EAST CALL CURATORIAL RESIDENCY

Period: 14 – 27 October 2024

Length: 2 weeks

Location: Budapest 

Application deadline: 16 August 2024

East Call Curatorial Residency offers a unique opportunity for emerging curators to gain a comprehensive insight in the Hungarian contemporary art scene by examining its characteristics and understanding them in a broader, regional context.

East Call is an intensive 2-week program that focuses on the status and practice of artists, contemporary curatorial conditions, institutional situations and the understanding of issues affecting contemporary art, with a focus on the roles and responsibilities of curators as mediators between audiences and artists, and researchers as theoretical transmitters of knowledge, interpretation and contextualization. 

East Call aims to foster dialogue on issues surrounding curation and to interrogate what constitutes “the curatorial” in the Central Eastern European region. The East Call program focuses on open, horizontal and conversation-based transfers of knowledge and experience.

The program is designed for emerging curators and curators-to-be still involved in their studies who expect to work in the field of contemporary art. It intends to introduce participants to current and relevant practices as well as to the mechanisms of curating in relation to exhibitions, institutions, audiences, aesthetics and cultural political discourse.

Throughout the two-week program, participants intensively expand their professional knowledge and practice by conducting in-depth investigation of contemporary exhibitions, getting introduced to case studies of leading curators’ engagements, taking part in curatorial workshops, visiting artist studios, and exchanging, discussing with each other during these meetings. By sharing the experiential and theoretical best practices of leading contemporary art museums, galleries, the program offers a unique chance to the participants to develop project ideas, conduct research of their particular interests, enrich connections and networks internationally as well as elaborate discussions with contemporary art professionals active in Budapest.

Participation fee: 1200 EUROS

The fee includes the use of office facilities, participation in workshops, guest lectures, entry fees of museums and special events, the use of public transport in Budapest.​

Please fill the application form: https://forms.gle/iK4qbDuEgXQzc9Fg9 

Application deadline: 16 August 2024.

Selection process: 21 August 2024.
For additional information, please contact us at: easttopics@gmail.com, www.easttopics.com

More details about the residency:

Unique structure and stakes

Since 2019, Easttopics organizes curatorial residency programs that are among the first ones to focus on the contemporary art scene of the Central Eastern European region. Our curatorial residency programs offer a unique opportunity for emerging curators to gain a comprehensive insight in the CEE contemporary art scene by examining its characteristics and understanding them in a broader, regional context.

Program structure and values:

  • Unfolding as a 2 week intensive program
  • providing access to a strong network of diverse, visionary and agile practitioners in the field of exhibition making and institution building, shaped by our alumni and advisors
  • offering the opportunity for highly-motivated individuals from distinct social and cultural contexts to come together, collaborate and find ways to learn from each other and from leaders in their chosen field
  • allowing participants to intensively expand their professional knowledge and practice by conducting in-depth investigations of contemporary exhibitions
  • comprising self-reflexive discussions and debates examining how the residencies can help young curators to develop in a professional way 
  • getting introduced to case studies of leading curators and their engagements, 
  • taking part in curatorial workshops
  • visiting artist’s studio, and exchanging, discussing with each other during their stay
  • sharing the experimental and theoretical best practices of leading contemporary art museums, galleries and research centres 
  • offering to the participants a unique chance to develop project ideas, conduct research of their particular interests, enrich connections and networks internationally as well as elaborate discussions with contemporary art professionals active in CEE

Core topics:

  • Contemporary art scene and its player in Budapest and other CEE countries (2021: focus on Slovakia)
  • Emerging and established contemporary curatorial practices and the issues, topics they address
  • Cultural, historical and political background allowing a better understanding of contemporary issues addressed by art
  • The region’s art market and collecting practices
  • Networking with artists, curators, art critics and directors

Whom is this program designed for?

  • Emerging curators who, engaging with art and contemporary culture, wish to take up the challenge of contemporary curating as an artistic, social and critical commitment
  • Applicants with a study background in any of the following areas of contemporary art: curatorial studies, theory and philosophy of art, art history, art management and art production, visual arts, fine arts, as well as university graduates in the cultural studies field
  • Candidates who have acquired curatorial skills through practical experience in a public institution, a commercial gallery or independently

Previous Editions & Alumni

Tutors, lecturers and guest teachers over the past years have included:

Barnabás BENCSIK, Fanni MAGYAR, Tünde VARGA, Gergő NAGY, Tamás DON, Claudia KUSSEL, Dóra HEGYI, Ilona NÉMETH, Imre BAK, Péter BENCZE, Zsolt PETRÁNYI, Alexander TINEI, Zsófi RECHNITZER, Juraj CARNY, Lýdia PRIBIŠOVÁ, Sári EMBER, Máté DOBÓKAY, Random Routines, Borsos Lőrinc, Péter KREKÓ, János SZOBOSZLAI, Eszter CSILLAG, Petra FERIANCOVÁ and many more

Alumni:

Alana J. COATES, Alex HARTSTONE, Ann Mirjam VAIKLA, Genevieve FARRELL, 

Golnoosh HESHMATI, Josh PLOUGH, Julia KORZYCKA, Karina CABANIKOVA, Luisa HEESE, Oleksandra POGREBNYAK, Salima EL AISSAOUI, Takuya TSUTSUMI, 

Alexandra MANOLE, Ana SÁNCHEZ, Anna PALUCH,  Beatrice GABRIEL, Caitlin PARKS SWINDELL, Dayun RYU, Denise ARAOZOU, Kristi GIAMBATTISTA, Madeline BREWER, Marjolein PAS,  Minji CHUN, Talia GOLLAND, Henry HENG LU,  Katherine C. M. ADAMS, Whitney MASHBURN, Katarina CARILLO, Ioulita TOUMAZI, BelénMARTÍNEZ GAMERO, Emily FITZPATRICK, Gabriella REBELLO KOLANDRA, Jessica BENNETT, Yue YU, ELEKI Rebeka, Nupur DOSHI, Mila JANUSZOVA, Olivia DERESTI-ROBINSON