APPLICATION FORM FOR ARTISTS REGARDING THE 15TH INTERNATIONAL STUDIO PROGRAM OF ACC AND CITY OF WEIMAR/GERMANY
15th International Studio Program of the ACC Galerie Weimar and the City of Weimar
Failed Art - The Art of Failure
The Lord: “Man errs as long as he doth strive.”
Mephistopheles: “You'll not gain sense, except you err and stray!”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Prologue in Heaven and Classical Walpurgis Night
To err is human, and we learn from experience – so the saying goes. Goethe already knew that what we’re lacking is a positive approach to our mistakes. For flaws and errors are often made taboo and labeled as individual or collective failures, in spite of the fact that they are often precisely what opens the path toward new thinking and qualitative change in society. Without them, no development is possible.
The bumpy, but never aimless side-paths of biological and cultural evolution are teeming with trials and errors; the driving force behind their steep ascent is the acceptance of false steps. Nevertheless, there’s nothing we wish for more ardently than a perfectionized “zero-mistake culture.” But isn’t this culture also full of flaws, stresses, and strains, so that we could just as well speak of a “culture of error”? Doesn’t precisely this imperfect, flawed world, together with the cheerful avowal of our own capacity for error, lead us to the escapes and cultural points of contact for which all the stories of failure appear again before us? A failure that doesn’t just mean loss and bankruptcy in a world enslaved in black-and-white conceptions, tumbling out of balance, but that is fostered and cultivated so that our fear of deficiency is taken away from us? Is our sensory perception, our wealth of experience in the face of an overflowing abstract knowledge, embedded in virtual worlds, capable at all of admitting mistakes, of overcoming and correcting them?
The German word for malpractice, “Kunstfehler,” (literally: “art mistake”) is a term taken from medicine, whose etymological root hearkens back to the necessity that medical treatment be carried out according to current scientific standards (in Latin, “de lege artis” – “according to the rules of the art” – in English, “state of the art”). Medicine has always been faced with the difficulty of implementing practical knowledge in the conditions of reality; it bears fundamental responsibility for quality and the patient’s well-being, for giving him thorough advice, a complete explanation of impending therapies and procedures, and a detailed elucidation of all possible risks. Perhaps it could also be this way with art. But perhaps the rules of art also provide the building blocks for that final bastion that doesn’t shy away from dignified failing, passionate erring, delightful bungling, the allure of downfall: paradise for geniuses is not to be found in science or handicraft, but in art – the final haven for washouts whose failure becomes a new point of departure.
“Failed art,” the mistaken, misunderstood, rejected, or bungled art work (in a sense the “Kunstfehler”) – whether conceived intentionally or unintentionally – not infrequently yields the more convincing result when it remains at the level of the idea, experimental stage, prototype, description, simulation. With the art work that only remains a conception, that was never begun or finished, the glimpses offered into the creative process can be fascinating. A poet said, “Perhaps the failure of Einstein’s attempt to establish a unified field theory is his most important contribution to physics.” Artists who take pleasure in making their own failure the theme of a project can apply to the studio program, just as artists who wish to deal, in their work, with “the art of failure” and flawedness per se. And why shouldn’t what Friedrich Nietzsche said about himself in “The Gay Science” be applicable to artists? “He is a thinker: that means he knows how to make things simpler than they are.”
Deadline: All applications must be ReCEIVED bY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5th, 2008!
(applications have to be in Weimar by that day!)
PLEASE SEND TO:
ACC Galerie WEIMAR, International Studio Program
Burgplatz 1+2
D-99423 Weimar
Germany
APPLICATION:
I hereby apply to the 2009 International Studio Program. I accept the terms as outlined by the ACC Galerie Weimar and the City of Weimar, and I agree to work in Weimar for the assigned period of time.
NAME:
NATIONALITY: DATE OF BIRTH:
ADDRESS:
TELEPHONE:
FAX/E-MAIL/
INTERNET:
I heard about the
Studio Program from:
PREFERRED WORK PERIOD:
Please indicate a second preference! The preferred period cannot be guaranteed.
