International artist-in-residency program GuestRoomMaribor is the Slovenian, Maribor organization for the support of civil initiatives and intercultural collaboration in Maribor established as a creative and emancipatory physical and mental space used for production, promotion, and informal education in the fields of art, culture, youth work, civil society, and active citizenship.
The organization’s activity is defined by the conceptual field of informal culture, subculture, deinstitutionalized culture, counter-culture, independent culture, and urban culture, as well as social movements. In the context of contemporary art practices, as an important generator of non-institutional and independent art practices, it encourages socially engaged art, hybrid, and experimental artistic approaches.
The agenda of GuestRoomMaribor – the only residency program in Slovenia
(1) engages critically with the relations and tactics that counter domination in the current neoliberal social context;
(2) a production that question engagement of art, art’s role in society as well as relations between art and politics;
 (3) production that engages with feminist and queer theory and art;
(4) and production that forms explicit relations with the specific the social, cultural, historical, and political context of the local community (Maribor), such as participatory, site-specific art projects, interventions in public spaces, and similar.
Eligibility is international in its mode of operation, the program seeks to foster creative processes, open dialogue, establish direct contact with local communities, question conventional presentations of art, and encourages collaboration with local artists and producers. They are looking for a (self) critically reflect the involvement of contemporary art in social, economic, technological, and environmental processes and power relations and respond to the space in which they are placed in the process of creating or presenting the project via participatory, space-specific projects, interventions in public space, etc.
Offered by the residency:
GuestRoomMaribor offers free accommodation in a studio apartment in the center of Maribor that covers area 96 m2 and 76m2, a fee 700 EUR gross 2
coverage of production costs up to EUR 300
production and professional assistance of curators
organizational assistance
promotion
implementation of a presentation event
a possibility of presenting the production in Gallery K18 (the gallery is available for the period of one month)
All this for a whole month.
Deadline is March 31, 2021
more info: //www.guestroommaribor.si/  or //accounts.google.com/
And, Maribor in Slovenia is definitely one of the most beautiful little towns I have ever seen.
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