UNIDEE Residency Modules: NEITHER ON LAND NOR AT SEA - Module V - Autumn 2023 | open call & selected residents
UNIDEE Residency Programs and Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto are pleased to announce an open call for participation in the fifth module in the residency programme Neither on Land not at Sea. Meeting by the Mediterranean Im/Possible, initiated and curated by UNIDEE Visiting Curator Chiara Cartuccia.
Module V, Autumn 2023 is co-curated with invited mentors Qalqalah قلقلة.
Neither on Land nor at Sea invites to meander around unreducible complications and on shifting grounds, to explore together ways in which geography is historically, socially, and politically produced. The project pluralises Mediterranean concepts/spaces as sites of worldmaking and experimentation in communal living. To do so, it adopts un-grounded geographies and colliding historicities as meeting places, in which to congregate to elaborate on the role played by situated practices and shared processes in the promotion of social transformations, towards epistemic justice.
The UNIDEE modules are programme-based, short-residency formats. Participating residents will be offered the opportunity to expand on their ongoing research and practice exploring Mediterranean complexities and geographical thinking in the arts and beyond, within a group of peers and invited guests. The modules are interlinked, and each contributes to shaping the discourse developed by the project as a whole.
For more information about the curatorial framework, context and scopes of the project, please visit Neither on Land nor at Sea website here.
With the title Gestures of Untranslatability, Module V, Autumn 2023, will take place from 11 to 17 December, and it is co-curated with invited mentors Qalqalah قلقلة.
Qalqalah قلقلة is an editorial and curatorial platform founded in 2018 in France, which is currently composed of Line Ajan, Virginie Bobin, Montasser Drissi, Victorine Grataloup, Vir Andres Hera and Salma Mochtari. It is dedicated to the production, translation and circulation of artistic, theoretical and literary research in three languages: French, Arabic and English. It relies on translation as a tool for the production and reception of situated knowledge, capable of making visible the relations of power and the possibilities of invention and affection that are at play between languages, temporalities and contexts that are marked by the colonial legacy, conflicts and contemporary revolts (www.qalqalah.org).
Conducted by curator, editor and translator Virginie Bobin and artist, film-maker and educator Vir Andres Hera, Qalqalah قلقلة’s module departs from the geographical framework of Neither on Land not at Sea to problematise our situated relationships to the languages we speak, learn, or lose, from both political and affective perspectives. How could we deterritorialise our uses of languages, while acknowledging both the relationships of domination and extraction that they sustain; and their potential to forge paths for deviation, commoning and resistance? During the module, we wish to experiment with collective modalities of writing, translation and editing (texts, images, sound, etc); and with translation and untranslatability as gestures and methods to critically investigate language(s). We will also ask how fiction and storytelling can help us to articulate heterogenous and minor positions with modes of collective enunciation; and shake up identity and linguistic categories. Lastly, we will reflect on the formation of collectives as spaces of care (shelter) and as spaces of risk (conflict) where diverse, heterogenous positions come in contact, affect each other, and transform each other while generating bonds and alliances in the face of shared struggles.
The module will include two workshops by editor, writer and researcher Andrea Ancira and artist, educator and curator Anna T.; and an online presentation by writer Mirene Arsanios.
The program will be conducted in English(es), while being hospitable to other languages and encouraging mutual translations.
Additional information about the workshops:
Anna T.
This workshop focuses on linguistic playfulness and togetherness in the site of the Mediterranean; both a destination for relaxing holidays and connection with nature and the seametery (Abderrezak) of fortress Europe. How can we learn from the linguistic ingenuity of queer and countercultural creations of the past to develop a new language of resistance and solidarity for our minority communities and those who need support?
The workshop will be conducted in English and good command of the language is expected of participants. All languages and slangs are welcome.
Andrea Ancira
Translucinaciones: Translation as Possibility and Failure
Can translation be a language-based practice from which to hack patriarchal and colonial ways of speaking and writing? Can language be appropriated and subverted through translation to express our situated views instead of erasing or neutralizing them? Departing from the idea that translation may produce a third language on its own right, this workshop examines gendered relationships in language and translation, our relationship with “mother” tongues vis a vis migration/displacement and the interplay of asymmetric relations among languages.
We aim to invite a group of up to 10 residents to take part in the module. The programme is open to international participants of all backgrounds, whose practice sits anywhere across the broad spectrum of visual practice and research, with no restriction regarding disciplines, media or methodologies of work. Applications from artists, curators, writers, theorists, activists, all are welcome and encouraged.
The selection of participants will be based on the affinity of the subject matters, concerns and questions participating in the applicant’s work with those expressed by the curatorial framework of the project and the conceptual positioning of the selected residency module, as well as on the applicant interest and ability to contribute to a programme-based residency whose working is grounded in processes of active exchange and participation.
The residency module will take place at Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto, in Biella, Italy. The UNIDEE and Cittadellarte spaces will host a large part of the programme, while further opportunities for exploring the urban and rural landscape of Biella and its immediate surroundings could be offered.
