Residency Location: ZK/U – Center for Art and Urbanistics, Berlin. Residency Period: May – June 2019 (Residency 1) // June – July 2019 (Residency 2). Fee: £2400. Plus live / work studio space, travel costs and material costs, and participation in ZK/U residency program. DEADLINE: Monday 25 February, 5pm GMT

We invite UK-based artists to apply for a 2-month fully funded residency at ZK/U Center for Art and Urbanistics, Berlin. These residency opportunities will provide artists with time to work on individual or collaborative projects alongside other resident artists and practitioners based at ZK/U.

The NewBridge Project has been working alongside ZK/U, Berlin, and researchers from Durham Universities PUrSI project (Politics of Urban Social Innovation) to explore various ways of engaging with the public in conversations around complex social, political, economic and environmental issues, in cities with contrasting experiences of austerity and precarity.

As part of our ongoing collaboration, The NewBridge Project, ZK/U and PUrSI are delighted to announce the ZK/U Artist Residencies opportunity.

The residencies will provide artists with time to test out new ideas, experiment, develop new relationships, research new works / projects, explore new aspects of their practice, and make new work if they want to.

There will be two fully funded opportunities available through the ZK/U Artist Residencies; successful applicants will need to be available during the months of May – June or June – July 2019 (depending on opportunity – see detail and dates below). As part of the residency, we will provide each artist with a fully funded live-work studio at ZK/U, Berlin, along with travel and material costs, and they will participate in the ZK/U residency programme.

Information About the Residency

ZK/U seeks to develop projects, co-produce knowledge and share values created through exchanges. ZK/U does not offer a fixed set of ideas and principles for its residents. Instead of letting the ‘final product’ constrain the possible routes that a practice might take, ZK/U focuses on the processes that come from, and feed into, the particular contexts of the fellows’ practice, whether they be locally-defined situations or international discourses.

Residencies at ZK/U consist of an active-collaborative format for mutual exchange, weekly dinners where the residents get the opportunity to introduce their practice to a selected audience, and monthly studio visits by professionals from ZK/U’s network.

Residents are also encouraged to share their work with a broader public during the OPENHAUS, a monthly open studio format, and by proposing their own public events and projects.They are also encouraged to attend ZK/U’s public program which offers a variety of established formats like the Gütermarkt and Speisekino or in events, exhibitions, workshops and conferences organised through long term projects in partnership with local and international organisations.

Residency 1

ZK/U Artist in Residence

Residency Period: May – June 2019

For Residency 1 we invite artists to apply for a two-month residency that responds to some of the thematic research interests of ZK/U, The NewBridge Project and PUrSI.

ZKU’s work is directed along specific research themes that intend to inspire open discussions. These ‘discourses’ change over time but are currently:

SELF-EMPOWERMENT: PRACTICAL GUIDES AND SOLIDARITY IN URBAN LEARNING

RESETTING: URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE REVISITED

BRIDGING:GLOBAL DISCOURSE AND LOCAL PRACTICE

RE-THINKING:RESILIENT CITIES IN POST-MIGRANT SOCIETIES

The NewBridge Project’s programme seeks to be aware and responsive to the landscape that we exist in. We champion work that is responsive to social, political and civic issues that affect us every day, and work that is reactive to the location, situation and time from which it emerges.

In particular we would be keen to look at how previous conversations and themes explored in programmes such as Deep Adaptation and Hidden Civil War relate to the wider discourses being explored by ZK/U.

We are VERY open as to how you would explore these themes through your own individual practice, but we would like to understand how the work and research you conduct during the residency could inform future learning in the UK, and more regionally in Newcastle. NewBridge are keen to hear from artists who want to learn through collaborative co-existence, and who want to explore aspects of their practice that could engage with the public in experimental, radical and interventionist ways.

Residency 2

ZK/U Untersuchungsausschuss (Fact Finding Committee) Residency

Feminism and Urban Food Production 

Residency Period: June – July 2019

The second residency opportunity invites an artist to join the ZK/U Untersuchungsausschuss (Fact Finding Committee) during their 2-month (June – July) residency. During the residency the artist will have time to develop their own practice and research strands, alongside joining the fact-finding committee. We are interested in different responses to this, but an interest in the subject is a necessity.

About the ZK/U Untersuchungsausschuss (Fact Finding Committee)

The Berlin Fact-Finding Committee (“UA”) intends to tie local discourse to global practices brought to ZK/U by its international artists-in-residence, helping the international community understand Berlin’s unique challenges. For this purpose, ZK/U initiated a series of temporary committees investigating current issues faced by Berlin’s urban society whose resolution is a matter of public interest.

