Open Call 2023

this year’s appli­ca­ti­on peri­od is closed

deut­sche ver­si­on / ver­si­on française

Stay insecure

The sta­te of the world appears fra­gi­le. A voice cal­ling for sta­ble grounds, for solu­ti­ons even, is beco­ming lou­der and lou­der around us and within us.
Uncer­tain­ty haunts us as much as ever­yo­ne else – we, as the working coll­ec­ti­ve of the Resi­den­cy Vil­le­kul­la, are uncer­tain about our ways of doing things but then again quite con­vin­ced of our inten­ti­ons. Hence, we plead for allo­wing uncer­tain­ty to be part of our ever­y­day prac­ti­ces, and to
work on over­co­ming it in coll­ec­ti­ve efforts. Stand­points should be chal­len­ged and que­stio­ned, should be refi­ned and res­haped, in rela­ti­on to what sur­rounds us, in rela­ti­on to others, human and non-human. All of this with the only con­stant of kno­wing that we soon have to over­co­me our­sel­ves again. We want that, precisely.

Full of affec­tion for and by uncer­tain­ty exact­ly, we are hap­py to announ­ce our Open Call for the year of 2023.
Appli­ca­ti­ons can be sent indi­vi­du­al or as a working coll­ec­ti­ve, plea­se get in touch with any que­sti­ons and we’ll try our best to be of help.We are loo­king for­ward to recei­ving your appli­ca­ti­ons!
For the rest, stay uncer­tain and let us be a part of it.
xoxo Working coll­ec­ti­ve Villekulla

Residency

The Vil­le­kul­la is a place for and by artists, an old hou­se with living‑, studio‑, exhi­bi­ti­on- and working-spaces (which are reg­rett­ab­ly, due to the twis­ty archi­tec­tu­re of the hou­se, not sui­ted for wheel­chair access). The Vil­le­kul­la is loca­ted in the heart of the medieval vil­la­ge of Fau­co­gney-et-la-Mer, in the south of the Vos­ges. The vil­la­ge is to be rea­ched eit­her by hitch­hi­king, cycling, wal­king or by car.
The resi­den­cy is in con­stant trans­for­ma­ti­on, a place in pro­gress, a place of encoun­ters and con­stant col­la­bo­ra­ti­on. Our inte­rest does not lay in what you alre­a­dy have achie­ved, but in what you want to remain unsu­re of.
For the year of 2023, we are able to offer two resi­den­cy slots. In each of such, five artists are invi­ted to live and work in the Vil­le­kul­la respectively:

Slot 01: 01.05.2023 – 31.07.2023

Slot 02: 31.07.2023 – 31.10.2023

The resi­den­cy fee amounts to CHF 660.– per per­son in total.

Exhibition

At the end of the year (Decem­ber), the two groups tog­e­ther with the mem­bers of the working coll­ec­ti­ve of the resi­den­cy as well as the cura­tors of the exhi­bi­ti­on space Krone/Couronne in Biel, will be able to work out an exhi­bi­ti­on. The show is inten­ded to take place as a group exhi­bi­ti­on which brings work crea­ted during the resi­den­cy in cont­act with the public. This is not to ask you to crea­te work all tog­e­ther, but rather we are aiming to host indi­vi­du­al as well as coll­ec­ti­ve artis­tic stand­points rela­ting to our annu­al topic “stay­ing uncertain”.

It seems important for us, in pro­s­pect of the group exhi­bi­ti­on, that the two respec­ti­ve groups get to know each other in advan­ce. The­r­e­for, we would like to invi­te you to have lunch all tog­e­ther the day on which the first group departs and the second arri­ves to the hou­se (31.07.2023).

We accept appli­ca­ti­ons until Octo­ber 25th, 2022.

The Jury con­sists out of the Vil­le­kul­la coll­ec­ti­ve and two exter­nal mem­bers.
Appli­ca­ti­ons will pro­ces­sed until the end of Octo­ber, defi­ni­te ans­wers will be sent by email.