Call for applications: Artist residency in Europe

The Sustainable Institution is an international symposium series, artist residency and digital toolkit. The programme is a call to action to innovate new sustainable approaches and stimulate human, economic and ecological change to the cultural landscape. Participants are required to develop material or immaterial prototypes for sustainable exhibition making in the fight against climate change.

Selected, participants will be mentored by the jury (remote) over a six-month research and development period (September 2023 – March 2024), and then take residence at Rupert Vilnius (Lithuania), LUMA Arles (France) or E-WERK Luckenwalde (Germany) for a period of six weeks in spring 2024.

The residency programme is an opportunity for creative practitioners to produce new solutions in the fight against climate change and mitigate the environmental burden of exhibition making. Three creative practitioners will be selected to develop a prototype for sustainable exhibition making with a grant of €20 000 (about $22 000). Each successful applicant will be mentored by the jury over a six-month research and development period, with a studio at their respective institution between March and April 2024.

The grant is intended to provide support towards the research and development of a prototype, an early sample, model or idea of a concept or process towards sustainable exhibition making.

Application guidelines

To apply, applicants should send the below as a PDF:

In A4, up to five pages, maximum size 10mb in one document with a motivation letter including (maximum three pages):

• A description of your prototype or idea (including images if applicable).
• Objectives (max three).
• Sustainability considerations.
• Your preference of institution and jury mentor and reason.
• Contact details and country of residence.
• Any access or child care needs you would like the organisers to be aware of.

Portfolio including (maximum one A4 page with weblinks):

• Three relevant projects.
• CV.

Budget (free-form) with all project costs totalling a maximum of €20 000, including but not limited to (maximum one A4 page):

• Artist fee.
• Travel.
• Per diems.
• Research and development.
• Prototype production costs or ideas.

All the above material should be submitted via email at info@sustainable-institution.com before 2 June (view submission guidelines here).

The jury selection will take place on 3 July. Successful shortlisted applicants will be selected for online interviews with the jury. Applicants will be informed of the results in September.

About the mentorship programme (September 2023 to March 2024)

The jury will support each artist(s) to research and develop their prototype from materials, curatorial, architectural, artistic, ecological perspective throughout the project. Each practitioner will receive an on-site or online consultation session with each jury member (six by one hour sessions) during the six month research and development period.

About the residency (March to April 2024)

During the residency, selected candidates will each have a studio visit (three) online or IRL by the project’s institutional directors Jan Boelen, Viktorija Šiaulytė and Helen Turner. Each artist will additionally receive an on-site or online consultation with their selected external jury members Lucia Pietroiusti, Asad Raza, Mae-ling Lokko or Kim Kraczon. During the residency, the selected candidates will be provided with curatorial assistance in their research process, and access to the local art scene and network of the sustainable institution. Although this is certainly not a requirement, the organisers welcome residents to engage with their respective institutions’ annual programming, present their work in public events and organise discussions. All three residents will be invited to represent their outcome at the end of residency in the hybrid online-live public programme.

“We are looking for ideas that will transform the current unsustainable landscape of institutional operations, which could manifest as a pragmatic design solution or experimental action,” a statement reads. “While not exhaustive, your proposal could be for a performance, activist intervention, manifesto, food concept, furniture design, functional sculpture, biomaterial, waste management solution, de-growth process, curatorial strategy or digital application.”

For additional information or questions, applicants should email info@sustainable-institution.com. 

View the original call here.