Competitive Call for Participants: FORMER WEST
Research Congress and Learning Place
17th-25th March, 2013
Berlin
MA Art in the Contemporary World, NCAD is delighted to offer 4 places at the FORMER WEST Research Congress and Learning Place. In the framework of the 4th FORMER WEST Research Congress: “Documents and Prospects”, participants will collaborate in a unique experimental education encounter — the “learning place”— taking place at the House of World Cultures in Berlin from 18 to 24 March 2013.
Successful participants will have all conference fees and accommodation covered.
NB: Participants must make their own travel arrangements, but we are also happy to assist with possible fundraising options. This opportunity is open to current and former students of MA ACW and currently enrolled NCAD Ph.D. students.
Applications
Applications will be assessed by a statement of interest and accompanying CV (both in PDF) sent to halsallf@ncad.ie by 4pm Fri 15th Feb, 2013. For any information contact Francis Halsall (halsallf@ncad.ie ) or Declan Long (longd@ncad.ie ) directly.
Further Information
The 4th FORMER WEST Research Congress brings together discursive, exhibitionary, and performative propositions in an attempt to identify “documents” and “prospects” – artworks, thoughts, texts, films, events – utilizing the method of “composition” as proposed by philosopher Bruno Latour, to suggest new ways to imagine the world and rethink prospects for the future. It is part of the long-term contemporary art research, education, publishing, and exhibition project FORMER WEST (2008-2014), and the fourth research platform, following Congresses in Utrecht, Istanbul and Vienna. FORMER WEST is aimed at a critical reinterpretation of post-1989 histories and speculates about global futures by casting new light on contemporary art in relation to developments in society and politics. http://www.formerwest.org.
The FORMER WEST ‘learning place’ is conceived as a unique environment for learning and intellectual exchange: In lectures, film screenings, performances, seminars and symposiums 100 international students from various disciplinary and cultural backgrounds, will be given the opportunity to acquaint themselves with important discourses in cultural theory, fine arts and art history, to actively engage in critical debates and to liaise with some of the leading scholars, curators, artists and critics in the field. Moreover, by actively participating in workshops and group activities, students will be encouraged to build lasting international networks across a range of disciplines. In the course of seven days the students will work together in small groups to produce tangible artefacts of their joint learning experience and their newly-created knowledge that will be presented to the public on March 24th 2013 at HKW.
One of the main objectives of the ‘learning place’ is to actively involve young people from various national and cultural backgrounds and invite them to Berlin. HKW is striving to make this possible through collaborations with other institutions worldwide. We are establishing ties with active partners who are supporting our project by selecting interested students, preparing them for the intellectual propositions of FORMER WEST through workshops and readings, managing the travel arrangements, and mentoring them throughout the project. Through these collaborations many students will be given their first opportunity to travel to Berlin and participate in such an exceptional event.
So far HKW has been able to establish a network between relevant institutions who are actively involved in the field of the FORMER WEST discourse such as Södertörn University (Sweden), the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (Denmark), the Art Academy of Banja Luka (Bosnia-Herzegovina), Birzeit-University (Palestine), WHW (Croatia), the Architecture Syndicate (Greece), 4am Forum for Architecture and Media (Czech Republic), tranzit.hu (Hungary), Walking Theory (Serbia), Freedom Square (Macedonia), the Peace Institute (Slovenia) and the University of Barcelona / Art, Globalization and Interculturality Research Group (Spain), the Royal College of Art (UK), the Zuercher Hochschule der Künste (Switzerland).
Please find the official invitation for the 4th FORMER WEST Research Congress: “Documents and Prospects” and the learning place and further information on the concept and the content in the pdf below.
In addition the FORMER WEST online archive offers extensive documentation and materials on all previous FORMER WEST events, exhibitions, seminars and conferences.
