Deadline January 22, 2021 

Polish visual artists, designers, musicians, composers, performance artist, filmmakers, actors, and writers, who have never been to New York before and who are interested in an international artistic, cross-discipline cooperation project with European and New York City based artists are invited to apply for a virtual residency. Apply by sending a bio and short cover letter (max. 1,000 words) to izabela.gola@instytutpolski.pl by January 22, 2021. Late submissions will not be considered. Only the successful candidate will be contacted.

This paid virtual residency will take place online in the spring of 2021, over a period of three months. The ideal candidate is either a Polish citizen residing anywhere in the world, but in New York/New York City, or is an artist who permanently resides in Poland and has any or no citizenship. It is a requirement for the residency that the candidate has never been to New York before.

Covid-19 has shuttered artists from residencies, travel, and exhibitions. This project dives into our digitalized world connecting EU and New York City based artists from various disciplines and gives them an opportunity to work on a collaborative artistic project. The project explores what it means for a European artist to virtually meet a transatlantic counterpart based in NYC, of different age, race, culture and artistic medium in order to create a new and unique work of art together.

During the residency, the process of creative collaboration is put under a magnifying glass and presented via edited Zoom recordings on a website giving the viewers the unique opportunity to monitor it. The collaborative three-month long virtual residency is facilitated and hosted by Undercurrent gallery in Brooklyn, New York. A presentation of the art works is scheduled to take place on Europe Day, May 9, 2021.

This project is a follow up project to 10001. UM/MUTE 10002 is launched by Undercurrent in collaboration with the European Union National Institutes of Culture’s New York Cluster. This project was initiated by the Lithuanian Culture Institute and the Consulate General of Estonia in New York and co-organized by Undercurrent, Austrian Cultural Forum NY, Czech Center New YorkInternational in New York, General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA (Belgium), Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York, Goethe Institute New York, Arts Council Malta, Polish Cultural Institute New York, and the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York. 10002 is made possible by the generous support of the European Union National Institutes for Culture.

More about UN/MUTE

Volume 1, entitled 10001
Was a 2020 pilot project which had asked 12 European artists with a wide variety of backgrounds including music/composition, dance, performance, film, and visual arts and with a connection to NYC from Austria, Belgium/Flanders, Malta, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland to re-imagine NYC post March 20, 2020, when shelter in place orders were mandated and public and private life shifted to an online mode overnight. 10001 was successfully fulfilled through July – Sept, 2020 and can be viewed at 10001.undercurrent.nyc  

Volume 2, entitled 10002
Aims to include 8 artists nominated by the EUNIC cluster countries partner countries which will be paired with NYC based artists nominated by Undercurrent. This project recognizes that artists worldwide face limitations to access and building a network within the global cultural “epicenter” of New York City. Providing an inclusive opportunity regardless of geography, financial limitation, disability, or age, UN/MUTE-10002, pairs one New York City based Artist and one EU based artist who has never visited New York City and who have never met each other before. One is a digital immigrant, born before 1985, and the other is a digital native born into a world of web browsers and email, after 85’. These two artists, divided by age and access to New York City are asked to collaborate on a singular project to imagine a sustainable future.  

Volume 3
As a result of these online residencies, Volume 3 will be a physical, co-located exhibition at two contemporary art venues in New York City where a curated selection of these multidisciplinary projects that emerged in volumes 1 and 2 will be organized and presented for a three-month duration in the fall of 2021. Curated by a venerable NYC based curator the show will be simultaneously on display at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Manhattan and Undercurrent in Brooklyn, featuring different aspects of the themes at each venue.

Image © Justyna Górowska and Ieva Mediodia “Arktikaantarktika 0.9 (beta version)”, for 10001 Undercurrent, still image. 2020.

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