Kem School 2023: Open Call

OPEN CALL: KEM SCHOOL 2023

We’re excited to launch the Open Call for Kem School 2023 - the third edition of our collective study and unlearning programme in Warsaw!

During the programme, we will be developing participants’ individual and collaborative modes of working through performative action, experiments and queer-feminist methodologies.  Kem School will provide the space for collective research and work, and a series of mentoring sessions, workshops, seminars and meetings in a variety of formats. The aim of the programme will be to facilitate the development of individual and collective practices in a caring, transdisciplinary environment. The participants will be invited to engage in developing methods of collective, critical and embodied knowledge production.

This year’s programme will be hosted and taught by our Kem School members, local artists/activists and our invited guests - Ania Nowak, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Maria F. Scaroni, Liz Rosenfeld and Agnieszka Polska, among others. 


HOW TO TOUCH MOVEMENT?

This year’s edition will conclude the 3 year cycle, during which we collectively consider How to touch movement? We will invite participants  to collectively develop performative and choreographic tools which will help situate artistic research and practice in forms of embodied knowledge in relation to current socio-political conditions. We will be working with the concept of worldmaking, which articulates a sense that many worlds exist simultaneously, each a continually rehearsed version of a shared reality. Worldmaking conveys that there are ways of imagining, building and inhabiting other worlds. 

Drawing on the experiences of previous editions and in search of new answers, during this years programme we will considers such questions as: 

How, in practice, can we embody resistance through movement? Which bodies are considered valid and how are they defined? What do we understand by worldmaking practices and what worlds do we want to make? How can we continue traditions, simultaneously producing new forms of generational knowledge? What forms of community allow us to practice touch, attentiveness and multisensory perception? Where can we search for alternative genealogies and ways of naming? 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

WHO IS KEM SCHOOL FOR?

Kem School 2023 will consist of a group of 12-15 participants who live or work in Poland. This group will be carefully selected through our open call process, into which we invite queer artists, performers, creators, researchers and/or activists. The programme is open to people with varying degrees of experience, both beginners and established, interested in further developing their practice through choreographic, performative and collective methodologies.

Participants should be able to demonstrate:

  • good knowledge of English and Polish in order to communicate in group exercises.*;

  • experience or active interest in working collaboratively within a group of people with different lived experiences;

  • an openness to experiment with and actively participate in a variety of embodied artistic practices and pedagogical formats;

  • an artistic practice or interest in expanded notions of choreography, performance, queer studies and intersectional feminism; 

  • being self-directed and pro-active, developing one’s own research as well as finding shared formats of collective exchange;

  • interest in interacting with the public;

  • availability in the timeframes of Kem School  (more information below).

*The programme will be led in Polish and English. Even if you don’t feel confident in your language skills, we still encourage you to apply. Depending on the needs that emerge in the group, we will try to provide support with translations.

Kem School is not fully accessible to people with disabilities - working on providing accessible programmes is a lengthy process, which we are nonetheless currently devoted to. We encourage people with disabilities to apply - all applications will be considered separately and we will be searching for solutions to help you take part in this year’s school. If you would like to consult with us before you apply, please send us an e-mail at school@kemwarsaw.com 

There is no age requirement or professional or academic prerequisites. Kem School is free of charge.

WHEN AND WHERE?

This year’s Kem School will not be taking place in one extended period of time, as it has to date, but will materialise via 4 separate gatherings throughout the year. The dates of the 4 meetings are as follows: 

Block I: 8-11th of June, 2023

Block II: 6-9th of July, 2023

Block III: 18th of August - 1st of September, 2023

Block IV: 28th of September - 1st of October, 2023 

During this time we will be implementing a creative research process, the effects of which will be a series of collectively devised activities and one public choreographic performance, produced with the mentorship of Maria F. Scaroni. 

Kem School classes will be taking place in Warsaw. We plan to work for around 7 hours a day. The programme also includes a field trip outside of Warsaw, an evening film programme (SOFT KISS CLUB) and participation in Dragana Bar. 

The whole programme will take approximately 170 hours. We ask you to take your availability during this time into consideration when applying. 

You can find more information about our previous editions here: https://www.kemwarsaw.com/en/events/kem-school-2022-summary

HOW TO APPLY?

Fill in the open call application, which you can find here

If you have any questions, send us an e-mail at school@kemwarsaw.com

We’re waiting for your applications until the end of the 8th of May <3 

Yours,

Kem

Kem School is co-funded by the Capital City of Warsaw, as part of the “JASNA 10: Social Cultural Initiative”
Goethe Institut is a partner of the project

Kem Warsaw