La Box at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
9 rue Édouard Branly
18000 Bourges
France
T 0248247870
la.box@ensa-bourges.fr
The Ecole nationale supérieure d’art (National School of Art/ENSA) in Bourges is housed in a 17th-century building in the Old Town. Bourges itself is in central France, two hours from Paris. Covering some 7,000 square metres, the school offers its students extensive workspaces plus well equipped technical workshops that are regularly renovated and updated. The School is qualified to award a National Postgraduate Degree in Fine Arts – a Master’s – and its emphasis is on the kind of inventiveness and creativity that are only possible in a setting where interpersonal exchange and ideas are part of the everyday scene; this is a generous, receptive place conducive to artistic encounters and intermeshings. The teaching programme is part of a study and research context whose constantly evolving methods stimulate creative thinking, open-mindedness and discussion, while also sparking students’curiosity and combining practical applications with critical analysis.
The La Box gallery is one of ENSA’s principal teaching tools. Every year it features artists from France and abroad in ten exhibitions relating to the study programme. For more than ten years now the gallery has entrusted part of its planning to young guest curators. Chosen and monitored by the ENSA teaching team, the curators work on experimental programmes involving the active participation of the students, who thus find themselves in close contact with major figures on the contemporary scene and with the realities of drawing up an exhibition project.
ORGANISATION
The curator will work in association with the ENSA teaching team, and in particular with the committee in charge of the programme: Stéphanie Jamet and Ferenc Grof.
He or she will be assisted by the full-time La Box team: Véronique Fréjabue (director of La Box), Jessie Morin (registrar) and Edwige Bélair (assistant registrar).
In the interests of student participation, the programme drawn up by the curator will take account of the academic calendar in terms of vacations and examinations.
Candidates are reminded that a programme like this demands considerable time and commitment. Regular on-site meetings with the ENSA team are vital, as is responsiveness, by email or telephone, during the preparation of the programme. The presence of the curator is required during the installation of the exhibition and at the opening.
Should the curator be a collective, ongoing interaction and coordination between members are essential in order to ensure consistency in their dealings with ENSA and the La Box team.
To encourage regular presence on the part of the curator during the project and its educational segment, La Box offers accommodation for the duration of the mission in an apartment rented from the CROUS student services body: http:// www.bourges-technopole.fr/fr/le-site-lahitolle/projet/residence-marie-curie. This system can also provide accommodation for some of the guest artists during the presentation.
THE CALENDAR
Date limit of sending: 31 March 2021 – Midnight
Shortlist of 4 applications: April 2021
Applicants interviewed by the selection committee: May 2021 Initial proposal of a schedule for January/April 2021: June 2021
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF CANDIDATURE
The candidature application must be sent by email, in PDF format.
It may be written either in English or in French, and must include the following:
– a completed application form
– a CV
– a text of no more than 800 words presenting the planned curatorial project (illustrated by no more than 20 visuals) and explaining the reasons for candidature – an estimated budget
Image: Sucre de l’est.
