Fellowship Program for Art and Theory 2018-19

Dear Friends of Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen,

In 2018–19, the Fellowship Program for Art and Theory is presenting four artists whose respective work projects are concerned with forgotten and under-examined social and political narratives that could prove relevant to the understanding of contemporary societal dynamics. After a two-stage competition, in which more than 170 artists and theorists participated, Angela Anderson, Michael Baers, Aikaterini Gegisian and Riccardo Giacconi were invited by a jury comprising Lisa Mazza (curator and member of the advisory committee of Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen), Başak Şenova (curator) and Andrei Siclodi (program director, Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen) to realize their proposed works in Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen. In reference to Felix Guattari’s text about the “Three Ecologies” (the environment, social relations and human subjectivity), Angela Anderson will bring together two apparently disparate contexts in a filmic-installative project: the Dakotas in the United States and Rojava in Northern Syria – showing two cases of women rising in opposition to the patriarchal, earth-devouring machinery of militarized, extractive capital. Michael Baers will investigate relationships and parallels between weather and history. Both history and meteorology share phenomenological aspects like the regularity of recurrence, and the randomly occurrence of events, which, nevertheless, from a human point of view often seem to take place mostly at the worst possible moment. Considering this, the artist aims to examine, on site, the interwar period – in particular, the time from the start of the world financial crisis at the end of the 1920s to the NSDAP’s seizure of power in Germany. Aikaterini Gegisian‘s work project focus upon the deconstruction of the “Image of Europe” from a female perspective. Along these lines she will work with US American newsreels produced immediately after the Second World War, as well as with documentary films commissioned by the US government depicting the ideas and historical processes involved in establishing a “united” Europe. Finally, Riccardo Giacconi will work on a long-term research project examining the relations between urban planning and media power. As a case study, he will concentrate on a urban project in Italy during the 1970s: the housing area Milano 2, which was conceptualized by Silvio Berlusconi as a Gated Community on the outskirts of the existing city with integrated cable television for the emerging and newly rich middle class.

As every year, the artistic investigations, as well as the development and production processes will be accompanied by a diverse program of public events suggested by the fellows and realized in close cooperation with them. For example, in the context of the Innsbruck Premierentage, on Saturday, 10 November, at 9.30, a studio talk matinee with Angela Anderson and Michael Baers will take place. Further events with the fellows will be carried out during the newly introduced “Focus Weeks” in January (14 – 25 January 2019) and in March (18 – 30 March 2019).

On 22 May 2018, shortly before the fellowship year 2017-18 ended, our fellow Jan Sieber passed away due to a short but severe illness. Jan was an extraordinary talented young theorist, who surely would have had a very promising career ahead. In the context of the Fellowship Program he had planned a symposium related to his main research: art and the capitalist economy of desire. In memory of Jan and his incomplete work, we will be organizing this symposium at the Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen on Tuesday, 22 January 2019, together with philosopher Samo Tomšić, with whom Jan had an intensive professional exchange.

In the context of the Fellowship Program, Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen also enters into distinguished cooperation with other institutions and initiatives in the region. These collaborations often culminate in joint events and projects. Therefore a film and discussion night will take place on Thursday, 6 December 2018 at the Künstlerhaus in cooperation with the working group Global Learning from Südwind Tirol. After the screening of the documentary Widerklang der Seele (Resonance of the Soul) by Eric Bayala, a film that portrays the world music scene as well as many in Tyrol living musicians with a migration background, a discussion with the film director and with anthropologist Birgit Englert (Institute of African Sciences at the University of Vienna) about the socio-political conditions and circumstances that influence the production and the performance of this kind of music will take place.

Up-to-date details about content and dates can be found on our website here within the upcoming months.

We wish you an exciting and informative experience with this year’s Fellowship Program at the Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen!

Kind regards
Andrei Siclodi
Program Director