“In April 2010, we took over 1-3 Rivington Street, then a near-derelict building, empty for a year and a half, and made it into one of the London’s most exciting cultural hubs. We are a collective of creative individuals and organisations striving to bring together art, music and film via many varied cultural events, forging/cementing local, national and international collaborations/partnerships. At Red we offer low-cost space to artists and Internet start-ups.

We host exhibitions, live art, live music and club events, literary soirees, symposiums and film screenings. We also provide with MATERIAL a bookshop and are able to publish our own books. Under the ‘{ourhistory}’ banner we curate large-scale gallery shows (currently touring internationally) covering subjects as diverse as the history of acid house and the future of art in the East End, with exhibitions such as ‘20 years of Acid House’, ‘East End Promise’ and ‘East Pop’. We are a self-funding creative enterprise, independently run relying neither on private nor public backers. One of our guiding principles is to work with, and seek input from the local artistic and creative communities, to build new business models and strengthen local, national and international ties in order to further our vision of an expansive artistic culture.” (RED Gallery statement)

FACTS

What we provide

• Two months long residency in London from April until May 2014
• Free accommodation (fully furnished with kitchen, no room service)
• Honorary: 500 € brutto per month
• Travelling costs Košice-London-Košice
• Material costs up to 500 €

What we demand

• We search for emerging Slovak artist, who is open for collaborations with local artists
• Individual artist, no duos of groups
• One presentation during the residency and one presenation after the residency in Košice
• Intermediate or upper intermediate level of English
• The artist is responsible for his/her health insurance and liability insurance for the time of the residency

Application

• PDF n°1: Curriculum Vitae – Please send a short CV including your name, address, phone, email along with educational and exhibition background
• PDF n°2: Letter of motivation – Describe in few sentences your motivation to go to London
• PDF n°2: portfolio

All material submitted must be in English language.

Deadline: 3rd March 2014, via email to zuzana.kotikova@kosice2013.sk

K.A.I.R. – Košice Artist in Residence with the support of Goethe – Institut in Slovakia invites artists from Germany to apply for three month residency in Košice, Slovakia.

Host organisation

Košice 2013 – European Capital of Culture (www.kosice2013.sk)

Košice

By now, Košice and whole Eastern Slovakia is one of the most fascinating regions in Europe. Not for nothing, Košice was the “European Capital of Culture” in 2013. During the last centuries, the whole region was influenced by many different kingdoms, countries and cultural groups and still you can feel this multicultural spirit in the city, also because of the huge Hungarian and Roma minorities and the three universities. During the socialistic time, Košice became a centre of steel industry, the population tripled within 3o years. The influence of the former socialistic times, especially in architecture and working infrastructure, still exists. During the last years, Košice, located at the Schengen border, starts a huge transformation process and will become an important cultural hub between east and west in social, political and artistic terms.

Artist in Residence

In the frame of European Capital of Culture the NGO Košice 2013 is running an international Artist-in-Residence-program for the artists from all over the world and out of all artistic disciplines and expressions. We give our residents the possibility to become a cultural pioneer and work in the inspire environment of Košice`s singular cultural surrounding to realize art projects, collaborate with the agile local art scene and present themselves to the local and national public.

We pursuit three main goals within the residency program:

1. Support the creative energy of every invited artist and give her/him the chance to work in a new environment and to find (new) artistic ways of expression
2. Stimulate the art scene in Košice, in the region and in whole Slovakia. Support the dialogue as well as the confrontation of the residency artists with local artists and the wide public.
3. Create/strengthen a beneficial environment for the development of innovative and international contemporary art projects with international and local participants.

