Open Call: Exercising [Eastern] Modernity 2022 - Instytut Pileckiego

The fourth edition of the Exercising Modernity Academy will be devoted to Eastern Europe and historical as well as contemporary methodological approaches to conceptualize it.

Exercising Modernity Academy is a project for intellectual and artistic exchange, focused on describing the Polish share in modern heritage in a new, interdisciplinary way as well as in an international context. The project aims to highlight modern ideas in a broader sense by tracing modernization practices in Europe and beyond, as well as by following the establishment of modern societies and modern states. Nevertheless, we pay special attention to culture, and more specifically to architecture, which we consider a unique field of various intersecting perspectives, ambitions, concerns and hopes
relevant in the formation of the 20th century world.

The fourth edition of the Exercising Modernity Academy will be devoted to Eastern Europe and its historical and contemporary methods of understanding. We want to reflect on the concepts of East and West, have a closer look at the incoherencies between political, geographical, and cultural borders of Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will examine the issue of the role of culture and architecture in shaping the societies, cities and states in this region of the world. Our ambition is to create a field for reflection on the common experience of the 20th century’s modernization movements of the states and peoples of Eastern Europe from the ideological foundations of modernity and its successful representations in art and architecture, through the difficult experience of totalitarianism and its legacy, to
contemporary narratives and self-reflections.

Berlin, 17.10.2022-23.10.2022

Finally, our goal is to sketch a broader and comprehensive perspective on what Eastern Europe is and how we can better understand the events, changes and processes that have shaped the world in recent times.
The Academy will take place in Berlin in October 2022, during which we will encourage a broader reflection on these issues through lectures, seminars and workshops.
The program of the Exercising Modernity Academy 2022 will be focused on four thematic sections:

SECTION I: MODERNITY(-IES) / MODERNISM(-S)

An attempt to understand the different dynamics characterizing 20th-century
aspirations through to modernity, taking into account the cultural, social and political specificities of these transformations in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We will also try to answer the question of whether modernity has brought us closer to the goal of fulfilling utopian visions or has become a source of suffering.

SECTION II: BETWEEN TOTALITARIANISMS

We will try to explore the impact that the experience of the two totalitarianisms had on the peoples, states, and democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, and to what extent this experience is still present in contemporary narratives.

SECTION III: WORLD IN MOTION – DEFINING EAST AND WEST

We will look at how the imagined and experienced divisions between “East” and “West” have been shaped over the past century and in recent years, and how they have manifested themselves in urban spaces.

SECTION IV: DECONSTRUCTION/RECONSTRUCTION

By starting with a reflection on the role of aesthetics in politics, we would like to take a broader look at the issue of constructing forms of commemoration as an element in creating communal identity (national, ethnic, political, etc.). We would like to ask to what extent this kind of legacy constitutes a troublesome legacy today, and what commemorative approaches, translated into architectural realizations or spatial policy, can be found in various countries of the former “Eastern Bloc”.

Through these topics, we will be guided by experts representing different perspectives and disciplines from all over the Europe.

LOCATIONS AND DATES:
The Exercising Modernity Academy 2022 will take place on 17.10–23.10.2022 in Berlin.

SELECTION:
Participants will be selected in an open call procedure, with a maximum of 18 people from Germany, Israel, and Poland (selected candidates should be a permanent resident of one of the aforementioned countries – citizenship is not required. Refugees from Belarus or Ukraine are most welcome).

OUR OFFER INCLUDES:
• Participation in the lectures and seminars of the Exercising Academy 2022
• partial reimbursement of travel costs:
- for participants coming from Germany: up to 90.00 EUR gross;
- for participants coming from Israel: up to 180.00 EUR gross;
- for participants coming from Poland: up to 90.00 EUR gross.
• expenses for accommodation in Berlin covered in full;
• free participation in lectures, seminars and workshops held by experienced and acclaimed scholars and artists;
• for those who complete the course – the possibility of submitting their own
research or artistic project, elaborated or expanded on during classes, for a special scholarship program organized by the Pilecki Institute Berlin and devoted to the issue of modernity in the 20th century (details will be announced during the Academy). 
After the Academy 2022, the participants will have an opportunity to apply for
Exercising Modernity scholarships for research and/or artistic projects.
(About the previous scholarship edition: http://exercisingmodernity.com/en/stypendia-2020/)

APPLICATIONS:
Candidates are invited to submit their applications by e-mail to the address:
apply@exercisingmodernity.com by 15.08.2022 (11:00 p.m. CET). Please write “Academy 2022” as the subject of the e-mail.

A COMPLETE APPLICATION SHOULD INCLUDE:
1. Scans of signed forms:
– declaration concerning the controller of personal data – attachment no. 1,
– declaration concerning the provision of consent to the processing of personal data
and personal image data – attachment no. 2.
2. CV in PDF format (two pages maximum) and/or portfolio (max 50 MB);
3. Description of your artistic/academic/professional interest – related to the main
theme of the Exercising Modernity Academy 2022 (up to 2,500 characters incl. spaces);
4. The organizers reserve the right to contact the selected candidate(s) for additional
online interviews.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Application documents will be accepted only in English;
• Successful candidates undertake to attend the stationary sessions in October 2022
(depending on COVID-19 restrictions);
• Courses, lectures and workshops will be held in English;
• Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact: contact@
exercisingmodernity.com.
• The results of the recruitment procedure will be announced by 25.08.2022, and the list of selected participants will be published:
- on the website of the Pilecki Institute: www.pileckiinstitut.de
- on the Exercising Modernity project website: www.exercisingmodernity.com
- on the Adam Mickiewicz Institute website: www.iam.pl www.culture.pl
• The organizers are not under any obligation to substantiate the decisions of the enrolment committee. No appeal procedure has been provided for.
• For candidates selected to participate in the project, the present document will constitute an attachment to the agreement concluded between any such candidate and the Pilecki Institute.