Group Affinity open call

10–30 May 2011 / München

We call for your participation in Group Affinity!
Group Affinity – A summer school and exhibition dedicated to self-organized practice and the notion of affinity in cultural production.
The summer school includes faculties led by: Chicago Boys, Grand Openings, Cinenova, Andreas Müller & Susanne Pietsch, and Slavs and Tatars
Organised by Kunstverein München and Casco
Taking place at Kunstverein München between 1–14 August 2011

Group Affinity examines “affinity” as a thesis for contemporary social movement and self-governed cultural production. Taking the form of a two-week summer school and a four-week exhibition, the project offers a diverse curriculum of five participatory faculties, run by the international groups: Chicago Boys, Grand Openings, Cinenova, Andreas Müller & Susanne Pietsch and Slavs and Tatars. Working within a wide range of disciplines and in modalities of research and action – from participatory architecture to performative actions, and (incongruous) translation to enactments of historic archives – these collectives share a common goal of accommodating inter-subjective alliance as their public significance.

Over the past few decades the notion of “affinity” has become exemplary for contemporary movements that take on nonhierarchical or democratic structures of organization and grassroots political activism. While most examples that conceptualize affinity remain grounded in traditional anarchist thinking that opposes the logic of hegemony, Group Affinity finds greater resonance in working against the grain of today’s cultural politics: the rise of populist Europe, its impenetrable definitions of audience and public value and its aim to instrumentalise the fields of culture and education.

Group Affinity is premised on the understanding that self-organizing practices of production and research do not serve an administered and neo-liberalist understanding of the public and the network: they, instead, constitute a culture of mutual recognition in affinity. Therefore, central to the investigation of Group Affinity is an exploration of how a critical and collective agency is formed and enacted.

Five participatory faculties – each run by international groups – compose a diverse curriculum of working process around their ongoing research topics. Appropriating a general art school structure, these faculties will create atypical and imaginary departments for participants that are already familiar with the process of self-organization, or who would like to familiarize themselves with it. It is preferred that each participant brings his or her own goals, experiences and working processes to the group.

Send your application for one of the faculties to the below contact address. There’s no fee for enrollment and participation. Housing and hospitality will be offered to 30 applicants.

Application procedure:

– All applications should be in before 30 May 2011.
– Send your motivation letter (not more than one A4 page), biography and any supporting documents to Julia Maier
– Applicants are encouraged to make suggestions, how they can contribute to the faculty of their choice. This will be considered during the selection process.
– The applicant will be officially invited to join Group Affinity in June 2011.