PUBLICATION

Facilitated by John Holten

Throughout the 3 months of the program, the participants will be accompanied by John Holten, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Broken Dimanche Press. Together with the 8 participants, Broken Dimanche Press will be developing a publication of the entire project.

AFFECT provides the opportunity for a comprehensive research to determine the artist's position in an ever-fluctuating socio-political landscape. This program at Agora is a catalyst for participating artists to investigate established views on communities, movements and networking. These factors are deeply rooted in Berlin and provide fertile soil for expansion of knowledge within artistic practices today.
Agora’s collaborative identity is reflected in AFFECT. Significant elements of this program are the encounters with professionals based in Berlin, with whom Agora has established partnerships: spaces, artists, curators and a range of cross-disciplinary professionals. These encounters stimulate the participants in their research and provide the necessary tools to let their efforts manifest themselves. Participants are assisted in producing pieces, developing talks, collaborating with other initiatives and in meeting communities that they want to involve in their research.
The first part of AFFECT is designated for participants to establish their individual position within not only the residency but also the context of Berlin. This is accomplished by means of open public presentations and exhibitions of the participants’ own works and practices at Agora.
After the artists have established themselves, the program moves into a collaborative construction. Transposing the program to a collaborative framework means that a temporary community is formed. The particular dynamics of such a group gives the artists the environment to productively experiment with the issues at hand. The group develops concepts that are materialized according to the negotiations and agreements they set up.
Subsequently, artists are invited to show their work in a city teeming with cultural history and development. The outcome of the research will be presented at an off-site location hosted by one of the partner spaces. The artists have free access to the exhibition space in the time leading up to the conclusion of the program with a curator involved to facilitate the process. Agora AFFECT will be concluded with the event that the participating artists produce at this location.
The outcome of the research and conclusion of Affect will be presented and hosted by one of Agora’s partner spaces at the end of each module.
There is almost always a void between socio-political goals and realties of their contexts. This void is the discrepancy between expectation and outcome. Agora believes that the artist's role manifests itself in the discrepancy between the issues raised and solutions that solve them.