Collecting Matters, an exchange | Application
1 March 2012
A project conceived and developed by: David Roberts Art Foundation (DRAF), London; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; Nomas Foundation, Rome.
Can a collection – or more generally collecting – be considered as an archive? According to Michel
Foucault the archive becomes an exchange “of archaeological inquiry, a journey through time and
space; one whose methodological apparatus does not set a condition of validity for judgments, but a
condition of reality for statements”.
The Kadist Art Foundation (Paris), Nomas Foundation (Rome) and David Roberts Art Foundation
(London), wish to offer their collections as a research tool, to develop an exchange on notions of
collection/collecting through an interdisciplinary curatorial fellowship.
Each Foundation fosters a significant collection, featuring leading contemporary artists, and shares a
common interest in supporting the development of contemporary artistic and curatorial practices.
The newly formed partnership between the three Foundations marks a collective commitment to encouraging new ways of thinking, sharing and producing knowledge about collections.
Acknowledging that the structure and fundamental philosophy behind collecting contemporary art is constantly evolving, the focus of this fellowship will be placed upon on research, as an elastic and
flexible practice akin to the process of collecting.
The Collecting Matters, an exchange Fellowship is initiated through considering each Foundation’s
collection as a resource rather than an entity. It is hoped that the collections will become a tool to
generate experimental experience, and provide a present ground to think through past and potential approaches to working with and reading through a group of artworks. Each fellowship candidate will be stimulated to conceive of new and challenging ways to question collections, the act of collecting and
exhibition making from their own practice whilst establishing a co-relational knowledge across the Foundations, Universities and creative fields to share ideas and structures of working.
Throughout the duration of the Fellowship attention will be drawn towards how a collection could be considered as a creative process within curatorial and artistic practice, highlighting the inherent relation between performativity and object based production.
Recognising the shifting strategies of contemporary curatorial practice and its diverse educational
formats that go beyond the making of exhibitions, the Foundations seek to develop a partnership with
three interdisciplinary, European visual culture courses. Each year, the fellowship will take place in a
different city (Rome, Paris and London) and three scholars with different disciplinary and professional backgrounds in the arts – visual arts, dance, theatre, film and music – are invited to confront their ideas during a one-week workshop session.
Following a session, one of the scholars will have the opportunity to produce a project that develops
his/her own research through the presentation of the collections in one of the Foundations’ premises.
The Collection Matters, an exchange Fellowship is characterised by the quality of the produced
project but also on the richness of partnership between the three foundations and the following postgraduate programs: the Fine Arts Master (Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam), Graduate Programme
in Visual and Performing Arts (IUAV, Venice), MA Course 'Curating the Contemporary' (London
Metropolitan University and Whitechapel Gallery, London).
APPLICATION: SELECTION CRITERIA
Phase 1:
The application call is submitted TO THE students TROUGH THE FACULTY WEB SITE. The language of the application is English.
The students first apply with a letter of intention/ PURPOSE/AIM (max. 2 pages) explaining their interest in The Exchange Fellowship, possible projects or concepts for the project and a CV. The applications should be sent to collecting.matters@gmail.com before/WITHIN 31st March 2012.
Applications WILL BE EVALUATED according to INTENTION, PURPOSE, MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART HISTORY KNOWLEDGE, CRITICAL SKILLS, ENGLISH FLUENCY.
The three nominees will be selected by the curators of each Foundation : Sandra Terdjman & Léna Monnier (Kadist), Vincent Honoré (DRAF), Cecilia Canziani & Ilaria Gianni (Nomas).
DURING THE 1 WEEK WORKSHOP STUDENTS WILL MEET ARTISTS, STUDY THE 3 COLLECTIONS, and VISIT CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM IN ROME.
The three nominees will be invited by the Foundations to spend a one week-research workshop in one of the cities (Rome for the first edition in 2012) together with the curators from each Foundation.
EACH NOMINEE WILL RECEIVE A GRANT FOR TRIP, ACCOMODATION AND A PER DIEM.