Subject for this Fact Finding Committee – Feminism and Urban Food Production

The Fact-Finding Committee between June – August 2019 will be led by Stadtfrauenküche (SFK), a collective of 3 women who cook at ZK/U on a regular basis, and in 2015 turned ZK/U into ZK/FU (the Center for Art, Feministics and Urbanistics). They will head up the committee, appoint members, and will independently develop and execute a program for the public. Members of the committee might include protagonists from initiatives and networks, local and international artists, researchers from academic as well as non-institutional contexts. The committee’s final report will take the shape of a cross-media zine (combining analog and digital media), aiming to tie together Berlin-specific discourses and the manifold global practices of the program’s participants.

They will be exploring the food landscape in Berlin from a feminist standpoint, considering very local issues within global ethical and ecological concerns. The fact-finding committee will be working with a group of women concerned with local issues of urban food provision alongside a commitment to feminist ideas and principles.

Other information

Research Fee: £2400 (for 2-month residency).

You will be provided with a live / work studio apartment at ZK/U, and there are communal facilities such as a large kitchen, a terrace, a library-in-progress, and a surrounding public park.

You will participate in the ZK/U residency program: OPENHAUS, Studio Visits, Monday Dinners: https://www.zku-berlin.org/residency/

Your travel costs to and from Berlin will be covered.

Unfortunately, the dates for the residencies are not flexible, we are however open to a discussion to support additional travel costs during the two-month residency period to accommodate for work / family / personal commitments that applicants might have. Please state in your application if you would want to chat more about this or state any definite commitments that you currently have.

Residents will be invited to feed into the PUrSI projects wider research aims, this could be through interview or through producing a report (or similar) that can contribute to their wider research.

You will be invited to contribute to an event that will take place in September with The NewBridge Project, PUrSI and ZK/U – date TBC (a fee for your time will be covered separately to the main residency fee for this depending on the nature of your contribution).

The opportunity is for artists at any stage of their career.

Applications will be assessed by The NewBridge Project, ZK/U and PUrSI

This opportunity is open to NewBridge Studio Members and NewBridge Associate Artist Members only. You can join for as little as £2.50 a month, for more information please visit:

https://thenewbridgeproject.com/join/associate-member/

Who’s Involved

This residency is a co-commission between The NewBridge Project, ZK/U and PUrSI.

The NewBridge Project:

The NewBridge Project is an artist-led community supporting the development of artists and curators through the provision of space for creative practice, curatorial opportunities and an ambitious artist-led programme of exhibitions, commissions and events.

The NewBridge Project was established in 2010 to provide exchange and support in an engaged and discursive community of artists. We develop artistic talent through artist development programmes, curatorial opportunities and provision of space. The shared workspace is a critical and collaborative environment that allows artists to discuss and develop new ideas and projects.

We aim to deliver an outstanding programme of exhibitions, performances, screenings, educational talks and workshops in consultation with artist members, creating a programme responsive to the socio, political and civic environment within which it exists and seeks to be a genuine community resource.

https://thenewbridgeproject.com

ZK/U:

The ZK/U concept and practice were initiated by the artist collective and non-profit organisation KUNSTrePUBLIK. The association is now the owner of the former railway depot and holds a 40-year lease on the ground. KUNSTrePUBLIK’sconcepts and projects are equally focused on local involvement and global exchanges.

Coming from non-institutional backgrounds, the founders aspire to continue exploring ways of collaborating, researching and creating, that go beyond the lines of existing structures and preconceptions. As part of their artistic practice, KUNSTrePUBLIK considers the development of ZK/U a long-term process that will evolve through the contributions and critical feedback expressed by its participants, partners and a diverse audience.

https://www.zku-berlin.org

PUrSI:

PUrSI is the shorthand name for a major three-year research project on the Urban Politics and Governance of Social Innovation in Austerity. It will run from 1 January 2016 to 31 July 2019. PUrSI is organised by Durham University’s Department of Geography and funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). PUrSI is part of the ESRC’s Urban Transformations research programme.

To investigate the urban politics and governance of social innovation in austerity, PUrSI researchers are studying three aspects of social innovation: generating resources through alternative finance, harnessing social energy through grassroots mobilisation, and meeting needs through community provision. We are looking at these aspects in three European cities with contrasting experiences of austerity: Athens (Greece), Berlin(Germany), and Newcastle upon Tyne (UK).

https://community.dur.ac.uk/pursi/