Kulturschafft e.V., CSN Lab, and Untitled Tbilisi invite artists, curators, cultural managers, art educators, and other cultural practitioners to participate in an online mentoring program from September to October 2023. This will be followed by a visit(s) and an exhibition in Yerevan from November 6th to 12th, 2023.
Objectives
The project aims to broaden the understanding of digital tools and new media, 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 self-organized initiatives based on the principles of decolonization, social inclusion, solidarity, and active interaction with the local context and community.
Program Details
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. Participants will develop their own digital project-prototypes with the support of qualified mentors and will be offered the opportunity to present them at the exhibition in Yerevan in November. They will also be introduced to funding instruments in Armenia, Georgia, and Germany that 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 and 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.
Eligibility and Application
The program is open to 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. Applicants must have a doctorate or relevant experience in the field. The deadline for submission is August 20, 2023, 23:59 CET. Applicants can apply using the application form here.
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).
Organizers
Kulturschafft e. V. is a non-profit cultural association based in Berlin, Germany. They realize their projects not only in the context of cultural institutions but also in non-artistic spaces, such as schools, refugee houses, or public urban areas.
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.
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.
