I’m very excited about the NEW EDITION OF AFFECT: SUMMER 2018. Agora’s program for Collaborative Artistic Practices, 4th edition. After a year break, we come back with 4 NEW MODULES under the theme: “Micro-Utopias: Cartographies of Relational Art in Berlin”. Honored to have curated this program with great artists putting together new collaboration methods and mediation tools for social and artistic research. Read more & help us spread the word! Yes!
“Micro-Utopias: Cartographies Of Relational Art”.
AFFECT 2018 – Agora’s Programm for Collaborative Artistic Practices in Berlin.
International residency with Diego Agulló, Club Real (Georg Reinhardt, Marianne Ramsay-Sonneck), Zorka Wollny, Susanne Bosch. Initiated by Agora Collective e.V., curated by Paz Ponce.
(Call for applications & Information brochure).
Accepting applications till May 20
Apply: http://www.agoracollective.org/affect, affect@agoracollective.org
Summary:
AFFECT is Agora’s program for collaborative artistic practices in Berlin, currently in its IV Edition. AFFECT 2018 is conceived as a research type of residency, under the theme: “Micro-Utopias: Cartographies of Relational Art in Berlin”.
Taking place during June and July 2018, the program consists of four intensive week-workshops, each led by an international artist, who open their research practice as a context for experimentation, learning and collaborating across disciplines: Diego Agulló (Module #1), Club Real (Module #2), Zorka Wollny (Module #3) and Susanne Bosch (Module #4). The program is initiated by Agora Collective, and curated by Paz Ponce.
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.
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 under the 2018 edition, serve international applicants as a practical research base & capacity network for the implementation of future projects in the city.
Structure:
#MODULE 1: PROMISCUOUS ANOMALIES: A practical philosophy to encounter and mix with alterity.
Facilitated by Diego Agulló.
4 – 10th of June 2018.
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.
#MODULE 2: DISTURBANCE & DEVELOPMENT – Participatory Art interventions
in Berlin 2000-2020.
Facilitated by CLUB REAL COLLECTIVE.
11 – 21st of June 2018
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.
#MODULE 3: WHO NEEDS ART ANYWAY? – Laboratory of social sensitivity.
Facilitated by Zorka Wollny.
2 – 8th of July 2018
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.
#MODULE 4: TOOLS FOR CONVIVIALITY. Hospitality & the art of hosting.
Facilitated by Susanne Bosch.
16 – 26th of July 2018
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.
PROGRAM OUTCOME & SUPPORT
Residency Dynamics
AFFECT 2018 is a curated program spanning over 8 weeks of collective investigation. Participants can apply to one or all of the 4 Weekly residential modules. Each module is conceived as a participatory intensive workshop, 7 days of 5 hours. 50 % indoor sessions (seminar, workshops), 50 % outdoors (studio visits, field trips, urban explorations, cooperation with other spaces of the Kulturnetzerk Neukölln). Every module finalizes with a public moment hosted at Agora, involving targeted audiences in the district of Neukölln, the area where the residency is located
Research Outcome
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. The publication will include i.e: essays, interviews, performative scores, conversations, manifestos, artistic exercises, video documentations, etc. The publication will be launched in January 2019. .
Participation
Every residential module is open to 10 – 15 participants. Each module has a different program of meetings, encounters and events. Residents are welcome to stay longer in Berlin and lead autonomous research strands at AFFECT based on the insights gained through the exchange of practices during their stay.
The modules are open to applicants active in the intersecting fields of visual and live arts, social and community work, critical studies and education. Each module description specifies the target group benefited. Please check module descriptions for more information.
Assistance:
Residents will be assisted by AFFECT Coordination team during their stay, via:
Weekly Editorial Meetings: 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. This budget is negotiated between Coordination, Facilitators and Residents.
Residency Venue
AGORA offers seminar rooms for all indoor residency meetings (50% indoor / 50 % outdoor activities), and for the hosting of 4 public activities
Fees:
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.
Financial support:
AGORA offers the possibility to one resident per module to organize and give a SKILL WORKSHOP to local audiences, in exchange for the participation fee. Agora is a self-organized art space, artistic solidarity and circular economy are among its ways to support artist mobility. These workshops are offered by AFFECT ACADEMY, which runs parallel to AFFECT RESIDENCY all summer. Hosted at Agora, the ACADEMY is open by registration to local audience. It follows a different registration process, for inquiries contact education@agoracollective.org
Expectations towards the participants:
Willing to engage in collaborative and group working dynamics. Commitment to all the stages of the process with energy, respect and openness.
Contact:
Coordination AFFECT at Agora
Coordination ACADEMY at Agora
Where to find us
Am Sudhaus 5, C/O Agora Rollberg Studios. Underground. 12053 Berlin – Neukölln
PAZ PONCE _ PORTFOLIO 