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About

Art as Social Practice is a programme for artists of all disciplines who want to situate and expand their practice within social fields. How can artistic practices connect with the concerns of cultural, socio-cultural and political education and their existing pedagogical and systemic dimensions? How can we generate and weave alternative knowledge in collective artistic processes?

The programme invites participants to discuss the hopes and challenges of artistic processes in social practices together with other practitioners and guest lecturers, and to imagine future forms of working and relating across different groups of knowledge.

Information

Participation and Collaboration as Political Processes

Art as social practice takes place in a variety of constellations and moves within different political and social contexts and their specific conditions. Exemplary fields of work are collaborations with schools and daycare centres, neighbourhood work, artistic work with different age and interest groups, actionist interventions in public space and many more. Initiating and moderating participation and collaboration as artistic processes in these different contexts requires not only a high degree of sensitivity and interprofessional understanding from artists, but also a great deal of inventiveness in order to encounter different settings and groups of knowledge.

Contents and Objectives

The programme invites artists who already have some initial experience working artistically in social fields or cultural education. In the framework of four dialogue-oriented modules, the programme offers the opportunity to learn from and with guest lecturers from different contexts of cultural, socio-cultural and socio-political work and to exchange ideas about their own practices and disciplines. In addition to studying transferable skills and teaching tools and strategies, the programme aims to stimulate exchange and networking between arts practitioners and (para-)institutional structure and to create a platform for collaboration. As a complement to an artistic Master's degree or an artistic practice recognised as equivalent, Art as Social Practice imparts knowledge and (self-)awareness to enable artists to cooperate on an equal footing and responsibly with actors and institutions of societal and social contexts as well as within fields of cultural education.

Art as Social Practice is being initiated and supported by Crespo Foundation and offered by the Hessian Theatre Academy and the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in dialogue with the Hessian art academies and is aimed at artists of all disciplines. In distinction to a formal degree, the programme serves as a platform for exchange and networking in an experimental sense, enabling free discourse with experts and colleagues and equipping artists with more self-confidence and ability to act in cooperation with educational and art institutions.

Schedule

Art as Social Practice will begin its second round in October 2024. Between October 2024 and March 2025 participants will meet in the context of four modules lasting several days (see below for dates) at various locations in Frankfurt, Hesse and the surrounding area. Suitable accommodation will be provided and travel expenses will be reimbursed as part of a lump sum. Between the modules there will be a series of online workshops.

Participants

Curriculum

Download the curriculum23/24 here

Application

The first pilot phase of Art as Social Practice ends this year, but the program will continue! An update on the future of the program will follow as soon as possible. The next call for applications is expected in spring 2026. 

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Accessibility

If required, suitable accommodation will be provided for overnight stays during the modules; meals will be provided during the module days. Travel costs to attend the modules will be reimbursed. The programme will take place in German and English spoken language as agreed. Sign language interpreters can be organized if required. Unfortunately, the Gebhardshütte is not wheelchair accessible. All venues have all-gender toilets. Participants are welcome to bring their children to the modules. Unlearning ableist and discriminatory structures is part of the curriculum; nevertheless, the programme still acts in a world that continues to dis-able. We rely on feedback to break down existing barriers. If you need assistance or support, or have questions about or feedback on accessibility, please be in touch via kasp_at_orga.hfmdk-frankfurt.de.

Team / Contact

Frida Laux, MA in Choreography and Performance, works as artist, educator and curator in the field of social practice. Through transdisciplinary and process-based collaborations, she engages with art as a collective and (con)textual practice that explores how we relate as a wider ecology of knowledge. She has worked on accessibility and accountability as relational and generative practices and engages in the co-organization of the Performing Arts Forum in St Erme (France). Her collaborative works have been invited and shown at festivals and venues such as Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt, Teatro Il Lavatoio Santarcangelo, Queer Zagreb Festival, MOT Festival Skopje, Act Festival Bulgaria, Hessische Theatertage and Festival Implantieren Frankfurt. Since 2023, she runs the Art as Social Practice program at the HfMDK Frankfurt, bringing together artists who situate their work in social contexts.  Forthcoming is the publication Access and Exhaustion, exploring practices and perspectives that seek to expand the concept of accessibility in art and beyond.

E: frida.laux_at_hfmdk-frankfurt.de

Janka Visky studied political science, discourse and ideology analysis and social and cultural anthropology at Babes-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, University of Essex and Goethe University Frankfurt. She is interested in how the aesthetics of participatory theatre can contribute to democratic processes and currently she is writing her master's thesis based on the case study of Kerekasztal Theatre in Education Company, Budapest. She workst as project assistant at Art as Social Practice. 

E: janka.visky_at_hfmdk-frankfurt.de

For general inquiries and questions, please mail to kasp_at_orga.hfmdk-frankfurt.de

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