Open call for “Constructing Care” a Research-Based Residency Project

Constructing Care is a research-based residency project that aims to address the issues of the global care crisis from a local perspective. The residency also aims to foster cultural production – a new artistic work or curatorial plan. Long term plan (for 2025) is to create and present an exhibition devoted to the art of care based on the echoes of the residency Constructing Care. The goal is to establish a lasting connection among the residents that can be utilized in their future work, as well as a meaningful creative involvement in the communities they are meeting during the residency period. Applications that address care as an intimate, personal and interpersonal act are welcome, as well as proposals that reflect on the political dimensions of the crisis of care: as the lack of appropriate state support, the link between care workers and migration, feminised labour in the care sphere, and the gender aspect of the invisible unpaid care work etc. The project will enhance networking among the engaged artists and the local scene, to present the care community as a self-aware and empowered affinity group.

GuestRoomMaribor supports a collaborative environment through a tailored program that encourages interdisciplinary exploration and engagement. The program also offers professional development activities, including mentoring sessions, lectures with researchers and scholars. Furthermore, each residency-related material will be shared through online platforms during and beyond the residency period. The residency period lasts 35 days (days of travel not included) and they will be hosting 5 residents in the same period of time.

They Offer

• Daily allowance: 25 EUR x 35 days = 875 EUR
• Travel allowance: 350 EUR or 700 EUR (350 EUR if you travel a distance under 600 km or 350 EUR + 350 EUR (top-up) if you travel a distance from 600 km to 5.000 km
• Green top-up: no airplane both ways; for travel distance more than 600 km one way 350 EUR
• Visa allowance 80 EUR
• Family top-up for residents with one or more children below the age of 10 in the amount of 100 EUR
• Disability Support up to 75 EUR per day per participant with special needs linked to disability
• Free accommodation in separate units
• Curatorial and productional support

They Expect the Applicant to

• deliver a public presentation of their artistic practice or activity in the field of culture at the beginning of the residency
• actively participate in research in the field of care and to develop a project or an idea for a project in the field of care in dialogue with other residents, mentors and activists during the time of the residency
• attend public and internal events on the subject of care that will be organized during the residency (they will host an exhibition, panel discussion of professionals in the field, visits to institutions and local communities offering care, reading circle)
• participate in the final public presentation of the outcomes of the research/creative process at the end of the residency
• be present in Maribor for the entire duration of the residency project.

Eligibility Criteria

• They will be accepting artists working in various fields of visual, performative and relational art – painting, drawing, photography, video art, graphic arts, digital arts, sculpture, site specific practices, relational aesthetics, community arts and performing arts, curation.
• Applicants must be legal residents of one of the Creative Europe countries beyond Slovenia: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Ukraine;
• Including: Overseas Countries and Territories: Aruba (The Netherlands), Bonaire (The Netherlands), Curaçao (The Netherlands), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (France), Greenland (Denmark), New Caledonia (France), Saba (The Netherlands), Saint Barthelemy (France), Sint Eustatius (The Netherlands), Sint Maarten (The Netherlands), St. Pierre and Miquelon (France), and Wallis and Futuna Islands (France)
• and Outermost Regions: Azores (Portugal), Canary Islands (Spain), French Guiana (France), Guadeloupe (France), Madeira (Portugal), Martinique (France), Mayotte (France), Reunion Island (France), and Saint-Martin (France).

Selection Criteria

• a timely and complete application in English language
• clear draft of the research field connected to the subject of care
• project feasibility
• references of the applicant
• non-normative ways of acting and thinking about the social and/or natural phenomena, including the artistic ones.
• Furthermore, they are inviting applicants who
  • are research-oriented or understand the research process as an integral part of the artistic-creative process without reducing the latter to the research of the artistic medium or the visualization of data
  • establish a reflective attitude towards the social, cultural, historical, or political context of the local community.

For more information, visit GuestRoomMaribor.