According to our main goals, our team will introduce every artist in the social environment of the city and the region and help them to build up networks and collaborations with local artists. We will organise public events like artist talks, projections, workshops, open studios to give all artists the chance to introduce and present themselves to a wide public. The final presentation/exhibition will be presented during the White Night (Nuit Blanche) event. White night is the largest and most frequented contemporary art project in Slovakia. For more information about White Night in Košice: http://www.biela-noc.sk/en

K.A.I.R. – FACTS

What we provide

• Three month residency in Kosice, Eastern Slovakia (July – September 2014)
• Free accommodation and studio in Kasárne/Kulturpark, former military barracks renovated into the multi-genre cultural centre (http://www.kosice2013.sk/en/projects/kasarnekulturpark/). The two room flats are fully furnished with kitchen. The studio is equipped with basic tools and technical equipment.
• Honorary 500€ per month
• Travelling costs maximum 500€
• Material costs 500€
• Production and PR support

What we demand

• We are searching for visual artists from Germany, who are open to collaborations with local artists. The artist should work on the project which will be presented during White Night in Košice. We prefer artists who work with: public space, site specific projects, performance, new media, interactive installations, lighting installations, sound installations, participatory projects, sculpture/objects
• One presentation during the residency and final project/exhibition at the end
• Compulsory attendance

Application

The application must consist of three PDF files

• PDF n°1: Curriculum Vitae – a short CV including your name, address, phone, email, educational and exhibition background
• PDF n°2: Letter of motivation and objectives – briefly describe your motivation to come to Košice and first ideas of projects you would like to realise
• PDF n°3: Portfolio – artist statement and presentation of artworks (texts, photos, links to video or audio sharing websites: YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud etc.)
• Deadline: 23rd   of March 2014 / please send it only via email to zuzana.kotikova@kosice2013.sk

Contact to host organization

• K.A.I.R. Management: Zuzana Kotiková – zuzana.kotikova@kosice2013.sk / 00421915078489
• Online : kair.sk (official website), k-a-i-r.tumblr.com (blog),https://www.facebook.com/KosiceArtistInResidence (facebook), https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-TlrHZFsAK24PDIgj6mReg (youtube channel)

Kharkov City Art Gallery

The Kharkov City Art Gallery, one of the first galleries in Ukraine that has the municipal status, was founded in 1996 and since 1997 it is a member of the Association of Art-Galleries of Ukraine. Primary task of the gallery is the popularization of contemporary art from Kharkov, Ukraine and from abroad. The gallery is the most important center for contemporary art in Kharkov and well known beyond the borders of the city. Over the last 15 years, the gallery organized about 400 exhibitions, curatorial projects and art actions in the gallery as well as in the public space; including international solo and group exhibitions from artists from Austria, Great Britain, Germany, France, USA, Poland, Russia, Moldova, Israel and Armenia.

In addition to the exhibitions, more than 200 cultural actions took place in the gallery: performances, concerts, chamber plays, literature evenings, lectures, master-classes, designer’s fashion shows etc. Every second year, the gallery is organizing “Non Stop Media”, the biennale of young and contemporary art in Kharkov and Ukraine. The artist at residency will have opportunity to be active participant of the biennale.

At the Disposal of the Gallery, there is a secular (standing) hall with around 120 m² exposition areas with modern interior and professional equipment.

FACTS

What we provide

• Two months long residency in Kharkov, Ukraine: from March until April
• Free accommodation (fully furnished with kitchen, no room service)
•  Honorary: 500 €  per month
•  Travelling costs
•  Material costs up to 500 €
• The artist is responsible for his/her health insurance

What we demand

• We are searching for emerging Slovak artist, who is open for collaborations with local artists
• Individual artist, no duos or groups
• One presentation during the residency and final project/exhibition at the end
•  Compulsory attendance

Application

• PDF n°1: Curriculum Vitae – Please send a short CV including your name, address, phone, email along with educational and exhibition background
• PDF n°2: Letter of motivation and objectives – Briefly describe your motivation to come to Kharkov and the first ideas of projects you would like to realize
• PDF n°2: portfolio with artist`s statement

All material must be in English language

Deadline: 3rd February 2014, via Email to zuzana.kotikova@kosice2013.sk

Just a few months ago,

The Closing Ceremony, which will take place from 11th – 14th December, will not be the end and a definite full stop to the project, but only the start of more to come. Whispers that Košice really deserved the title have spread around the world and, most importantly, word that it is not an unknown cultural destination, but that it seized the opportunity to be put on the cultural map of Europe with dignity.

