Fellowship

BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht is proud to announce the 2023/2024 Fellows within the BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice post-academic program, taking place in a federated constellation of two research cells in Istanbul and Utrecht.

Hosted by The Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme (ÇAP) at Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the Istanbul cell is composed of artist collective adaptör projekt; artist Betül Aksu; journalist and documentary filmmaker Varduhi Balyan; artist, writer, and translator Alev Ersan; artist, researcher, and architect Hanieh Fatouraee; filmmaking duo Enis Köstepen and Irmak Karasu; artist and academic Esra Oskay; artist collective SB Arch Lab; artist and researcher Seher Uysal; and activist and researcher Ayça Yüksel.

The BAK cell in Utrecht is composed of artist Teresa Borasino; artist Iliada Charalambous; artist and activist Yuliia Elyas; filmmaker, researcher, and educator  Astrid Feringa; collective The Garage School; curator, dramaturge, and researcher Marta Keil; conceptual visual artist and researcher Andrea Knezovic; designer and artist Siwar Krai(y)tem; choreographer, sound artist, and researcher Paula Montecinos Oliva; artist and activist Maoyi Qiu; collective Radical Data; and documentary maker and editor Firat Yücel.

The Fellows have been selected on the basis of their proposals to develop experimental research within the expanded field of contemporary art and in connection with the overarching research trajectory “Alignment/Nonalignment”—a layered and urgent geopolitical proposition pertaining to the questions of organization, positionality, and solidarity. This research focus emerged in the context of the 2021/2022 edition of the BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice and was specifically prompted by the unjustifiable military invasion of Ukraine: a chain of events that strengthened the refusal of all forms of imperialism and amplified the need for practices of sharing and reconnection with collectivist initiatives, non-official histories, and subterranean legacies that have enacted and cultivated solidarities against the grain of imposed archives, identities, and structures.

BAK has been developing its post-academic fellowship program since 2017. The program focuses on facilitating research that reframes and rethinks conditions of the contemporary through theoretically informed and sociopolitically driven art and inquiry. It offers positions to practitioners working across art, theory, and social action, providing the opportunity and resources to develop their respective practice, research, and talent.

The 2023/2024 BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice is realized by BAK in collaboration with The Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), Istanbul.

The BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice is convened by Zeyno Pekünlü and Dina Mohamed,  and coordinated by Irene Calabuch Mirón.

BAK’s main partner in the field of education and research is HKU University of the Arts, Utrecht.

BAK’s activities have been made possible through financial contributions by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the City of Utrecht.

Vanaf 2021 breidt het programma zich, onder de naam BAK Fellowship for Situated Practice, uit tot een nieuwe samenstelling van verspreide maar onderling verbonden ‘onderzoekscellen’, die op afstand samenwerken vanuit Nederland en verschillende andere plekken over de wereld. Naar aanleiding van de naderende ‘eeuw van de pandemieën’ en in aansluiting op BAK’s doorlopende experimenteren met ‘instituting otherwise’, richt het programma zich op de mogelijkheid om een verspreide, op samenwerking gestoelde praktijk te ontwikkelen. Deze is gebaseerd op een affiniteit met andere instellingen en bewegingen, die gesitueerd zijn in contexten met overlappende geschiedenissen en met elkaar verstrengelde urgenties. Voor de editie van 2023/24 zijn er twee van dit soort cellen, die worden gehost door de volgende partnerinstellingen: BAK in Utrecht, en The Istanbul Production and Research Programme in The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) in Istanboel. Binnen de individuele onderzoekscellen werken de Fellows per locatie in (relatieve) fysieke nabijheid.

De praktijk, intensiteit en het ritme van de onderzoekscellen worden lokaal bepaald en afgestemd met de organiserende partnerinstellingen. Het volledige Fellowshipcohort (alle vier cellen) komt wekelijks samen in Fellowship Intensives. Deze vinden grotendeels plaats via digitale platforms en andere technologische middelen. De Fellowship Intensives worden om de beurt geleid door elk van de onderzoekscellen en door het freethought collectief, in de geest van peer-to-peer, gezamenlijke studie.

De Fellowship for Situated Practice is een initiatief van BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, gerealiseerd in samenwerking met The Istanbul Production and Research Programme (IKSV), Istanboel. Het programma is mogelijk gemaakt met steun van het Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap en Gemeente Utrecht.