Participants will be accommodated within the premises of Cittadellarte, in single rooms with the use of shared bathrooms. The residential spaces offer basic cooking facilities and communal resting areas.
Participants arrival is expected by the afternoon of the day prior to the beginning of the module, departure is expected by the afternoon of the day following the end of the module.
We are committed to meeting to the best of our ability any accessibility requirements an attendee may have; this will be discussed individually with prospective residents.
Further information regarding practicalities and FAQ available here.
Participation in this Autumn module is offered free of charge, and the residents will be provided with free accommodation at Cittadellarte.
However, residents will be required to arrange and cover expenses for their travel to/from Biella and for the food/living costs whilst in Cittadellarte.
A limited number of partial and full travel bursaries are made available to those who would not otherwise be able to participate; please remember to state in your application whether you would like to be considered for this opportunity.
The team at UNIDEE remains at your disposal to support you in the travel arrangements and in the visa application process. Additionally, the team will provide you with any documents you may need should you decide to pursue other funding opportunities through your local art councils or via international platforms / funding bodies.
To apply please fill in the form at this link: https://form.jotform.com/232494520864359
Deadline for submissions is 28 September 2023, 23:59 (CEST)
Virginie Bobin often works collectively, at the crossroads between curatorial and editorial practices, pedagogy and translation. Her research project for the PhD-in-Practice at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (2018-2023) focusses on the political and affective stakes of translation in postcolonial France. In 2018, she co-founded (with Victorine Grataloup), the editorial and curatorial platform Qalqalah قلقلة. In parallel, she collaborated with artist Mercedes Azpilicueta on her long-term project Bestiario de Lengüitas (2017-2023), leading up to a series of workshops, exhibitions and a publication. She has worked for international artistic institutions, including Villa Vassilieff and Bétonsalon - Center for Art & Research in Paris, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, Les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers and Performa, the New York Biennial of Performing Arts.
Vir Andres Hera (he/his/they/them) Filmmaker and researcher, born in Yauhquemehcan, Mexico. They conceive their projects as research fields ploughed with the complicity of a community of artists and production sites oscillating between video installations, moving image(s), sound and text pieces. Questioning the multiple relationships between reality and memory, they interrogate vernacular and scholar H/history to invent emancipatory narratives and redefine the weight of colonial history. They graduated from Mo.Co. Art School, from Le Fresnoy Studio National, and is pursuing a PhD at the University of Quebec in Montreal. They have held residencies at La Casa de Velazquez, Triangle-Asterides, among others, they are part of the editorial board of Qalqalah قلقلة and teach at the Experimental School of Annecy-Alps.
Ig: https://www.instagram.com/virandresherastudio/
Andrea Ancira García is an editor, writer, and researcher. Her practice is situated at the crossroads of art and politics as a site of imagination, (un)learning and affective encounters. Her current research focuses on the role of translation in shaping communal perspectives of life and memory. She also works with archives and the affective economies they produce and circulate when generating and exchanging alternative narratives of a shared history. Since 2017 she co-created the publishing platform tumbalacasa ediciones. She is currently a fellow of the Jumex Contemporary Art Foundation and a PhD Candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.
Mirene Arsanios is the author of the short story collection, The City Outside the Sentence (Ashkal Alwan, 2015), Notes on Mother Tongues (UDP, 2019), and more recently, The Autobiography of a Language (Futurepoem, 2022). She has contributed essays and short stories to e-flux journal, Vida, The Brooklyn Rail, LitHub, and Guernica, among others. Arsanios co-founded the collective 98weeks Research Project in Beirut and is the founding editor of Makhzin, a bilingual English/Arabic magazine for innovative writing. She teaches at Pratt Institute and holds an MFA in Writing from the Milton Avery Graduate School for the Arts at Bard College. Arsanios currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Web: https://mirenearsanios.com/
Anna T. (PhD) is an islander. She works as an artist, educator, and curator in a landlocked country. She has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the University of Art and Design Linz, and the University of Vienna. Her artistic practice and scholarly work draw from poststructuralism, queer theory, decoloniality, peripherical knowledge, aesthetics, and affect. Since 2003 she has curated and participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions and new media festivals in Europe, the Americas, and Australia. She is the author of Opacity – Minority – Improvisation: An Exploration of the Closet Through Queer Slangs and Postcolonial Theory.
Web: https://annatee.co.uk/
Ig: https://www.instagram.com/annateedot/
Academia: https://akbild.academia.edu/AnnaT
UNIDEE Residency Programs is made possible thanks to the support of Regione Piemonte, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, CRT Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, illycaffè S.p.A., Fondazione Zegna, project "Alexandria:(re)Activating common urban imaginaries" of European Union’s Creative Europe programme, A.M. Qattan Foundation, Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, Institut Français Italy, Kimonos Art Center.
