Smashing Wor(l)ds – Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art

Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art invites to apply for the artistic residency within the project Smashing Wor(l)ds: Cultural Practices for re/Imagining & un/Learning Vocabularies.

Smashing Wor(l)ds: Cultural Practices for re/Imagining & un/Learning Vocabularies aims to engage with vocabularies, languages, and narratives of resistance in order to build new forms of expressions against an epistemic violence of growing levels ingrained in our vocabularies.

The project is built as a collaborative and multidisciplinary platform bringing together institutions, artists, grassroots organizations, and researchers for a multivalent dialogue between diverse life practices, stories, and voices to oppose cultural and social marginalization. We will address the forms of communication and practices of European cultural institutions through processes of questioning vocabularies, hegemonic narratives, and centric knowledge. The project will establish a map of sharing experiences, and a charter and podcasts for future vocabularies, inspired by counter-cultural activities opposing xenophobia, heteronormativity, and racism.

This project is the result of a partnership between the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Poland), the Inna Przestrzeń [Other Space] Foundation (Poland), Centre for Fine Arts Brussels (BOZAR) with the Africa Museum (Belgium), Kulturen in Bewegung (Austria). It is funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

• Call
  • The Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw is devoting its long-standing residency programme to the above project. For the first time, in connection with the current pandemic, the residency can either be a monthly stay in Warsaw, Poland, or can be carried out online.

• Objective
  • Focusing on the study of verbal and visual dictionaries of cultural institutions, the residency will be devoted to research, practice and action on how to disarm violent mental, linguistic, and communicative constructions in the field of art, or to create new ones.The process of unlearning and transforming vocabularies can draw on various manifestations of culture, such as conversation, cooking, fashion, activism and its digital forms, informal education and art. We are interested in practices that enrich the institutions’ dictionaries – group practices and non-hegemonic knowledge systems – whether concerning Polish or general European contexts.

• What kind of projects?
  • This residency, which takes place at the onset of the project, will serve as findings shared and at specifying further artistic activities. It is a research-based residency, rather than being production-oriented, though the collaboration can be developed to an artwork commission where possible.
  • We will support practices based on various forms of expression, for example: performance, language, visual arts, body, video and audio, text, voice, literature and translation. These may function online and be based on encoding of new and decoding of existing content and formats. Special attention will be paid to works envisioned as intervention via the internet, not only the online representation of pre-existing forms.
  • We will support practices that recognise and counteract communicational oppression, those that celebrate creative forms of communication (not exclusively verbal), as well as communication resulting from the experiences of various environments that, in its online form, can reach beyond local networks of interaction and solidarity.
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• For whom
  • There are two month-long residency slots available for artists, activists, academics, collectives, theorists, organisers and curators; people working at the interface of art, education and activism; people living anywhere in the world.

• When
  • 9 November 2020 – 9 December 2020
  • One month online or offline stay in Warsaw.
  • This is residency  #1 (of a total three residencies to be offered as part of this project).

• What we offer
  • –  fee of 1200 EUR;
  • –  full accommodation in Warsaw, in the Ujazdowski Castle;
  • – up to €300 in travel expenses to and from Warsaw;
  • – an official invitation for visa purposes;
  • – free access to U–jazdowski’s exhibitons and programmes, including the November film programme accompanying the project entitled Decolonising the Screen;
  • – the dissemination of the resident’s work in written form or a podcast or a commissioned display as part of the project;
  • – where possible, admission to the programmes of our partner institutions in this project;
  • – curatorial and organisational support in research, connecting with the relevant milieus in Warsaw, as well as a readiness to discuss and look after the resident's work.
  • Please refer to the website to find out more about residencies: www.u-jazdowski.pl/en/programme/residencies
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• What we expect
  • – commitment to the topic of Smashing Wor(l)ds project and residency;
  • – presentation on the resident’s practices and contexts of activity at U–jazdowski;
  • – sharing of information and resources between the resident, the U–jazdowski staff, partners and audiences; an openness to the possibility of the participants of the process taking joint action;
  • – a written summary  of the residency and/or a podcast (upon earlier agreement with the curators. If the resident participates in creating a podcast, separate funds will be allocated as necessary).
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• Language
  • English and Polish
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• Deadline for the application
  • 28 September 2020
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• How to apply
  • Please send to opencall@u-jazdowski.pl one PDF document (in English) with:
    • 1)     a short biography (up to 200 words) as well as formal address and contact information, a website address or Facebook page as applicable;
    • 2)     a short expression of interest statement (up to 500 words);
    • 3)     your proposal of a topic for research and/or practices during the residency, and an indication of whether you propose to be present in Warsaw or not.
    • We do not wish to impose a predetermined form of presentation; we appreciate creative, narrative and innovative formats that will allow us to better understand your practice. A portfolio in PDF, a weblink, or a three-minute video or audio statement are also accepted.  
• If the inability to communicate in English is the only obstacle to applying – please contact us to discuss whether other solutions are available.

• Selection
  • A jury consisting of five individuals – representatives of the project’s partners – will review the applications pre-selected by the U–jazdowski.
  • The selection criteria will include: the relevance to the project’s objectives, the originality of the proposed work and approach, the diversity of narratives, prior experience with residencies, quality meeting the host institution’s standards.
  • The results will be announced via email and on www.u-jazdowski.pl by 5 October 2020.

• Partners
  • The Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art is one of the largest art centres in Poland; it offers a variety of programmes, including exhibitions, performances, film screenings and residencies. It pays special attention to the relationship between art and society, as well as interdisciplinarity, interactivity, site-specific productions, various forms of collaboration, networking, and co-production. It is a space for artistic exploration, research, workshops and experiments – much more than a traditional exhibition space. The residency is curated by Anna Czaban and Anna Ptak (the Social Projects Department), in collaboration with the U–jazdowski Residencies team.
  • www.u-jazdowski.pl/en
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  • The Inna Przestrzeń [Other Space] Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation actively working to promote openness, democracy, and multiculturalism. It is engaged in human rights activities and works with ordinary people on implementing those rights. It carries out activities in the field of interdisciplinary education and implements development cooperation projects for civil society together with local partners in various places around the world.
  • http://www.innaprzestrzen.pl/
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  • In partnership with:
  • Kulturen im Bewegung (Viena), https://www.kultureninbewegung.org/en/
  • The Centre for Fine Arts BOZAR (Brussels), www.bozar.be
  • The Africa Museum (Brussels), www.africamuseum.be