PAUSE / PLAY: CULTURE UNDER PRESSURE
LAB & EXHIBITION for digital cultural projects. An open call for participation in an online mentoring program from September to October 2023 in Armenia.
Armenia
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September – November 2023
Online & offline in Yerevan, Armenia
The deadline is 20th August 2023, 23:59 CET
APPLY - https://forms.gle/w1FSDoDnVJokByev8
Kulturschafft e.V., CSN Lab and Untitled Tbilisi are launching an open call for participation in an online mentoring program from September to October 2023, followed by a program of visit(s) and an exhibition in Yerevan from November 6th to 12th, 2023.
The project is aimed at artists, curators, cultural managers, art educators, and other cultural practitioners who want to broaden their practices by using digital tools and new media to address the current social and political issues. We welcome professionals from Armenia, Georgia, and those who migrated to Germany, Armenia, and Georgia due to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine and political repressions in Belarus.
The program offers lectures, presentations and discussions on digital technologies and trends, such as AI, VR, Metaverse and Blockchain, and their use and impact on art and culture. Special attention will be given to socially oriented and activist media art, as well as to the strategies of formation of self-organized initiatives, based on the principles of decolonization, social inclusion, solidarity and active interaction with the local context and community.
The online program (September – October) will be dedicated to digital art production, as well as its representation and promotion in virtual platforms and digital spaces. With the support of qualified mentors, participants will develop their own digital project-prototypes and will be offered the opportunity to present them at the exhibition in Yerevan (November 10-12). They will also be introduced to funding instruments in the aforementioned countries, which may help them further develop their projects.
During the program of visits in Yerevan (November 6th – 12th), participants will explore the local cultural scene, its transformation and challenges caused by recent events in Armenia and Georgia, including political, economic crises and neocolonial practices resulting from high migration flow. Exchange and group work, on cultural and social practices of decolonizing, will play a core role in the program. The experiences of the project will be documented in the form of a ‘zine, which will include essays, interviews, mind maps, and other materials produced during the project.
Terms and conditions: Travel expenses (transportation, accommodation, and meals) will be covered and arranged by the project organizers.
The working language of the workshops and the conference is English. The expected level of English for participants is upper intermediate (B2).
Initiators and Organizers:
Kulturschafft e.V. is a non-profit cultural association, based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 2019 by a group of creatives (artists, curators, art-educators, cultural managers, musicians, performers and scholars). In addition to institutional support of art and culture, we attach particular importance to reaching out and involving people who have little access to cultural offerings. Therefore, we realize our projects, not only in the context of cultural institutions, but also in non-artistic spaces, such as schools, refugee houses or public urban areas. Since our foundation, we have implemented various art and educational activities in Germany and abroad, such as creative workshops, laboratories, interdisciplinary forums, exhibitions and networking events.
The Cultural and Social Narratives Laboratory NGO was founded in Yerevan, Armenia in 2018. It is a multifarious platform created by a group of independent researchers, artists and cultural practitioners aiming to reveal the issues of contemporary social and cultural narratives which have an important role in the formation of civil societies in Armenia and other South Caucasian countries. CSN Lab has a broad range of thematic areas of activity, including, but not limited to, memory studies and memory activism, cultural rights (gender studies, queer culture, tangible and intangible cultural heritage etc.), unfolding consequences of complex past and (neo)colonialism, urban and public spaces, and conflict transformation (dialogue through culture).
Untitled Tbilisi is an art institution, uniting artists and art activists from the South Caucasus, in support of the rights of women and sexual minorities, via art projects in the region. The art space was established in 2019 in Tbilisi. Since its beginning, Untitled Tbilisi has been collaborating with several art organizations from the region and has hosted a number of joint and solo exhibitions, workshops, artist talks, public discussions, and film festivals.
Pause / Play: Culture under Pressure is organized by Kulturschafft e.V. and CSN Lab, in partnership with Untitled Tbilisi, with financial support from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.