Deheimatize it! Young Curators Academy

OPEN CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

In the course of the 4th Berlin Autumn Salon, Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin is calling for participants to be part of the first edition of the Young Curators Academy in Berlin, initiated by Shermin Langhoff (director of Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin) and Ong Keng Sen (Artistic Director of TheatreWorks Singapore and Founding Festival Director of Singapore International Festival of Arts 2014 to 2017).

Berlin Autumn Salon is an interdisciplinary festival which is taking a critical approach to the constructions of identity and belonging as well as patriarchic and religious coded nationalism. Held under the motto “Deheimatize it!”, the 2019 salon aims at presenting works that provoke the term Heimat (German for home, homeland, native country) in order to reveal the hidden dimensions and the ambivalences of the expression which is currently being ideologically recharged and used by nationalist movements to invent exclusions and strengthen old patriarchic power structures. The Autumn Salon invites both Berliners as well as international artists to show new and previously developed artworks that work through the concepts of deheimatization from a feminist and intersectional perspective.

Over the period of two weeks, the Young Curators Academy intends to nurture public debate, focus artistic conversations, and act as an amplifier for resistance energies and intensities. The Young Curators Academy invites all interested individuals, who work at the crossings of art and activism, in particular those under challenging political, social and economic conditions, to apply for a place in the Academy to share their knowledge, reflect on and deepen their own practices from parallel experiences, and empowering each other.

The Young Curators Academy explicitly welcomes makers - young artists, thinkers, program producers - who are both creating their own events and developing new forms of authorship and curation. In this context, the term young is understood as pioneering practice, the curator as individuals who are part of different communities and desiring to activate them. The Young Curators Academy is designed for those who are initiating transfers between different micro-contexts, and enabling relocations of the self as well as new lines of flight beyond patriarchal borders. The Young Curators Academy forms an intersectional narrative of sharing processes and alternative belongings.

The Academy will be taking place in Berlin from 24 of October 2019 (arrival date) till 5th of November 2019 (departure date). English will be the language of communication.

MECHANICS The participants will participate in the events of the Berlin Autumn Salon, be engaged in a dialogue with hosts, international curators, and featured artists of Berlin Autumn Salon. In a public event the participants will be expected to share a chosen project from their contexts, which enabled art and activism dealing with the topic of “Deheimatize Belonging”. It can be about consolidating belongings or bridging affinities or forming alternative alliances.

APPLICATION DETAILS: The YOUNG CURATORS ACADEMY invites individuals who have: collaborated or engaged in pioneering practices a desire to activate their networks in order to enable and transform their contexts and their communities; a network or community; and who are an artist or a maker of art, a producer or an enabler of art, a critic, writer or journalist, or an independent aspiring curator. You must be willing to present and share in English for a public audience, a project from your context which enabled art and activism dealing with the topic of “Deheimatize Belonging” (approximately 15 minutes).

HOW TO APPLY? Your application must include:

A letter, giving a brief description of  

- your artistic, producing, writing, curating experience if any,  

- your current practice,  

- your current network(s)  

- ways in which you have been part of a community and activated it in the past  

- your plans to activate your community in the future  

- your motivation to join this specific program during Herbstsalon.

Curriculum Vitae (up-to-date) Portfolio of your recent projects / works (max. 10MB total)

A brief written portrait of yourself

A brief description of the project that you would like to share during the Young Curators Academy with a public audience (approximately 15 minutes).

Applications shall be submitted via email to the following email address: Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein! Application deadline: March 31st 2019, 23:55 hours (Berlin Time) Please keep in mind that only digital material is accepted and all documents shall be sent in the same email. Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin can respond to email inquiries except regarding the status of individual applications. Successful applicants shall be informed in due course.

The YOUNG CURATORS ACADEMY shall provide the selected participant a return economy class air-ticket from her/his city of residence to Berlin, per diem and hotel accommodation for the duration of the Academy from 24th of October (day of arrival) to 5th of November 2019 (day of departure), Visa fees, and an additional budget of 1000,- Euros for the presentation of the public sharing (including fees and/or any kind of additional costs such as material or transportation etc.). Check out the 3rd Berlin Autumn Salon that took place in November 2017