryon. This location in the heart of Neukölln, has been secured for initiatives devoted to social, ecological, cultural and artistic projects.

Under this unique new stage, Agora´s current facilities of 1100 sq. meters basement space are being developed to be an ongoing experimental center for artistic production and presentation.

This includes: exhibition and event programs, month-long workshop projects, a contemporary dance platform, studios for artists, community driven activities and artistic residency opportunities.

The Agora team is devoted to create cross-disciplinary models of cultural and educational production expressed in a diverse, inclusive program of artistic projects and events that deals with relevant questions of nowadays. Since its beginning, Agora´s focus has ranged from food and hosting practices, co-working spaces, event series, workshops, and programming, as well as with a strong take on visual and performing arts.

Agora means 'now', in Portuguese, language of its Brazilian founders and also coincidentally, in Greek, Agora is the place for encounters and exchange, the assembly and the market-place.