What can the people of Košice, visitors and guests look forward to as the end of the year approaches? Again, an unrepeatable experience, a rich programme in all cultural institutions and in the streets for several days, and a farewell which will remain forever in the city’s memory and history. Košice will officially pass the sceptre to other cities which are ready to do more for their citizens in the area of culture.

The culmination will be events such as the Two in One concert which offers an unexpected and attractive link between renowned artists from Slovakia and the French “cultural twin”, Marseille, a premiere of the 66 Seasons opera, the Light of Understanding concert, an exhibition of artistic pieces and documents from the 1920s called Košice Moderna, and many other events.

The title will leave but the project will live on

“Despite the fact that the ECOC Košice 2013 project is not ending but will continue, also proven by the activities we are preparing for next year and the city’s cultural strategy for the next five years, we feel the need to say farewell to a successful year. It was a year during which we not only had the opportunity to see and meet the best from all art genres as well as curators, art historians, experts in creative economy and renowned architects, but Košice experienced a great boom in relation to the transformation of its cultural infrastructure. An infrastructure of a completely new type was created, such as the Kunsthalle/Hall of Art, the Barracks/Culture Park and SPOTs, as well as the reconstruction of traditional cultural facilities,” said Ján Sudzina, Director of the Košice 2013 non-profit making organisation, evaluating the significance and impact of the title

As he added, the ECOC team wishes to look back over 2013 and, together with Marseille, pass the baton to another two cities which will be the European Capitals of Culture in 2014, which are Latvian Riga and Swedish Umeå.

“We don’t consider this as a Closing Ceremony, but a real farewell to the year and encouragement for those cities which will be the successors. We want to give them encouragement since we know what a complicated process is awaiting them. At the same time, we would like to invite the citizens of Košice, the region and the whole of Slovakia to a number of cultural events which we are preparing for next year.”

How does J. Sudzina see the previous period when Košice was the cultural heart of Europe? “The city underwent a deep transformation and the events which took place in Košice during this year will probably be appreciated later. Despite this, in my opinion, it was a very successful year not because we invited renowned world names and organised a large number of events, but because we started a deep transformation which will affect not only culture but mainly the economy of the city and the region.”

Culture took a deep breath

The Artistic Director of Košice 2013 n.o., Vladimír Beskid, sees the great success of the ECOC project in the fact that all the investment projects were completed and a new platform for communication in the wider European area was created, as well as the inclusion of domestic community projects within SPOTs.

“A second important thing is that in terms of the official and artistic programme, we managed to implement all key projects. In this area, I consider as very important the fact that we brought new, innovative forms and festivals. I will consider it a success if, in the future, events such as Sound City Days, White Night, USE THE CITY, New Dance Days and the Triennale of Contemporary Art will continue, become regular and will find ground to proceed in future years.”

In his opinion, the project was not only about one large festival or fiesta during this year, but just the opposite, it started certain processes, helped in the modelling of a new cultural policy for the city and mainly brought development projects in the area of creative industry, mobility of artists via residential programmes and international cooperation.

“What we promised, we started. It seems as if the process of oxygenating of this environment was successful and we can expect it to carry on. We put more oxygen into the lungs of the local scene. Within the acupuncture process, we stimulated particular energy points on the cultural map of Europe and it is important to carry on with this,” added the Artistic Head of the ECOC Košice 2013 project. He mentioned that the guarantee in continuing the started models is the subsidised organisation, K-13, which will further cover and develop the ECOC project.

www.roosvandijk.com

Roos van Dijk will present the outcome of the three month long residency on the 21st of November in Kasarne/Kulturpark. Roos got inspired by the specific built environment of Košice – panel block areas monotonous in shape and variable in the colour palette of the facades. You are more than welcome to join us for the opening on the 21st of November at 18:00 in November pavilion at Kasarne/Kultrupark, Kukučínova 2, Košice.

This residency is part of our long term patrnership with Motel Spatie, Arnhem, the Netherlands.