(please mark X ) preferred also possible
1 ) February 1 – May 31, 2009
2 ) June 1 – September 30, 2009
3 ) October 1, 2009 – January 31, 2010
ENCLOSURES: I have enclosed with this application:
§ a written description of the work planned for the International Studio Program (maximum one page A4 or letter-size paper)
§ a maximum of ten slides or photos of recent work, or images on CD (JPEG, for PC)
§ a list of these images with further descriptions (max. one page A4)
§ for video artists: DVD’s or VHS tapes (PAL or NTSC), together not longer than 10 minutes
§ a CV/résumé with a short description of education, training, past work, projects (max. 3 pages)
§ self-addressed, stamped envelope with sufficient postage or international postal vouchers
DATE: SIGNATURE:
About Weimar:
The city of Weimar has seen both the very best and the very worst of German history. On the one hand, Weimar has been home to renaissance art (Cranach), German classical literature and music (Goethe, Schiller, Bach, Liszt), Art Nouveau and Modernism (Henry van de Velde), the Weimar Bauhaus (Gropius, Kandinsky, Klee, Feininger, Moholy-Nagy, etc.), and other important intellectual figures including Herder and Nietzsche. On the other hand, Weimar was also a favoured retreat of Hitler, and the former concentration camp of Buchenwald located nearby reminds residents and visitors alike of the darker side of human nature. Although Weimar lives largely in the shadow of this weighty past, the city is now looking towards the future. In 1999 Weimar became the European Capital of Culture.
About ACC GALerie Weimar:
The non-profit organization ACC (Autonomous Cultural Center) originated in 1987, before the fall of the Berlin wall, when students occupied a derelict Renaissance building in the center of the town where Goethe (inevitably) had had his first residence in Weimar (1776/77). Shortly before the reunification, ACC protagonists were able to secure the house with the aid of private sponsors. The institution now consists of a gallery and a café and offers a cultural program that includes theater, literature, and lecture series. Between spring 1989 and 2006 the ACC organized and curated more than 150 exhibitions (roughly five per year) of international contemporary art, through which the gallery has become a center for international cooperation and exchange. Simultaneously, the ACC focuses on the achievement of local artists and inaugurated an international artist-in-residence program. The current space is comprised of two connected buildings with 300 square meters of space within its 15 "galleries" in four former apartments. Examples of the exhibition program that ACC has pursued over the years include: 1991: "Photographs at the Bauhaus"; 1992: "Paul Klee – The Weimar Years 1921-25"; 1993: "Stars from Gugging" (Outsider Art from Austria); 1994: Cindy Sherman; 1995: William Wegman; 1996: Pierre et Gilles; 1997: "Suite Barcelona", by Akane, Cruspinera, Xavier Déu, Manolo Gómez, Toni Moranta, and others, "SPLASH!", video art by Pierrick Sorin, Nedko Solakov, and Gillian Wearing; 1998: "Broadview 5.1", by Nobuo Kubota, Yvonne Singer, W. Mark Sutherland, and others, "mächtig gewaltig", video art by Joël Bartoloméo, Cheryl Donegan, Johan Grimonprez, and Tony Oursler, "The Voices from Tokyo" (curator: Hitomi Hasegawa), by Makoto Aida, Oscar Satio Oiwa, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Hiroyuki Matsukage, Matsumishi Tosa, and Parco Kinoshita; 1999: "Europe In The Box" (co-curators: Christine Brühl and Henrik Schrat), by Alexandros Psychoulis, Boris Achour, Rui Calçada Bastos, Frans Jacobi, and others, "An Italian Travel. Weimar – Rome – Naples" (curator: Patrizia Bisci), by Raimund Kummer, Nicola de Maria, Eliseo Mattiacci, Mimmo Paladino, Eva-Maria Schön, and Janaina Tschäpe, "the stockholm connection" (curator: attitudes and Gregor Podnar), by Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg, Christoph Draeger, Koka Ramishvili, Elisabeth Saveri, Bojan Gorenec, Goran Petercol, and others; 2000: "Landscape" (curator: Ann Gallagher), by Mat Collishaw, Paul Noble, Tacita Dean, Rachel Whiteread, Ross Sinclair, Wolfgang Tillmans, and others, "Our Chinese Friends", by Yang Shaobin, Chang Xugong, Ai Wei Wei, Chen Shaoxiong, Xu Tan, Qiu Shi-hua, and others; 2001: "Orientale 