[artinfo] Open Call BAK Fellowship 2018/2019

[Steffie Maas]

BAK Fellowship 2018/2019

Call for Proposals

RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP OPEN TO ADVANCED
PRACTITIONERS WORKING IN THE FIELDS OF
CONTEMPORARY ARTS, THEORY, AND ACTIVISMS.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 6 APRIL 2018

Since 2017, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, 
Utrecht conducts a post-academic Fellowship 
Program with, at its center, research on 
reframing and rethinking conditions of the 
contemporary through politicized art-making and 
inquiry. The 10-month Fellowship Program offers 
10 research positions per year (September-June) 
to Dutch and international practitioners 
  involved in contemporary arts, theory, and 
activisms. The Fellowship Program develops talent 
and critical practice in concert with the public 
experimental projects of BAK, advancing the 
notion of art as a public sphere and a political 
space.

The Fellowship is predicated on regular, active 
development of an individual research trajectory, 
as well as participation in collective research 
and exchange with other Fellows. Fellowship 
research proposals should speak to and with BAK's 
core research, experimental methodology 
development, and program itinerary 
<http://bakonline.org/long-term-project/propositions-for-non-fascist-living/>Propositions 
for Non-Fascist Living (2017-2020). Successful 
fellowship proposals correspond to at least one 
of this program's three foci: conditions, 
politics, and genealogies of contemporary global 
migration; ecologies, ecological crisis, and 
naturecultures; and the potentials and dangers of 
technology in struggles for justice and 
transformative politics.

  The Fellows gather at BAK every six weeks (seven 
times a year in total) for intensive, collective 
seminars and workshops with visiting artists, 
scholars, activists, and other cultural 
practitioners. At least twice yearly, the Fellows 
participate in and/or organize a public component 
engaging a wider audience beyond specifically 
academic and cultural fields, which is realized 
as BAK public programming. Intermittently, the 
Fellows present to and/or facilitate workshops 
with the student community in Utrecht. The BAK 
Fellowship Program involves collaborative 
partnerships with HKU University of the Arts and 
Utrecht University, allowing Fellows to connect 
their research practices to an artistic and 
academic institutional field through tutoring, 
leading workshops, and exchange with students.

  Five Fellowships are awarded to 
Netherlands-based practitioners. The 
international Fellows' preferences to be 
residential or low-residential can be negotiated 
individually on the basis of their respective 
research proposals and distance to BAK 
(low-residential positions are available only for 
those based within or near Europe). Residency 
accommodation is provided free of charge for one 
international Fellow (based inside or outside of 
Europe) who would otherwise be unable to travel 
back and forth for meetings due to political 
conditions and/or incommensurable economic 
circumstances.

  The Fellowship Program is dedicated to 
facilitating collective, intergenerational 
practice, and is committed to engaging a critical 
group coming from, with, and for the otherwise. 
We therefore encourage people with practices not 
often canonized, of marginalized identities and 
experiences, and of a variety of ages to apply. 
The Fellowship Program is conducted in English.

  The current (2017/2018) Fellows are: Sepake 
Angiama; Isshaq Al-Barbary and Diego Segatto 
(Campus in Camps); Matthijs de Bruijne; Luigi 
Coppola; Quinsy Gario; Ola Hassanain;
Otobong Nkanga; Wendelien van Oldenborgh; and Pelin Tan.

EXPECTATIONS

Each Fellow is an advanced practitioner who has 
completed a Masters or equivalent. The Fellow is 
able to dedicate at least 60% of their time 
throughout the Fellowship year to developing 
their research trajectory.

The Fellow is expected to propose and develop an 
experimental research trajectory within their own 
field of practice.

The Fellows are required to develop a collective 
practice of mutual learning, exchange, and 
development of ideas and common projects. To 
achieve this goal, each Fellow is asked to 
convene a semi-public program as part of one of 
the Fellowship gatherings and twice yearly 
contribute to the public program of BAK.

The Fellows further participate in BAK and with 
its myriad local and international publics 
through Fellowship meetings every six weeks; 
regular contact with the BAK team in the
development of research trajectories; 
participation in reading groups, study groups, or
collaboration on joint projects with Fellows, 
visiting advisors, and BAK publics; and 
educational programming more widely.

CONSIDERATIONS

Does the Fellowship research proposal show 
significant potential in reflecting and 
benefiting from a collective, politicized 
research environment and from the association 
with BAK?

Does the Fellowship research proposal relate to 
at least one of the aforementioned foci in 
explicit and creative ways?

Is the Fellowship research proposal significant 
for the development of the candidate's long-term 
practice?

If applying for the international residency 
position: Is the applicant unable to travel in 
and out of their country of residence due to 
political conditions and/or require the stability 
of a place of paid-residence due to disparate 
economic circumstances?

Successful applications will show a significant 
ability and practice of collective work dedicated 
to utilizing the space of art as a multiplier of 
interventions into the contemporary, and show a 
critical focus on and background in creating 
practices from, for, in, and with the otherwise.

BAK is dedicated to creating a Fellowship Program 
that critically intervenes in the generalized 
patterns of access in and outside of what can be 
considered the art world, and facilitating 
intergenerational practice. We therefore 
encourage people with practices not often
canonized, of marginalized identities and 
experiences, and a variety of ages to apply.
The Fellowship Program is conducted in English.

FINANCIAL CONDITIONS

Each fellow receives a stipend of ¤1.500 per 
month (¤15.000 in total). A Fellowship 
participation fee of ¤3.000 to be paid by each 
Fellow (with the exception of the residency 
position) is required at the beginning of the 
Fellowship or according to an individual payment 
plan. Fellows are responsible for their own 
health insurance.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

-28 February 2018: Opening of the call for Fellowship applications

-6 April 2018: Final deadline for Fellowship applications

-End June 2018: Public announcement of selected Fellows

-Fellowship term is between 1 September 2018 and 30 June 2019

For the application form, please click 
<http://bakonline.org/2018-2019-bak-fellowship-application-form/>here.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE APPLICATION

  Wietske Maas, BAK Fellowship Program: wietske at bakonline.org