OPEN CALL TO SOUTH AFRICAN BASED ARTISTS FOR A 3 MONTH RESIDENCY IN LIA

Calling South African based artists from across all disciplines but with a focus in digital media output to apply for a collaborative print-making residency in Leipzig, Germany.

The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg (www.lessgoodidea.com) and LIA-Leipzig International Art Programme (www.liap.eu) invite artists working across all disciplines but particularly in the digital realm (video, performance, media art, sound art) to apply for participation in an international artist in residence programme (LIA) in Leipzig Germany. The residency involves attending an etching workshop and learning about the print-making process at Atelier für Radierung Maria und Vlado Ondrej (www.radierung-leipzig.de).

This project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt)

LIA studio
WHAT IS OFFERED?
3 Residency Periods: 1st February to 1st May 2022 (4 studios), 1st August to 31st October 2022 (2 studios), 1st November 2022 to 31st January 2023 (3 studios)
LIA offers 9 selected artists the opportunity for a 3-month long residency. An 80m² furnished studio to live and work in and a monthly fellowship of 800 €. The monthly fellowship grant has to be offset against receipts and is allocated as follows: 400 € – fixed monthly for food; 200 € fixed monthly for local travel and once off for health & travel insurance; 200 € fixed monthly for material costs, one international return flight ticket at a maximum of 800 € . Within the residency artists are required to participate in an in depth etching workshop paid for by LIA.
Please note, the team of the print studio works preliminary with artists who do not work in the field of printmaking and as such guide, teach and inform residents throughout the process. An edition of 7 prints will be made of which the artist receives 4 artist proofs. Furthermore a local artist will be selected to partner up with the fellow in the etching symposia, giving artistic and cultural support.Please see www.monocle.com/film/culture/leipzig-s-artist-studios/ as well as the LIA website and click on application for further information of all services included. The fellowship also includes a group show during the Spinnerei Rundgang /Spinnerei Gallery Tours at the end of the residency (www.Spinnerei.de & www.spinnereigalerien.de).Full costs for the production of one print theme at Atelier für Radierung Maria und Vlado Ondrej (www.radierung-leipzig.de) etching studio is included in the residency. The project aims at producing an African German print edition that will be part of a traveling exhibition.
What are the requirements?
* Artists need to live and work primarily in South Africa but need not to be South African. Your overall practice should involve a digital technique such as sound, electronics, photography, film making or new media.* Send a short motivation text of no more than 500 words in a PDF file. The PDF file needs to include 6 images of your work and a short CV with relevant works to your application and your intention. Please cite your web-site if there is one. *It is essential that the subject line of your email application states: African Leipzig Application | South Africa.*You will receive an email reply within one week. If you do not receive this confirming email please send the original dated application again.
SEND TO: Nicolò Brezza <assistent@liap.eu>, & Dimakatso Motholo <lessgoodidea@gmail.com>
SUBJECT: African Leipzig Application South Africa (compulsory in order to proceed)
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 23rd August 2021
SUCCESSFUL RECIPIENTS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY: mid October 2021
The Centre for the Less Good Idea (CFTLGI) was founded by leading contemporary and multi-disciplinary artist William Kentridge in collaboration with visual artist Bronwyn Lace. It is an interdisciplinary incubator for the arts based in Johannesburg, South Africa. CFTLGI is a physical and immaterial space to pursue incidental discoveries made in the process of producing work. ~ “Often, you start with a good idea, it might seem crystal clear at first, but when you take it off the proverbial drawing board, cracks and fissures emerge in its surface, and they cannot be ignored. It is in following the secondary ideas, those ‘less good ideas ‘coined to address the first idea’s cracks, that the Centre nurtures, arguing that in the act of playing with an idea, you can recognise those things you didn’t know in advance but knew somewhere inside of you” William Kentridge (2016).
CFTLGI opens itself several times a year to host generative and multi-modal workshops through which ideas are precipitated into material form as performances and finally assert their autonomy as free-standing public events. In 2020, the Academy for the Less Good Idea was launched. The academy is called ‘SO’ — the exclamation that often begins a conversation. Over the past 4 years, the CFTLGI, in its collaborative and multidisciplinary approach, has recognised a powerful, yet unforced learning that takes place between practitioners in the building of seasons and programmes. SO Academy seeks to expand, extend and actualise these learning opportunities. This residency project falls under the banner of SO Academy and is in collaboration with David Krut Projects, a neighbour to the CFTLGI in Arts on Main, Johannesburg and the print studio, etching and project partner for this call. (www.davidkrut.com).
Leipzig International Art Programme (LIA) is an international artist residency programme. It offers a spacious studio and exhibition space located at the Spinnerei Leipzig (www.spinnerei.de). LIA focuses on being a space of experimentation and learning within a strong local artist community and a city of rich cultural traditions. LIA has noted through its exchanges that local and international artists impact each other while exchanging experiences and that this in turn has the capacity to shift our ways of seeing. The founder of LIA, Anna-Louise Rolland, states, “At LIA, we believe that moving outside of our comfort zone leads to new perspectives and an opening up. International visual artists working together with other artistic disciplines, public spaces and institutions such as local museums and collections fits perfectly into this philosophy. Interdisciplinary collaborations can lead to the development of new approaches and new kinds of artistic exchange”. Since 2007 over 400 artists from 40 nations have taken part in the programme. The residency consists of; regular studio visits by curators, field excursions, and organised visiting artist studios in Leipzig. At the Spinnerei Gallery Tour, LIA offers a wide audience access to the making process by giving guided tours, organising ‘meet the artists’ events and orchestrating opportunities for engaged conversations. LIA aims to build more personal connections between the artists and the surrounding communities by encouraging discussions within the artists studio. Furthermore, group exhibitions by current and former residents are regularly curated and shown locally and internationally. Access to the sculptural artefact collection of Grassi Museum of Ethnography in Leipzig (https://grassi-voelkerkunde.skd.museum) is available should artists be interested.