18 December 2024

Call for Proposals: „Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson“

Open Call for Residencies for Artistic Research
Akademie der Künste, Berlin and Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town
Application deadline 14 January 2025

With “Every Artist Must Take Sides – Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson”, the Akademie der Künste explores the legacy of two extraordinary figures of the 20th century. The political and artistic endeavors of Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson (1895–1965) and Paul Robeson (1898–1976) were an expression of a way of thinking that understood the world in relations and of an uncompromising resistance to all forms of oppression. An exhibition and a festival both present contributions by contemporary artists and musicians, as well as materials from the Paul Robeson Archives of the Akademie der Künste. The title is based on an appeal by Paul Robeson, with which he supported the struggle of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War during a solidarity concert in London in 1937.

The Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town, are organizing a joint residency program for artistic research at the Paul Robeson Archives in Berlin and the UWC Research Collections, including the UWC Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archive in Cape Town. The program supports four artists in residence for their archival research and the production of new artistic works, which will be shown in the exhibition “Every Artist Must Take Sides -  Resonances of Eslanda and Paul Robeson” at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin from November 2025 until January 2026. The developed works should deal with the transnational resonances of the respective archive holdings for the present and reflect the role of political stances and international solidarity in the arts with visual, audio or interdisciplinary formats.

This Call for Proposals is aimed at artists and artistic researchers who work in the field of sound/sonic art or visual art and whose practice has a connection to the subjects of the respective archive. Two artistic research residencies will take place at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin in April 2025, and two artistic research residencies will take place at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape in April and May 2025, each for a period of one month.

Information on the project and application process

Application deadline: 14 January 2025, opencall@adk.de
Residencies Berlin: April 2025
Residencies Cape Town: April and May 2025
Exhibition: November 2025 until January 2026

Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media).