What could be lying fallow in the arts?
This a call for a 2-month paid residency for collectives (existing or newly established on the occasion of this call, ideally 5 persons). The period of 2 months can be spread over a maximum of 5 months. Read more about the practical details further below. First we would like to give you more info about the context and the framework of this call.
CONTEXT? WHAT? MISSION?
“In a world in constant motion there is an ecological imperative to embrace the value of idleness” Michael Chieffalo and Julia Smachylo in Lying fallow: the value of idleness
For about 15 years a.pass has been hosting a co-learning environment for research-based practices, focusing on collaboration, performativity, self-organisation and transdisciplinarity. a.pass is an acronym for ‘advanced performance and scenography studies’: ‘performance’ refers to how practices act in their surroundings, ‘scenography’ is the production of space and context, ‘studies’ stands for a co-learning pedagogical approach and the prefix ‘advanced’ is a dedication to challenge the frames of existing disciplinary determinations.
In 2022 however, the Flemish Ministry of Education decided to end their financial support of a.pass by the end of 2023. a.pass managed to get a transition budget and after a period of conversations with different partners (Schools of Arts, workspaces, universities, places for artistic research), and working on a new plan in order to make a restart. Nevertheless, due to the financial inflation, the tight budgets and even budget cuts in the other institutions, the budgetary framework needed to make an adapted restart was impossible to reach without any structural support from the Ministry of Education.
To make a virtue of necessity we chose for a more radical, more riskful path towards a possible future. Both programs, the Postgraduate Program as well as the Research Center, came to an end in 2023. We chose to embrace the fallow land that lays before us and a.pass entered a period of reflection, reimagination, and ultimately reorganisation: a field when it lies fallow - seemingly 'doing nothing' but in fact engaging in a deep process of rejuvenation and enriching as Rajni Shah says, a space for attention and transformation. An integral aspect of this process involves opening it up by inviting others to participate, to think together, to be together, to imagine a sustainable way forward for artistic research practices and for a.pass as a re-generated soil for collectivity and research. Therefore, we are extending invitations to 3 collectives (existing or newly established on the occasion of this call) for a 2-month paid residency to reimagine our fallow land and its implications for collective artistic research practices, methodologies, and sustainable harvesting.
Recognising the socio-economic challenges facing collective arts, wherein artistic research is fully embedded into its soil, a.pass hopes to carefully and responsibly re-plant our fallow land in the coming years, to develop and articulate frameworks, methodologies, and possible vessels that can empower sustainable collective studio environments of the near-future.
“The research is an artistic practice, the practice is an artistic research. The research is guided by the questions arising in the artistic practice and, at the same time, the formulations of the research, its theories and methodologies, are feeding back into the practice which will return with new questions to the research.” Veridiana Zurita in In These Circumstances
If research is intrinsic to artistic practice, what constitutes this fallow land, and how can it be filled with sustainability and radical institutional re-imagining, how can it be maintained responsibly and collectively? In other words, how can we nurture this space and ensure its sustainability? Are there methodologies, economic models and networks that can support this? Are there philosophical frameworks that can inspire this? Allowing land to lie fallow offers a transitional moment outside the circuit of capitalist value creation and destruction, as Michael Chieffalo and Julia Smachylo suggest. Recognising the profound impact of an ideology of continuous progress on urban infrastructure, social dynamics, ecological processes, and the climate at large, this open call would like to seriously consider the concept of institutional lying fallow, beyond the capitalist logic of perpetual construction and deconstruction for the sake of scaling up.
Embracing the collective, collaborative, and shared spaces, along with the exchange of research practices, is essential for sustainable artistic work. This call invites collectives whose practice is grounded in reflection and collaborative efforts to make lying fallow feasible on an institutional level. What kind of institution could embrace the value of idleness? What institutional framework is necessary for artistic research, both as a practice and a field, and how can it be facilitated in a sustainably radical way?
“I do not mean to phrase this as some kind of utopian ideal, but to begin an attempt at articulating the ways in which the work of lying fallow lay in relationship to the world around it, without assuming the nature or texture of that relationship.” Rajni Shah on Lying Fallow
CONDITIONS? FRAMEWORK? WHAT IS EXPECTED?
Each collective residency period serves as a reflection on institutional frameworks within the field of artistic research, acting as an experimental pedagogical platform where collectives can propose new models, methodologies, and ways of exchanging knowledge and practices. Each group is tasked with developing an institutional reimagining grounded in their own research focus and interests, while taking into consideration the concept of lying fallow. Each collective residency will need to devise a way. The hope is that the three residency periods will create a palimpsest of possibilities for a sustainable and radical artistic research institution, and a possible future for a.pass. Each collective research residency should consider the following two questions:
How to nurture a process of searching within a (collective) artistic practice? Or, how to do artistic research?
How does the process of (collective) artistic searching inspire others? Or, how to share artistic research with others?
WHAT DO WE OFFER?
