[artinfo] Artists' residencies at Utopiana

[Art&Education]

call for projects 2016-17

Deadline for applications: January 30, 2016

Utopiana
Avenue des Eidguenots 
211203 Geneva 
Switzerland

<mailto:utopiana at utopiana.ch>utopiana at utopiana.ch

<http://utopiana.ch/en/>utopiana.ch

The activities of mankind have generated an instability on earth that 
calls for the emergence of a "biospheric consciousness." "The absence 
of future is already here" and "the end of the world" have 
established themselves as a form of mythical fabulation in the 
contemporary imagination. How can we learn to be affected by this 
situation? How can we reinvent our relationship with the 
earthly/Earth?

When in A Thousand Plateaus Deuleuze and Guattari make territory the 
result of art and position the artist as "the first person to set out 
a boundary stone, or to make a mark," they point towards the 
essential link that humankind maintains with the earth, revealing the 
human's endless effort to position itself within it and to make it 
habitable. In other words, the creative act is linked to what 
instigates and produces changes within the biotopes and what makes 
the movement towards new equilibriums possible. 

Underlying this gesture of reinvention is the inclusion of human 
beings into ecological biotopes. Indeed, descriptions of biotopes 
omit to mention the human amongst the other living organisms such as 
mushrooms, bacteria, vegetation, animals. Ecosystemic properties are 
preserved thanks to the diversity amongst these living organisms and 
they maintain and encourage multitudes of relations and exchanges. 

However, in order to integrate humans into the biotopes, we must 
think alongside the image of a biochore. While the Greek topos sends 
us back to a static and constrained understanding of space, the chora 
represents a place of human becoming, its matrix and its traces. This 
relational understanding of space makes the chora a place of 
"growing togetherness of things within the concreteness of the 
sensible world." (A. Berque). Thus, in becoming biochore, the biotope 
opens itself up to the question of meaning and of possibilities, to 
the creative work where the foundations of all life forms are forged, 
including human life interacting with all other forms. 

How can we challenge and rethink the imaginary so as to include 
mankind as an active agent participating in equal measure with other 
life forms in the production of and care for an ecosystem? How can a 
biotope/biochore welcome and integrate other communities into its 
processes?


The prospective candidates must send their applications via email to 
the address <mailto:residence at utopiana.ch>residence at utopiana.ch. 
Applications must include:
-a letter of motivation mentioning the artist's availabilities 
between March 2016 and December 2017 (max. three months)
-description of the project including participative activities such 
as workshop, conferences, etc.
-portfolio (photographs, video, and sound files, etc.)
-CV


Conditions of residency
Each application will be carefully reviewed by the selection 
committee at Utopiana. Utopiana offers housing and a participation of 
about 1000 CHF each month all included.

Nonetheless and if possible, we encourage each artist to apply for 
complementary funding.

Once the application is accepted, and in order to create the optimal 
working conditions for the project, a collaborative exchange will 
begin between the artist and Utopiana. Artists in residence can count 
on administrative support from Utopiana. 

For more information, please write to us at 
<mailto:utopiana at utopiana.ch>utopiana at utopiana.ch.

During the residency, the participants will have access to the 
following: a room in Utopiana's house, a shared studio space, access 
to cooking and common areas, use of a bicycle belonging to the 
association, and a washing machine.