OPEN CALL FOR CURATORIAL PROJECTS

FOR THE KUNSTHALLE/ HALL OF ART KOŠICE  AND THE ALFA GALLERY

IN THE BARRACKS/KULTURPARK for the years 2014-2015

As part of the Košice 2013 ECOC project, the newly-opened Kunsthalle/ Hall of Art in Košice and the Barracks/Kulturpark (Gallery Alfa) offers cultural operators, curators and artists the chance to implement their construction projects in the years 2014 and 2015

in two positions:

–       a main project for the main hall of the Kunsthalle

–       a chamber project for the Alfa gallery, or to side wings of the Kunsthalle

The open call prioritises curatorial projects according to the following priorities:

–       development of the current creative language, current topics and the shape of visual art (including architecture, design, new media or other audio-visual inputs.)

–       communication and confrontation of the domestic scene with the international context

–       experimental voices, site-specific installations, work with the phenomena of light, water and air (inflatable objects), interactive environment

Conditions of projects presented:

–       brief concept of the exhibition

–       professional CV of the curator or artist (portfolio)

–       temporary budget and technical solution for the exhibition

(floor plans for both set of rooms in the annex)

Projects received are evaluated by a commission consisting of the professional staff of Kunsthalle and invited art theorists. The period for the exhibition to take place will be agreed individually.

Deadline for posting projects: 30 November 2013

You can send projects to the following address:

EHMK Košice n.o., Kukučínova 2, 04001 KOŠICE

Mark the envelope with the password VÝZVA 2014-2015

Projects that do not fulfil the criteria or that are sent after the deadline will be excluded.

Successful applicants will be informed about the results within 2 weeks of the commission meeting.

More information about the exhibition spaces can be found at:

http://www.huk.sk

http://www.kulturpark.sk/

Contact person:  Mgr. Michal Štofa, e-mail: michal.stofa@kosice2013.sk, tel. 0907 214802

Is there an objective truth in connection with issues related to the past? Has the state system power to determine who is mentally sound and who is not? How does the state power control its citizens and why is it doing it? These are just a few questions put by the Hungarian team of the project Parallel Lives in their production of Meltdown. Although the story of a psychiatrist pursued by the communist regime is focal, the questions put by the authors are highly topical.
For the young authors Dániel D. Kovács and Péter Závada topicality is an important part of the whole story – in order to better understand the present, we have to study the past. It is one of the premises that were at the beginning of their work for the project Parallel Lives. Their production is literally about a parallel life. Life of a certain psychiatrist, which has been torn to pieces by the communist power.
The main subject of the story captures the fate of R. Z., a psychiatrist who ends up as a patient in the hospital for the mentally disturbed. She is diagnosed as a schizophrenic, but she claims that the state security has conspired against her to eliminate her. Therefore she starts writing reports about her “gaolers”, while the doctors on duty write reports about her. An almost kafkaesque, dreadful story has the ambition to show the machinery and the terror of the communist regime which has many innocent victims on its records. However, the young Hungarian authors are not moralising. On the contrary, they are pointing out the incongruity and ambiguity of the whole story by applying irony and overview, which is so typical of them and suits the grotesque.
Is the psychiatrist R. Z. really ill? Or is she just thought to be ill by the state power, because it is playing its own game and needs to get rid of a cumbersome person? And although we never learn the real truth about R. Z., what is important is the fact that the production provides a metaphor of power functioning towards an individual, power which creates mechanisms to control the thinking and the conduct of an individual. And it was not only this Foucault idea that has attracted the Hungarian authors, but also the study of the discursive practice of the period, i.e., what were the ideological structures of the period which „enabled“ such tragic human stories and what it means for today.
Dániel D. Kovács belongs to the youngest generation of Hungarian directors which continues in the footsteps of their slightly older and more famous colleagues, such as Viktor Bodó and Kornél Mundruczó. Together with their peer, poet and author Péter Závada, they are a promise for an independent, ideologically and formally provocative theatre. It is an asset to the project Parallel Lives that young authors make statements about the recent past and the communist regime, although they themselves have had no direct experience of it. The more interesting it is to watch what view of their country’s past they present to us.