We foresee a paid residency for 2 months for ideally 5 persons (min.3 - max.10 persons). There is a salary for 5 people (in case of 10 persons: the salary as well as the working time will be divided by 10, making sure people are paid correctly for the time they invest) (in case of less than 5 persons: the salary per person remains the same). The period of 2 months can be spread over a maximum of 5 months. You can indicate which periods would be convenient for your group. There will also be 2 return moments after the residency (to be organised later).
The salary will be €5.000/month/person (all costs & VAT incl.) It is also possible to be on the payroll with an artist contract, in that case the gross salary will be €3.250 (according to the official scale of PC 329) and a.pass will pay the extra costs for social security, holiday pay and taxes.
For people coming outside of Belgium, a maximum of €1.000 per month per person for travel and accommodation will be available (refund based on receipts). We don't have accommodation to stay, we only provide collective workspace.
Production budget per group: €2.000 for the whole residency (on top of the salaries). There will also be administrative/productional/ technical support with basic technical equipment. You will have access to the library and access to the archive and the update about earlier steps made in this transition process.
Space for the residency: depending on the period the place might change, since the nomadic character of a.pass at the very moment, but it will be in/around Brussels. Also collaboration with other organisations, to create intersection with other worlds, other realities could be possible. You can also indicate what kind of place you would need for this residency in your application.
Personal needs: in case you have questions regarding specific personal needs (family, accessibility,...) please contact our general coordinator.
WHO CAN APPLY ?
The residency programme is aimed at collectives from about 5 persons (minimal 3 - maximal 10) preferably having experience with artistic research, or with reflecting on institutions, or pedagogical or anthropological experience, but all disciplines are welcome. You can either work with an already constituted collective or with a newly and for this occasion only formed collective.
We call for voices less heard until now in the context of a.pass, and invite you to make your group a multitude of voices, with different perspectives and different disciplines and different expertises gathered around the table. With a transdisciplinary approach: creating intersections with other worlds, other realities (social practices, farming or cooking, or other fields like the political, ecological, economical, juridical, urbanistic, subcultures, etc…).
We value artistic research that is without hierarchy within methodologies, where every methodology is taken seriously (e.g. a dream equals statistics as methodology).
FOR WHICH PERIOD CAN YOU APPLY?
The period for the 3 residencies runs from September 2024 until August 2025.
We start with a first call for a first group for the period September 2024-January 2025.
The period for the 2nd group will be December 2024-April 2025 (call will be out in July) and for the 3rd group it will be April-August 2025.
DEADLINE
There will be 3 different calls. The calls could possibly be adapted according to the inputs from prior chosen collectives during this period. Interaction with the other chosen collectives is encouraged.
Deadline for the application for the 1st group (period Sept '24-Jan '25) is June 9th 2024.
Deadline for the application for the 2nd group (period Dec '24-May '25) is October 9th 2024. Call will be published on July 9th.
Deadline for the application for the 3rd group (period April-August 2025) is January 9th 2025. Call will be published on November 9th.
HOW TO APPLY?
You can only apply by filling in the application form here below (emails will not be accepted as application). The application form consists of 4 parts:
- application letter: this can be in writing or via an audio or video recording. We are happy to read or listen to you in Dutch, French or English (max 5 pages in writing or max 15 min of recording). We would like to know how you would take care of the fallow ground? What would be a desirable outcome for your group? What is your motivation, how you imagine working together and why you would make a good group. Who is part of the group, have you worked together before, and in what fields is each of you active? Also good to mention briefly the collective and individual need in (artistic) research and your relation to it, as well as your relation to a.pass and/or Brussels.
- your favourite period (max 5 months) in which you would like to have the residency and a more detailed planning or timeline.
- short bio’s + CV of all the people involved in the group (max 1 pages per person)
- documentation: website, video links, portfolio (limited to 3 pages per person - 10 MB )
SELECTION
The selection will be made by the board and the General Assembly of a.pass and 2 external jury members. Please be aware that our advisory committee always reflects a diversity of fields, gender identity, and geographical knowledge. In the selection we pay attention to the complementary expertise, the diversity/multivoicedness within the collectives and the recognition of today’s challenges.
All groups applying for the first call will receive a reply by email by mid-July. Shortlisted groups will be invited for an online conversation to elaborate on their application before a final selection is made. Upon final selection, an agreement will be signed between the group and a.pass. In case of any changes in the composition of the group members (like the withdrawal or replacement of one of its members) a.pass must be informed and has to agree before the project can continue.
QUESTIONS? AND MORE INFO?
Send an email to the general coordinator at kristof@apass.be
Every application will be offered a copy of the a.pass publication In These Circumstances: a collection of methodologies, insights, experiences, ideas, researches from 15 years of a.pass. When you would like to receive a copy of this book beforehand, in order to use it for your application, it’s possible to order it for €15 only (shipping included), just send us an email.
GOOD TO KNOW!
In case you need space to come together and to prepare your application, you can always reach out to us, we’re very happy to help and share a.pass-spaces.
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