Application deadline: 5 September 2012

Launched in October 2010 at the initiative of the European School of Visual Art, the postgraduate program Document and Contemporary Art, in partnership with the École nationale supérieure d’art de Bourges, is open to art or film students, young curators or art critics seeking to prolong their studies through a year of experimental inquiry at the crossroads of the document and contemporary art, irrespective of media or technique.

The aim of the postgraduate program is to foster theoretical and practical reflection on the function of the document and the archive in the field of art and the social world. The program’s first two years focused on the performative dimension of the document. What is the document’s function? How can it be activated? What, in turn, can it activate? Can one speak of “performative documents”?

Over the course of its third year, the research program will focus more particularly on translation, in the broadest sense of the term, as an agent of a document’s activation and transformation. If it is not to remain inert, a document has to be activated, inscribed in a new context of appearance—that is, translated in some expanded sense, not merely from one language to another but between one medium and another.

The program’s activities are concentrated into monthly one-week sessions. These sessions take the form of a seminar, structured around the presentations of invited artists, theorists or curators.

2012–13 will be organized nomadically, favoring mobility. Subject to final confirmation, program sessions will be held in Poitiers, Madrid, Bourges, Angoulême, Los Angeles…

An annual journal, Cahiers du post-diplôme, bears witness to the program’s activities by bringing together the participating artists’ work and the contributions of the invited artists. An exhibition focusing on performative documents is scheduled at La Box gallery (Bourges) in early 2013 in the framework of an open invitation to the postgraduate program. A partnership with CalArts (California Institute of the Arts, Valencia), more specifically with the Film and Critical Studies departments, will be continued this year in the form of a joint seminar.

The program’s recruitment is international. English is the principal working language.

The postgraduate program provides a theoretical and practical platform in the perspective of defining and proposing original modes of research in art. As debates, practices and partnerships develop over the intermediate term, the program is poised to evolve toward a practice-based PhD in artistic research.
Application

Applicants should hold a national or international level-1 degree or equivalent (high-school certificate + 5 years of post-secondary study). Following a preliminary selection on the basis of the candidate’s artistic dossier, letter of application and curriculum vitae, applicants will be invited to an interview by a panel. The artistic dossier should include documentation of work produced by the applicant (texts, photographs, films, catalogues, articles). For film or sound works, applicants should select excerpts of 12 minutes maximum. The letter of application (2 pages maximum) should present the candidate’s itinerary, past experiences and particular interest in the postgraduate program.

The postgraduates will have access to the technical facilities of the School and will receive a stipend of 4000 euros. The group will be made up of four young practitioners.

The artistic dossier and a letter of application should be sent by 5 September 2012. Interviews with the selection committee will be held on 17 September 2012.

Wesite: www.eesi.eu