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Kaunas Artists’ House / Kulturni Centar LAB > Decoding Modernity Residency Programme for Artists from Serbia and Lithuania (Serbia / Lithuania)

Kaunas Artists’ House (KAH, Lithuania) together with Kulturni Centar LAB (Novi Sad, Serbia) are starting to carry out the Reciprocal Residency Programme DeMo (abbreviation of Decoding Modernity). The programme aims to explore the connections between different modernities and to unravel modernity as a phenomenon in the broader sense of time and space and across cultural, scientific, societal and industrial developments.

In order to expand the notion of modernity, Reciprocal Residency Programme DeMo will be dedicated to the analysis of the modern architectural term EXISTENZMINIMUM and the intensity of its meaning in these fluctuating times. At the same time the theme of the open call is conceptually determined by the current instabilities and pandemic crisis which also define the limits of our existence as well as the restrictions of Western modernity. Besides the very wide meaning of the term EXISTENZMINIMUM is an architectural definition used to maintain the human needs to have comfortable and accessible housing after WWI. The term was coined by German post-war architects of the New Objectivity who were eager to build as much cost-effective housing as possible, partly to address Germany’s post-war housing crisis, and partly to fulfil the promise of Weimar Constitution. What would be our minimum existence demands for living conditions today? How did it change during quarantine? How do we perceive the post-war architectural principles now?

Artists from Serbia and Lithuania are encouraged to apply with project proposals that would reflect on the historical, urban and social developments in terms of living conditions in between the needs and demands while researching, reflecting on the key technical term of EXISTENZMINIMUM, the space for survival. The artists are expected to develop an interdisciplinary research based project and during the physical residency time to realise it using modernist spaces of Kaunas or Novi Sad.

The residency will be divided into two stages:

  • Introductory stage: two months of online research and project development with the guidance of local experts (1 November – 31 December 2020).

  • Three weeks of physical residency time in Kaunas (for artists from Serbia) or in Novi Sad (for artists from Lithuania) in 2021 (the time will depend on the state of the pandemic).

Applicants should be professionals in architecture, public art or visual arts and have good English language skills. Knowledge of critical urban theories would be an advantage.

Selected artists will receive:

  • Artist fee of 800 Euros.

  • Project guidance and personal online consultations with the local experts for project development, November – December, 2020.

  • Accommodation and daily allowance for the period of 3 residency weeks in Kaunas and in Novi Sad.

  • Travel to/from Serbia to/from Kaunas and materials support for the art production in 2021.

  • Access to Kaunas city/Kaunas district (LT) and Novi Sad/Serbia (RS) networks and resources.

Deadline:

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