14-DAY ARTIST RESIDENCY IN ATHENS

APPLY BY 29 DECEMBER 2024!

Residency date:  3–16 February 2025

The Art Of The Icon is a residency and video / comics / narrative project for visual artists, jewelers, crafters, designers, filmmakers, performers, art theorists, curators, academics who wish to explore Athens' medieval and Byzantine cultural traditions that still live on. The residency program initiates participants in understanding how to read, and be inspired by, the icon tradition, and explains concepts of time, space, eternity, providence, and divine union embedded in the visual language of Orthodox art.

Byzantine art, a highly conceptual art created by a combination of mastering ancient techniques and preparing the artist's body and mind for creative contemplation, is widely unknown to the West. Icons are intellectual and emotional bridges to the invisible world, while the sacred space becomes a stage for performing rituals of bonding between past, present and future.

The Art Of The Icon residency program includes an online introductory course into Byzantine art history, and its significance for contemporary conceptual art, Pop Art and major modern art movements, guided visits at Unesco sites, museums and Byzantine monuments, individual tips on Athens' secret addresses, a narrative, comics and video workshop in Athens, as well as curatorial and editorial advice for the realization of a creative video or comics or narrative. Participants’ videos that will be inspired by the residency program will be screened at Munich's Schmuck Jewelry Week 2025, while the comics or narrative will be published in SMCK Magazine.

Residents' work inspired by the The Art Of The Icon will also be promoted through press and social media.

THE ART OF THE ICON RESIDENCY INCLUDES

• Online introduction before arrival: The world of Eastern Roman Empire (aka Byzantine Empire) and its culture.
• 14 days / 13 nights accommodation in (central) Athens.
• Workshops: support and advice for developing a narrative / script / comics / video:
  • Shooting a video: Narrative and storytelling.
  • Performance practice. Plot and performance.
  • Canalizing inspiration in new work. New formats of presentation and promotion.
• A guided city tour plus visit at Unesco sites, museums and art venues:
  • Trip to Elefsina: Guided tour to ancient and Byzantine monuments.
  • Curated visit to the Byzantine Museum of Athens.
  • Curated visit to National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
• Athens city tour: Byzantine treasures and monuments.
• Three optional presentation formats:
  a) Participation in SMCK On Reel video festival
  b) Comics or narrative to be published in the digital/print medium SMCK Magazine.
  c) Publication in the digital/print medium SMCK Magazine.

PARTICIPATION

Disciplines:  Artists who work in the field of jewelry, object, design, sculpture, installation, performance, video, photography, textile art, ceramics, as well as filmmakers, crafters, art theorists, researchers, curators are encouraged to apply.

Application requirements:  Artists must be at least 30 years of age.

Residency duration:  14 days (13 nights). The residency period begins on Monday and ends on Sunday.

Price:  850,00 EUR / paid by the artist. The fee includes accommodation in a central Athen studio for individual artist. The fee does not include travel fares, entry tickets for museums and archaeological sites, meals, artist material or tools, print matter.

Residency date:  Monday, 3 – Sunday, 16 February 2025

HOW TO APPLY

Email your application with cover letter introducing yourself and stating your incentive to participate in The Art Of The Icon residency project. Include your bio/CV and website/blog or instagram or 6–8 images of your work.

Application deadline is  Sunday, 29 December 2024.