Phase 2:
A project proposal will be submitted by the chosen applicants to collecting.matters@gmail.com.
The proposal must show a clear understanding and an innovative approach to the notion of collection/collecting. It must include works from all three collections and address some of the ideas
discussed during the workshop. The jury will also pay particular attention to the feasibility and the
originality of the proposal.
Please note: The project can take several forms, such as: a radio program, a research based project, a
study case focused on one artist featured within the three collections, a symposium, a book, an
exhibition, etc.
The final exhibition proposal will be selected by a jury composed of two international curators and
one curator from each foundation.
For the edition in 2012, the selected project will be in Roma.
THE FOUNDATIONS PROVIDE:
A production budget up to 5.500,00€ (including all costs and curatorial fee).
Technical, administrative and communication assistance.
The selected fellow will be encouraged to find additional funding and partnerships to help realise his/her project.
THE FOUNDATIONS
David Roberts Art Foundation, London
The David Roberts Art Foundation: exhibiting, producing, sharing. A platform dedicated to critical
dialogues and experiments, directed and curated by Vincent Honoré.
Through our projects, we aim to question the structures of production and reception of art works and
exhibitions. We invite artists to explore the different formats of an exhibition and to consider it not as a fixed structure, but as a temporary proposal opened to evolutions, experimentations and
modifications. Together with group or solo exhibitions, the Foundation hosts an active programme of
performances and discussions.
The David Roberts Collection encompasses more than 1600 works acquired in the last ten years by more than 300 British and international artists. Focusing on recent contemporary art, the collection doesn’t concentrate on any particular medium, period or area, yet, some artists are collected in depth.
Our acquisition’s policy is to keep the collection as diverse and dynamic as possible, by acquiring works by International well-known and emerging artists as well as recent graduates.
http://www.davidrobertsartfoundation.com/
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
Kadist Art Foundation is a private foundation initiated in 2001. It is dedicated to promoting
contemporary art through the constitution of an art collection and the organization of exhibitions and
residencies in its space in Paris. Kadist’s intention is to be actively involved in the promotion and
international dimension of contemporary art.
The collection brings together international artists and contemporary works of all mediums. It is the
seminal point of involvement with artists that can thereafter expand to a residency and exhibition
project.
The residencies are open to international artists and curators, invited to spend four to six months in
Paris leading to an exhibition project at the Foundation. By means of these various programs, Kadist
manifests its support to a group of artists who define together its artistic identity.
Kadist Art Foundation makes collective decisions by its artistic committee which comprises, besides
the founding family members, curators, advisors and team of Kadist-Paris.
www.kadist.org
Nomas Foundation, Rome
Founded in 2008 by Stefano and Raffaella Sciarretta, Nomas Foundation aims at supporting and promoting contemporary research in art. The program, curated by Cecilia Canziani and Ilaria Gianni, focuses on the structure and language of art through the analysis of critical and emerging practices on an international level. Nomas Foundation is a mobile, flexible organism, capable of taking in differences as a value to be fostered and promoted. Mobility is a key factor behind its experimentation, opportunities, cultural interchange, and research.
The programme is structured in different sections: exhibitions that involves the collaboration with
national and international artists; talk and seminars with prominent figures of contemporary culture
(Reading Room); research and educational activities in collaboration with local schools and art
academies (Nomas Lab).
Stefano and Raffaella’s collection saw the light in the early 90’s: in a first time it was close to Italian Pop Art; shortly afterwards it took into consideration young national art, especially that which was ignored by the market and it was practised almost fearfully – and in the following years it opened up
to international artists with their own cultural, social, geographical peculiarities. The ensemble of
these identitites and practices research and interests, enabled the development of the eclectic and
still-in progress phisiognomy of the collection itself which now comprises approximately 400 works,
by over 200 artists, placing particular value on those researches which look critically into the topics of our time: the manipulation of information, the dictatorship of financial economy, the social and
cultural conflicts, the exploitation of people.