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Open Call Professional Exchange

Call for applications: Sommerakademie Paul Klee 2021/22

Sommerakademie Paul Klee

2021/22

Follow the link below to find out more about the programme, read the curatorial statement, check eligibility and apply.
Applications close 5 May 2021.

More info and apply

Sommerakademie Paul Klee (SPK) 2021/22 has opened the call for applications to take part in the 16-month programme hosted by the Bern University of the Arts (HKB).

Up to nine residents will be selected by a jury to join the SPK programme which will be curated by artist Dora García. Over the course of 2021 & 2022, the SPK will include public lectures, closed-door seminars, and access to state-of-the-art infrastructure and technical support at HKB, as well as teaching opportunities in the form of workshops at the HKB.

The SPK will take place in a hybrid physical/digital format, including candidates residing within an approx. 1000 km radius of Bern, and international candidates who will take part via digital residencies. Pro Helvetia supports successful candidates from the regions of its liaison offices around the world. Our office will support one successful applicant from either Southern, Central, East or West Africa. 

CURATORIAL FRAMEWORK FOR SPK 2021/22: Position voice mundo: The urgent need for feminization

Under the curation of Dora García, the SPK 2021/22 wishes to echo a major paradigm shift that has changed the world (and the art world) over the last five to ten years: The feminization of politics has introduced an inclusive feminist perspective that has shaped a different way of relating to the world in economic, cultural, sociological, and aesthetic terms. We are in a time of transition; an in-between. We need to respond to this phase with resilience, intelligence, and generosity. Seemingly unmovable concepts in economy, culture, sociology and aesthetics, are very movable now. The SPK proposes to explore this new world with as little prejudice as possible, leaning on each other’s specificities, working towards a radical new idea of what it means for art practice and authorship. Hence also the intention to develop a substantial part of the 2021/22 programme in close collaboration with the residents themselves.

Image: Demonstrations during International Women’s Day, 8 March 2019, Ciudad de México. Photo by Esthel Vogrig

Johannesburg-based artist and educator Dorothee Kreutzfeldt was selected by the jury to take part in the 2019/20 edition of SPK which explored STATECRAFT as a curatorial framework. Read about this edition and how it adapted to the changing circumstances during 2020.

Upcoming maintenance work

The application portal myprohelvetia will be updated from 1.1.-7.1.2024. Due to these changes, open applications must be finalized and submitted via the current online portal (myprohelvetia.ch) by the latest 23:59 on 31 December 2023. Until this date, the deadlines and criteria outlined in the current guidelines and calls for applications apply. New applications can be created and submitted in the application portal as of 8 January 2024.