SUMMER SCHOOL edition 1 23.08 - 29.08.2015 Mobile Autonomy Organizing ourselves as artists today curated by Nico Dockx & Pascal Gielen hosted by Middelheim Museum Antwerpen organized by Lokaal 01, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerpen, Extra City, Arts in Society OPEN CALL This summer school will question and articulate ideas like artistic autonomy, self-organization and social responsibility; and will take place in the exceptional and inspiring environment of the Middelheim Museum Antwerpen - an interesting sculpture park that could serve as a temporary autonomous zone for all participants involved in this summer school project to cast a sort of social sculpture through living and working together on location in this open-air museum and experiencing intense workshops of shared dialogues, public lectures, and field trips. In this one week summer school event we want to unfold in both theory and practice which strategies artists and other cultural producers develop to create their work in contemporary economic and political conditions. How can they develop sustainable structures to keep their artistic autonomy alive? How can they organize themselves in a world in which they need to be more and more mobile and flexible? Are there interesting and challenging practices as possible complements to our existing, neoliberal working situations. Can, for example, other professions and even institutions such as unions learn from the artists’ experiences of self-organization? And, the other way around, can the artist and other, creative professionals learn from alternative, organizational models? While repressive liberalism is occupying our world and daily life systems, classic institutions such as universities, hospitals, parliamentary bureaucracies and museums are under heavy pressure. Many of us end up in a post-Fordist condition in which work becomes flexible, mobile, project based, and temporary. The fixed contract is losing its importance and exchanged for the statute of the freelancer, promoted by governments and multinationals as the best thing to get. Artists are already for a long time familiar with these precarious conditions of labour, even long before the concept of post-Fordism was launched. Have they, because of this experience, developed different and interesting operational models which they could offer us? During this one week event of lectures, workshops and many other collective activities, theoretical insights will be mixed up with hands-on practices and examples of self- organization. Learning to reflect on and to deal with contemporary artists’ working and thinking conditions are the main ambition of this summer school. The subscribed participants (a selected group of +/- 30 young artists, scholars, students, teachers,...) will receive both public key-note lectures (also open to other, public audiences) and closed workshops of internationally high-profiled academics and artists (or artists’ collectives) which have contributed to our society by developing lucid and performative reflections on and interactions with our contemporary post-Fordist living and working conditions. Is art (still) a science of freedom and how do we organize ourselves as artists today? The invitation call is open to (young) people with experiences in visual arts, applied arts, new media, architecture, curatorial studies, theory and philosophy of art, art history, literature, cultural studies, art management and art production, design, theatre, music, ... When applying to this summer school program it is necessary to submit together with your application form, a personal cv and short résumé with your motivation to participate; and send it by email to: [email protected] before the deadline of April 30th (12pm). Around the end of May a selection of +/- 30 participants will be made by the following jury: Dr. Pascal Partners Gielen, director of the research center Arts in Society at the Groningen University where he is associate professor sociology of art; Nico Dockx, artist/ researcher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerpen; Sara Weyns, director of the Middelheim Museum Antwerpen/ freelance curator and writer; Frederik Vergaert, Artistic director of Lokaal 01; and Mihnea Mircan, curator and writer and artistic director of Extra City. In case your application file is accepted, you will receive an email with an official subscription form with more information on the working and living conditions of this summer school project. The participation fee will be € 250 and includes all living expenses. Every day we will prepare and provide meals through collective cooking and for which we will use Joep Van Lieshout’s “AVL Franchise Unit” work that has been part of the sculpture park since many years. The Middelheim Museum Antwerpen will provide accommodation facilities for all the participants. More details about accommodation will be announced with the final subscription form. For the entire duration of the summer school program, all participants will be staying in this open-air museum as much as possible, joined by some members of the organizing team. As part of the official subscription form you will receive a contract sheet indicating some house rules, rights, obligations and all related responsibilities you have to take into consideration during your presence in the museum. Closed workshops and debates will take place from Monday to Friday in between 10u - 12u30 and 13u30 - 16u, and all public key-note lectures will take place from Monday to Friday in between 18u - 20u (language: English).You will also get a copy of the summer school’s preconference book with texts by all invited guests and some additional literature, to be used as a toolbox during our summer school activities in the week that follows. Partners of TRAFFIC Lectures and workshops by Åbäke, Nico Dockx, Pascal Gielen, Erik Hagoort, Thomas Hirschhorn, Hotel Charleroi, Isabell Lorey, Catherine Malabou, Oda Projesi, Gerald Raunig, and Raqs Media Collective. About TRAFFIC The summer school is organized in the context of TRAFFIC - a European Cooperation project initiated by Lokaal01 with the aim to generate a new cross-European dynamic in Contemporary Art through a combination of exhibitions, ventures and lectures. TRAFFIC will host a summer school in which we work together on common (European) issues of various kinds, rethinking and reshaping our current cultural, political and social environments. In 2004, curator Okwui Enwezor stated that artists as well as art academies are perhaps the only energies left that can help transforming our late-capitalist (crisis) situation by acts of close collaboration and collectivity. TRAFFIC will therefore reflect upon what it means to be an artist today and how we can organize ourselves. About the Middelheim Museum Antwerpen The Middelheim Museum is a unique treasure in the art-loving city of Antwerp. The openair museum and its exceptional setting provide a fascinating overview of more than one hundred years of visual arts. The welcoming art park enchants more than 250,000 visitors every year. Entrance is free of charge.
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