OPEN CALL:Residency Applications 2019-20 and Contributions for 9th Inter-format Symposium on Fluidity of Humour & Absurdity

The residency programme at Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts (NAC) is open for emerging and experienced artists, designers, architects, curators, and researchers. NAC is one of the largest art, residency and education venues in the Nordic-Baltic region. It provides the opportunity to live and work in the Colony’s contemporary architecture, surrounded by the forest, sand dunes, and sea. Since 2011 over 400 artists and culture professionals have stayed at the Colony.

The atmosphere and life intensity depend on the season and programme of the Colony. There are between 7 and 70 people staying at NAC at all times. For most of the year, from October through April, one enjoys solitude, occasionally accented by art professionals or students arriving at the Colony for workshops or other activities. In May, June and September you will share common spaces with art, architecture and design students and their professors. During July and August, Nida becomes a busy (although not overcrowded) summer holiday resort.

Living and social conditions are amply provided to ensure a comfortable environment. Each of the five residency studios contains two floors with 65 square meters of total space, equipped with all necessary facilities. Access to the professional workshop space with laser cutting, wood and metal working tools; and photo, video and sound equipment and the artistic community are present all year round. NAC is collaborating with local cultural institutions and provides opportunities to present art works or to host a workshop.

Individual residencies
July 2019–May 2020
Duration: One to four months (preferably two months), ~35 places available;
Costs: Studio and living space rent for selected residents cost 400 EUR per month, including use of equipment, Wi-Fi, communal spaces and bicycles. No grants are currently available; selected candidates are issued a letter of support for individual grant seeking.

Nida Doctoral School (NDS) residencies for practice and theory based doctoral students
July-August, 2019
NDS intensive course: Selected doctoral residents can join the intensive course “Fight the Power 2019/1989” August 26–31 in Venice. Please check NDS programme here.
Costs: The same conditions as for individual residencies apply, however selected doctoral residents are offered the summer course with no tuition fee as well as 5 ECTS credits.

Call for contributions for 9th Inter-Format Symposium On the Fluidity of Humour and Absurdity
June 28–30, 2019

Curators: Lívia Páldi (Hungary/Ireland) & Vytautas Michelkevičius (Lithuania)

The symposium brings together around 50 artists, practitioners and researchers who explore and question the role and critical potential of comedy, humour and the purpose of the absurd within contemporary art and related theories.

The Symposium will reflect how we employ humour as a means of communication to ponder social, ecological and (cultural)-political complexities and the absurd situations they generate. It seeks to analyse humour and its various mechanisms and their ability to transform perception of “reality,” break down stereotypes and challenge taboo subjects and mainstream assumptions.

The participants will investigate the ways artistic and curatorial work can expand the boundaries of political criticism and traditional satire by bringing in references from art and cultural history as well as explore jokes as “innovative actions” commenting on cultural, political and social complexities. Symposium also has a regional touch and will reflect on local post-soviet condition.

The Symposium hosts participants from different disciplines at Nida beach resort town in a relaxed atmosphere to rethink and transcend various strategies of humour and bridge genres that seem incompatible at first sight. There might be comic strip sculpture, stand-up comedy as academic lecture, satirical walking, absurd hiking, “Humour SPA”, etc.

Confirmed participants: Žygimantas Kudirka (Lithuania), Lissette Olivares (USA), Olav Westphalen (Germany/Sweden), Gernot Wieland (Austria/Germany) and others.

Full concept & application details.
Support: Selected participants receive limited travel support (up to 200 EUR), accommodation and catering.

Application deadline: March 15, 2019, 11:59pm

Please follow the application guidelines.