1" (after an idea by Peter Herbstreuth), by Ayşe Erkmen, Enrique Fontanilles, Candida Höfer, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Young Hay, and others; 2002: "re-orientation: Art about Central Asia", by AES, Abilsaid Anarbekovich Atabekov, Sergey Maslov, Yerbossyn Meldibekov, Julia Sorokina, and others; 2003: "über MENSCHEN – The Future of the Human", by Bjørn Melhus, Anne-Britt Rage, Måns Wrange, Sarah Lewtas, Giovanni Manfredini, and others, "Get Rid of Yourself", by eteam, 16Beaver Group, Michael Rakowitz, Matthew Buckingham, Temporary Services, Bernadette Corporation, and others; 2004: "Even the Moon is Not Autonomous – Activism and Cooperative Structures in Japanese Contemporary Art", by Arts Initiative Tokyo (AIT), ARTiT, Hiroshi Fuji, Noboru Tsubaki, Kenji Yanobe, and others, "Lacrimacorpus/The Weimar File", by Janaina Tschäpe and Vik Muniz; 2005: "polymorph pervers", by Franz von Bayros, Will Cotton, Salvador Dali, Valie Export/Peter Weibel, Sylvie Fleury, Paul McCarthy, and others, "The Social Collector", by The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Werkbundarchiv – Museum der Dinge, and others; 2006: "Art does not deliver us from anything at all", by Javier Abreu, Narda Alvarado, Lourival Batista, Máximo Corvalán, Juan Manuel Echavarría, Proyecto Venus, Javier Téllez, and others, "Die Kultur der Angst – The Culture of Fear", by Critical Art Ensemble, Luc Delahaye, Trevor Paglen, Efrat Shvily, The Yes Men, and others; 2007: "AUSSEN VOR – ON THE OUTSIDE", by Christoph Büchel, The Da Zha Lan Project, Peter Fend, Neriman Polat, Oliver Ressler, Kristin Lucas, and others, "Le Souvenir – Kult. Kitsch. Kunst.", by Ivan Moudov, Jochem Hendricks, Raffi Kaiser, Constantin Boym, Nina Katchadourian, Ik-Joong Kang, and others; 2008: "Von der Unbestimmtheit – On Indefiniteness", by Benjamin Bergmann, John Cage/David Tudor, Marja Kanervo, Julien Maire, Luisa Mota, and others, "UNSTERN. SINISTRE. DISASTRO. Visions of Contemporary Artists", by Roddy Bell, Patricia Bueno, Tom Fecht, Peter Hutton, Jonas Mekas, Tracey Moffatt, Adrian Paci, and others.
Numerous catalogues and publications have accompanied the exhibitions.
ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL STUDIO PROGRAM:
The "European Studio Program of the ACC Galerie and the City of Weimar" was founded in 1994. On the occasion of its 10th anniversary in 2004 it was turned into an international program and is now accepting artists from all over the world. Annual themes of the program have been: "Allegories" (1995), "Fascis – Fascism and Fascination" (1996), "Kopf an Kopf – Head to Head – Tête à Tête" (1997), "Community – Society" (1998), "Close to the Skin" (1999), "Heart’s Blood – Hand-Written Script" (2000), "The Measure of Things" (2001), "über MENSCHEN – The Future of the Human" (2002), "Origin – No Man’s Land" (2003), "Irony is dead. Long live Irony!" (2004), "Die Kultur der Angst – The Culture of Fear" (2005), "Die Subversion des Stillstands – The Subversion of Standstill" (2006), "AUSSEN VOR – ON THE OUTSIDE" (2007) and "Von der Unbestimmtheit – On Indefiniteness" (2008). Grantees from Croatia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, The Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Uruguay and the USA were previously guests of the program.
www.acc-weimar.de/studio/comments.html
SUPPORT BY THE CITY OF WEIMAR:
The City of Weimar pursues the following aims in its role as an initiator and partner of the International Studio Program: To combine financial support for artists with the presentation of contemporary art in the urban realm, to serve as a forum for artists and a catalyst for encounter between them, and to gain international recognition for the resulting activities. By these means, international cultural exchange is to be promoted and prejudices eliminated. The support provided includes the provision of a combination artist's studio/apartment in the Municipal Studio Building. Newly restored, the Atelierhaus is one of the oldest buildings of its kind in Germany. It contains eleven studios which are rented to different artists for limited periods of time. The International Studio Program of the ACC Galerie Weimar and the City of Weimar is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Education of the Free State of Thuringia.
