31th international studio program

A stranger I arrived; a stranger I depart.

Strangeness can fascinate or frighten, arouse curiosity or provoke indifference. Sometimes it is not only an unknown other that is foreign to us, but also our own self. Friends can become strangers and vice versa. Surrounded by strangers in our everyday lives, we seek closeness and familiarity or withdraw. Forms of migration, from holiday trips to emigration, flight or expulsion, seem strange and unfamiliar to us, but they help us to perceive ourselves more clearly and thus understand ourselves better.

Memory can play a major role here: memories of the often difficult partings in our own biography, of being on the road, which both unsettles us and gives us confidence. Or failing to cross borders, or overcoming them, the arrival in a foreign country with the desire to make it familiar. Where words may be lacking to describe such memories and experiences, art finds a language using signs, images, symbols, colour and structure.

For the 31st International Studio Program, the City of Weimar and ACC Galerie invite artists to let stories of journeys, emigration and flight become visible and thus to make the search for refuge and future in foreign worlds aesthetically tangible. In this context, the International Studio Program would like to encourage artists to use not only the spaces of the ACC Galerie, but also the public space of Weimar. The city's archives, museums and libraries are at your disposal for your research in order to incorporate the genius loci into your artistic concept. Collaboration with Weimar citizens, students, young people, children and, last but not least, with those for whom Germany, Thuringia and Weimar are still foreign is also very welcome. We look forward to your project idea!

WORK PERIODS

• February 1—May 31, 2025
• June 1—September 30, 2025
• October 1, 2025—January 31, 2026

The artist chosen first by our jury will get his/her preferred work period for sure. Artists in second and third place usually need to negotiate, in case their preferred work period is already taken.