OPEN CALL: Pressing Matter Artists in Residence Programme

The Pressing Matter consortium is pleased to announce the open call for its artist residency programme in the Netherlands. Pressing Matter is a four-year research programme about colonial heritage and its legacies. We invite artists to submit proposals that critically engage with the project’s aims as outlined on the website. For more information about the programme please visit the website.

Participating artists are invited to think about the ways in which art practice can reimagine different forms of return, repair, and reconciliation broadly conceived, working with objects/collections in the partner museums collected during the colonial period.

Project proposals must demonstrate a strong commitment to the intellectual and societal goals of the project and thereby contribute to the multidisciplinary research ecology of Pressing Matter. The selected artist will contribute to the intellectual life of the project, including active participation in the repair lab, an on- and offline site for interdisciplinary and transnational conversation and experimentation about repairing historical injustices linked to museums and their collections.

We encourage proposals that not only challenge current dominant conceptions but also propose alternative visions for how ownership and value, return and repair can be reimagined in the service of new ethics of relations grounded in more just and equitable futures.

The successful applicant will work as part of the “work package” in the programme titled “Reconciliation: New Relationships” which is concerned with questions of return, repair and reconciliation. The work package is jointly led by principal investigators Professor Dr. Katja Kwastek (Vrije Universiteit) and Dr. Chiara de Cesari (University of Amsterdam), supported by the PhD researcher Quinsy Gario. The Rijksakademie and Framer Framed are partners.

Artists can use the residency to produce a new (body of) work or complete work already in progress that is germane to the questions of Pressing Matter. The artist in residence will be required to do public presentations to showcase work or research done during the residency.

Who can apply:
–Pressing Matter adopts a broad understanding of the term artist, inviting individual or collaborative projects, across any art-related discipline. We are open to proposals for both physical and conceptual work, not limited to any media.
–We welcome applications from emerging, mid-career and established artists who demonstrate a commitment to the project’s intellectual and societal aims.

Duration:
Between three to twelve months. Residencies can start from September 2022. The residency programme will end in December 2024.

Offered by Pressing Matter:
Travel expenses to the Netherlands (for artists living outside the Netherlands). Stipend, negotiable depending on the type of project, and covering living costs in the Netherlands (including a contribution to accommodation). Studio space at the Rijksakademie. Pressing Matter will provide suitable accommodation for successful applicants living outside the Netherlands. Material and production costs (to be determined depending on project requirements).

Application guidelines:
Please submit
–A short motivation letter (max. one A4)
–A draft project proposal (max. two A4) including a description of intended forms of engagement with the project,
–A CV

If selected for the second round, a more elaborate project proposal will be requested for which the applicant will receive 300 EUR as remuneration.

Deadline: February 28, 2022. Applications must be sent to: r.s.hans@vu.nl as one pdf file.

Diverse and inclusive recruitment:
Please note that our recruitment policy takes into account the individual curriculum vitae of applicants as well as the team composition as a whole. We seek to create a diverse team. In line with this policy, eligible applicants can be of any nationality. However, in choosing artists, the communities/countries from where collections of the participating museums originate will also be taken into account in our decision making.