INFORMATION AND APPLICATION:
STUDIO: Located in the historical Städtisches Atelierhaus (Municipal studio building), about ten minutes walk to the ACC Galerie Weimar in the town center. In addition to the visiting international artists, the well-lit studio building accommodates ten other Weimar artists. In its cellar the Städtisches Atelierhaus has a small printmaking workshop for etching, lino, and woodprinting, for which it provides basic tools. However, the studio (30 square meters/323 square feet) does not offer any other special equipment, such as photography, video, digital, etc. Images at www.acc-weimar.de/studio/atelierhaus.html
ROOM AND BOARD: Rent-free furnished apartment in the Weimar Atelierhaus (30 square meters/323 square feet) with telephone/answering machine and DSL internet; meals are available at ACC Café-Restaurant at reduced prices (70%).
PARTICIPATION: Artists who would like to produce works of art in accordance with the outlined theme can apply. The jury will select three artists, each of whom will spend four months living and working in Weimar. Student’s applications cannot be accepted.
DISPLAY AND EXHIBITION: The ACC Galerie Weimar employs a curator who develops a conception and a publication together with the artists. During the residency the curator will decide together with the artists whether and how the selected work(s) will be presented at the ACC Galerie Weimar in 2010. Where appropriate, works of art will be displayed in public spaces in Weimar for time periods to be agreed upon with the artists. In case of a group exhibition of all Studio Program participants a small catalogue will be produced. It is intended that the artists are present during the preparation and for the opening of the exhibition.
ACC COLLECTION: The former participants of the program left one or two important works of art completed during their stay in Weimar to become part of the ACC Galerie Collection. It is up to the future participants to follow this tradition. The gallery and the artist(s) will select the works together.
WORK PERIODS:
February 1st– May 31st, 2009; June 1st– September 30th, 2009; October 1st, 2009 – January 31st, 2010
STIPEND: The selected artists will receive a monthly stipend of 1.000€. In order to receive the stipend the artists have to live in Weimar during the work period. The artists are also expected to hold a lecture/talk at the ACC Galerie Weimar at the end of his/her stay in Weimar. In addition we offer free entry to public municipal institutions, such as the Museum of the History of Weimar, and to the museums of the Weimar Classic Foundation, such as the Weimar Art Collection, the Goethe National Museum, the Bauhaus Museum, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Dutchess Anna Amalia Library. Participants are responsible for their own telephone bills and have to arrange for their own medical insurance.
LANGUAGES: English and German are official languages of the International Studio Program. Participants should have a solid grasp of either English or German.
TRAVEL: The participants must cover their own travel costs, although the program attempts to find additional funding in cooperation with the artists.
APPLICATION:
Please send
1) a written proposal (maximum one page A4 or letter-size paper) describing the work planned for this program
2) a maximum of ten slides or photos or images on CD (JPEG, for PC) of recent work
!!!PLEASE label all slides or photos and mark the top of the slides or photos!!!
3) a list of images including title, size, technique, materials and date (maximum one page A4)
4) for video artists: DVD’s or VHS tapes (PAL or NTSC) should together not be longer than 10 minutes
5) a CV/résumé with a short description of education, training and projects/past work (maximum three pages A4)
!!! Please include a self-addressed envelope, including sufficient postage or international postal vouchers!!!
Pack carefully. For customs purposes please indicate clearly on the parcel/letter that it is "non-commercial"!!!
ACC Galerie Weimar is not liable for any damages or loss of material. Applications sent by fax or e-mail are not accepted. Applications received after the submission deadline (Friday, December 5, 2008) will not be accepted. Application material of chosen fellows, by way of documentation, will remain the property of the ACC Galerie.
JURY: The jury will meet mid of December 2008. The decision of the jury is final and explanations for its selection will not be given.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:
We cannot acknowledge the receipt of the documents. The selected grant holders will be informed immediately. Applications which have not been chosen will be subsequently returned (if sufficient postage/vouchers exist).
