AADK Spain
AADK Spain is an international artists platform that creates space for research and contemporary art creation. Focused on process and experimentation, the main interest is to explore the notions of body, spatiality and territory.
In 2006 AADK (Aktuelle Architektur Der Kultur), an artist's network based in Berlin came together to develop curatorial and artistic projects. Invading and transforming spaces that goes from unused places to art institutions; establishing new relationships between curation, creation and reception; and generating experiences that displace the margins of the art practices
As a continuation of this project, in 2012, Abraham Hurtado, performer and visual artist, founded AADK Spain, settling at Centro Negra, (Blanca, Murcia, Spain) to work in a rural context - from local to global.
Along these years, AADK Spain has created and established different programs such as: Interventions, The Residency Program, Contemporary Practices, Cartographies, AADK Radio, or La Peña Negra, among others.
AADK Spain also works in close collaboration with other artistic and cultural spaces, this allows them to promote the mobility and exchange for the visiting artists and their art-work at a national and international levels.
About the Residency
The Residency program is a space for experimentation and dialogue where confronting the artists with their ideas and finding the deeper meanings of their work.
Process based and focused, we challenge the artists to experiment and take risks, sharing their doubts, and trials.
We invite residents to work at the intersection of art, social sciences, and local communities. Connecting the topics with the context, AADK Spain supports cultural decentralization and access to contemporary art in the rural areas, considering the town of Blanca and its surroundings an integral frame where to intervene.
Committed to a direct, engaged, hands-on approach, we are interested in facilitating research and knowledge building about how rural environments can move forward in the current era of mass urbanization, from social, economic, and environmental perspective. We believe in the importance of process and experimentation, resisting the violence of fast time, and in connecting the rural and the urban, the local and global. By facilitating encounters between visiting artists, the landscape, and local communities, AADK Spain offers an unparalleled opportunity for thinking together in a time of globalization and crisis.
The purpose of the residency program is to improve the artist's work, as well as experiencing the co-living in a temporary community – a core of which is the knowledge exchange and the mutual caring.
We are currently seeking artists and researchers for the next round of residencies, which lasts from 1 to 6 months, between January and December 2017.
We support our visiting artists by providing: curatorial and organizational support; facilitating open dialogue through organizing critiques, guest visits, seminars, and workshops; basic tools, supplies, and technical equipment; communication structures in the form of promotions; connecting artists to other art institutions nationally and internationally.
“We believe in art as a life experience which, at least, changes those who practice it. The temporary communities created in the residency program with a wide range of nationalities, ages, and professional stages of their career, enrich not only the artwork but the -being in the world-, opening our understanding, and engaging with what we do.”
About Centro Negra
Centro Negra, the of AADK Spain, is located in a town of Blanca (Murcia region, south of Spain).
Blanca is a unique historical town of 6.000 inhabitants, settled in the Ricote valley, crossed by the Segura river. A picturesque site surrounded by mountains and citrus orchards.
Centro Negra is nestled in the cradle of a mountain on the former site of a 12th century Moorish Castle, only accessible by foot.
A set of poultry yards build in the beginning of the XX Century was transformed in the actual building, a minimalistic space that preserve in its structure the walls of the mountain.
Studios/exhibition area has 6 different spaces, which are interconnected to each other and could serve for multiple purposes.
The living area has 4 individual apartments, with private kitchen and shower, and direct access to the terrace and studio/exhibition area.
Application:
To apply for the Residency Program, two years of professional experience is required.
Please send an email to info@aadk.es, asking for the application form. Then send residency proposals including: the completed application form, research proposal -including motivation and expectations from the residency- (maximum length of 1000 words), a short Bio. Máximum 250 words, and a resume in PDF form.
Deadline: 05th December 2016
The selection process will take place between the 05th to the 10th of December 2016.
The projects will be selected by a committee composed by members of AADK platform.