Open Call for Kunst Raum Mitte Residency

Apr. 23, 2024

Applications are being accepted by Kunst Raum Mitte for a two-month residence program that will take place in June–August 2024 (specific dates to be confirmed). The program is intended for scholars, authors, artists, curators and other cultural practitioners.

Both people and organizations that focus on archiving techniques are welcome to apply for this open call. The historical resources (display images, press articles, correspondence, administrative files and ephemera on exhibition projects) of the defunct Galerie Weisser Elefant, founded in East Berlin in 1987, are the main focus of the residency program. Now, as Kunst Raum Mitte, the gallery hopes to become more visible and develop into a forum for intersectional dialogue.

In 2024, Agnieszka Roguski and Natalie Keppler will be the gallery’s new Artistic Directors. Their attention is focused on the performative aspects and changes that define the house and its narratives. The program’s first step, the Research Residency, aims to investigate these historical elements and forge new links. In what ways might the archival material materialize the changes in politics and society? Potentialities within gaps in the archives? What kind of hybrid, critical, and collective forms of public interaction can come out of it?

The gallery is looking for archival methods that interact with the relationships, temporalities and contradictions that make up the Galerie Weisser Elefant archive. Contributions from the domains of creative and curatorial practice as well as theoretical forms of knowledge production are invited to the open call. The resident(s) are free to use any kind of medium they like, and transdisciplinary methods are strongly encouraged, although an archive focus is necessary.

The Research Residency runs for two months, from June to August of 2024 in Berlin Mitte. Additionally, as part of the residency, there will be a public event or exhibition that serves as a presentation. The Artistic Directors will be consulted in deciding on the format and design. For the presentation, a separate budget and honorarium are provided, depending on the rates established by the Berlin Senate Administration’s Fonds für Ausstellungsvergütung (FABiK). One of the residency’s options is to publish something online on the recently launched Kunst Raum Mitte website.

Prospective candidates should be interested in East Berlin’s municipal and/or cultural politics in general, as well as the particular history of Galerie Weißen Elephant or GDR performance art, mail art, and/or art. Candidates with different backgrounds are encouraged and welcomed by Kunst Raum Mitte. Applications from teams or organizations are also encouraged.

Application materials are accepted in English and German. The residency will be awarded by Agnieszka Roguski and Natalie Keppler, and notification of the chosen candidates will be sent by mid-May 2024.