DAAD: Ga op eenjarig residentie programma voor artistieke en culturele uitwisseling in Berlijn
The DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program is one of the world’s most respected artist-in-residence programmes for established artists working in the fine arts, film, literature and music.
Target group
Internationally established and outstanding artists from abroad who would like to come to Berlin in order to work on their art and interact with fellow artists. Age is irrelevant.
What?
The Artists-in-Berlin Program sees itself as a platform for artistic and cultural exchange throughout and beyond Europe. Every year, it invites applications from around the world for approximately 20 scholarships funding a usually one-year stay in Berlin. These scholarships are aimed at extraordinary and internationally established artists from abroad. The Artists-in-Berlin Program is designed to offer its guests space for their creative work, promote the diversity and variety of artistic viewpoints, and strengthen the freedom of the arts and the written and spoken word. Scholarship holders therefore have every freedom to develop their approach, to work on their art or interact with fellow artists.
Scholarship benefits
The scholarship benefits in the form of monthly rates allow for an appropriate living standard; furnished residences are provided. Travel and baggage expenses (including for partners and children, if they accompany the artist to Berlin for the full duration of the invitation) are covered, as are health and accident insurance and German lessons.
What?
Each year around twenty internationally renowned and highly qualified visual artists, writers, filmmakers, composers, and sound artists of all ages, who have developed their own distinguished artistic voice and body of work, are invited to Berlin. For visual arts, literature, and music divisions, the residency lasts twelve months, for film six months.
Revolving international juries convene each spring in Berlin. The juries review the submitted applications and materials, which should be as current as possible: publications, films, sound media, scores, and texts. Selections are announced during the summer months. Invitations are extended for the subsequent year.
Residencies are scheduled to begin between January 1 and May 31 of the subsequent calendar year, or later in exceptional cases. The exact date of arrival should be arranged as soon as possible with the DAAD Artists in-Berlin Program office. Invited artists are welcome to bring along their families. Berlin
has several international schools.
Every year the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program receives hundreds of applications. Many highly qualified applications cannot be considered because of the limited number of fellowship awards. An unsuccessful application in no way implies a negative evaluation of the applicant’s artistic work. It is possible to reapply.
Benefits
DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program fellowship awards comprise the following benefits:
- Monthly grant installments for living expenses and rent
- Provision of a furnished apartment*
- Travel and baggage expenses (regular airline, economy class), also for spouse and children who will be staying in Berlin for the entire duration of the invitation
- If required: health, accident, and long-term care insurance (contributions will be deducted from the monthly grant)
- German language lessons (optional)
For whom?
The grant was established to offer awardees time and space to focus on their creative practice without any production obligations. The program fellows are invited to actively engage with Berlin’s and Germany’s vibrant cultural scenes, as well as with different communities within the city.
Each year, around twenty outstanding practitioners from diverse cultural backgrounds are invited to Berlin. The Artists-in-Berlin Program is committed to including and presenting a wide array of voices and perspectives, and to advancing gender equality.
Throughout its history, the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program has been a key player when it comes to fostering the internationalization of contemporary arts in Germany. Nevertheless, there is still much work to be done in terms of acknowledging the value and relevance of contemporary practices beyond Eurocentric frameworks.
At this given moment in history, we consider it our responsibility to demonstrate a clear commitment to creating equality of access, visibility, and resources through our institutional practice without measuring artistic positions against a Western arts & culture system and its market.
The program is an award for outstanding practitioners. It is conceived for established artists who have already developed their own voice and standing. There is no age limitation (upwards). We support gender equality and diversity of origins. While an academic background is not required for selection, the
Artists-in-Berlin Program is interested in work that intellectually examines and takes a critical approach toward historical and current issues and discourses. We therefore prefer artists who go beyond pure aesthetics and address the relevant topics of our times.
Film
Each year, three filmmakers are awarded a six-month residency in Berlin for their contributions to the art of film. We are looking for emerging directors as well as established auteurs who expand our understanding of cinema and the world. Candidates should have premiered at least two feature films at international festivals.
We are curious about exploring contemporary cinema beyond genre boundaries. One of our aims is to support filmmakers from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. The invitation to Berlin is intended to give filmmakers the opportunity to explore their ideas without deadlines or production pressure.
Music & Sound
We welcome any form of adventurous, exceptional, and innovative soundwork that expands and challenges our understanding of contemporary music. Traditional music (which is not adapted for contemporary practice), as well as commercial music, film, opera & theatre music, are excluded. The program is intended for composers and composer-performers, but not interpreters. There are four fellowships in the field of music & sound per year.
Literature
We offer six fellowships in the field of literature and writing. All literary forms are welcome: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and essays, as well as drama. That said, we also encourage writers who work between or beyond these traditional categories and who expand the understanding of contemporary literature, its practices, and modes of manifestation. Applicants must already have an outstanding body of work to their credit. Although not a strict
requirement, the applicant should ideally already have some work that has been translated into other languages and thus public exposure beyond the applicant’s native-language community.
Visual Arts
In the field of visual arts five artists are nominated and selected by an expert jury; for this reason, applications may not be submitted in this field.
Collectives
While we are working on a long-term solution for inviting collectives and thus responding to current art practices more adequately, we currently do not have any specific possibilities to offer other than a duo being awarded two separate fellowships. The jury would have to select each member individually. Collectives with more than two members are not eligible unfortunately.
How to apply?
All information and applications: berliner-kuenstlerprogramm.de