The origin of the production was initiated by the Divadelná Nitra Association within the project Parallel Lives – 20th Century through the Eyes of the Secret Police.
Hungarian premiere: 28 September 2013

Place: Kasárne/Kulturpark

21. november, 2013

19:00

——————————-

The death of the secretly ordained priest Rev. Ing. Přemysl Coufal is one of the most serious unclarified cases of the Slovak judiciary. It has many levels: it combines a personal tragedy, struggle for human honesty and purgation of one’s name and it is also an example of unprecedented practices by the Czechoslovak ŠtB. It also demonstrates the failure of the judiciary system of the past regime as well as that following 1989. Last but not least, it demonstrates the power the former top members of the secret police have had in Slovakia until today.

The ŠtB interfered into Přemysl Coufal’s life several times. In the 1960’s, having obtained the information about his activities in the underground church, it managed to win him over for its services for several years to provide information about the economic illegal practices of his company. Later he used numerous foreign business trips for establishing contacts and exchange of information and material with the exile and foreign church representatives. In 1979 he was identified as a courier to be forced to collaborate with the ŠtB, which he refused. On 24 February 1981 he was found dead in his flat showing traces of a brutal murder. The case was concluded by the investigation authorities of the day as a suicide. Neither the investigation of 1990, after which the case had been put aside, reached any other conclusion. By the 1992 court decree all the documents related to the case were locked in the archive safe of the SR with the date of release corresponding to the negative prescription (limitation of time beyond which the possible criminal acts related to the case are no longer enforceable). The time limit is still running.

There have been several unsuccessful initiatives to purge the name of Přemysl Coufal, which neither his parents lived to see, especially trying to achieve the annulment of the official investigation conclusion version classifying it as a suicide. In connection with Coufal’s case the disappearance of the journalist Marcel Samuhel is also talked about who had informed about the case in the early 1990’s – at a time when several journalists writing about serious issues disappeared in Slovakia. The personal story of Přemysl Coufal opens many ethical issues – at a time when ethics is considered an empty word and helplessness against non-transparent power mechanisms is cured by cynicism – it is a demonstration of responsibility for the sound functioning of society carried not only by brave individuals but mainly the legislative and judiciary bodies. It also shows how far reaching consequences complicated political decisions can have, such as, for example, “the broad line” after the past which Czechoslovak politicians had done following 1989. On the one hand, it was a gesture of moral noble-mindedness and period-conditioned optimism by the political elite of the day, on the other one, it showed its deadly romanticism and political ignorance the fatal consequences of which we are suffering until today.

In the production The Inside of the Inside the authors, Ľubomír Burgr and Dušan Vicen, are covering several stages of the ŠtB operation. The grotesque analysis of “evaluations” that the members of ŠtB at all levels were writing on themselves offers an opportunity to look into the mechanisms of building up a parallel power structure within the ŠtB thus enabling mutual inspection of individual members of staff and collaborators at all levels of this organisation, mechanisms that might be operational even after the dissolvement of the ŠtB. Another important motif in the production is the story of the ups and downs of prominent party officials, such as Zdeněk Mlynář, author of the thrilling book Frost comes from Kremlin. Thanks to this we can look into the unrestrained inside of power which, unless harnessed by law or morality, can engulf everything around it, including itself, as in the archetypal picture where the devouring starts from the tail.  In their production Burgr and Vicen are dealing with stories affected by the ŠtB in recent past but also significant issues which resulted from its activities following the fall of the totalitarian regime. What is of key importance, then, is the investigation of our coming to terms with the heritage of the totalitarian past.

The origin of the production was initiated by the Divadelná Nitra Association within the project Parallel Lives – 20^th Century through the Eyes of the Secret Police. The Slovak and world premiere is held at the festival.

Place: Kasárne/Kulturpark, 20. november, 2013

20:00

In the last two months Petra has been working on a topic of genius loci of Kasarne. She tries to capture the historical dimension of the place through conversations with witnesses of the time Kasarne was military barracks and through researching various documents.

Petra’s work is not documentary or reality capturing videos, more it is a personal statement expressing to a great extent the artist’s subjective perception of the place and its atmosphere. Even though the images might seem quite realistic, be sure there is a substantial portion of imagination and reality alteration.

The exhibition will be open at Kasarne/Kultrpark, Bravo building on Thursday the 24th of October at 18:00 and will be open until Sunday the 27th from 16:00 until 18:00.

This residency is made possible thanks to generous support of Czech Centre in Bratislava.