Zuzana Jakalová

area: Theory

Key Facts

nationality

Slovakia

area

Theory

residence

Prague (CZE)

recommending institution

tranzit.org/ERSTE Stiftung

time period

June 2015 - June 2015

Zuzana Jakalová (⃰ 1986) is a curator and cultural manager; works as a curator MeetFactory AiR Program in Prague and curates and coordinates the Space for Contemporary Art Prádelna Bohnice. She graduated from the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University in Prague and Theory of Interactive Media at Masaryk University in Brno, completed an internship by Renate Lorenz at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. She finished her diploma thesis on the feminist notion of ethics of care as a strategy of contemporary art. In her curatorial work she deals with topics of failure, unsuccess and embarrassment. She has published widely in Flash Art CZ / SK, A2 or artalk.cz.

Projectinfo

During my stay in Vienna, I would like to draw upon the notion of cultural mobility; elaborate different models of cultural mobility and rethink institutional strategies linked with residencies in contact with different layers of actors involved.

Documentation

The aim of my residency in MQ Vienna was to get to know strategies, aims, policies and structures of artists-in-residence programs in Austria, in order to confront them with my onw practice in Prague´s artist-in-residence program MeetFactory. To do so, I have visited several Austrian AIR´s and talked to their managers and curators, namely AIR Krems, Atelierhaus Salzamt Linz, KulturKontakt Austria, Moe. I have also reached out to Kunsthalle Exnergasse and Studio das Weisse Haus, but unfortunately the organisers didn´t have time to meet me. I have also contacted and talked to Erste Stiftung representatives on their policies in funding artist-in-residence programs, as well as their new project to start their own individual AIR program.
Another important moment of my residency was talking to fellow artists-in-residence (from both MQ and KulturKontakt) about their needs, wishes and projects they were working on during their time in Vienna. My idea was to see, how the organisational structure and policies of the residencies influence the artists while being in a residency (how they are able to build up their networks in the cultural landscape of the „new“ city, how they are planning and producing their projects, what the organisation is acutally offering and helping with, and what the artist hast o deal with him/herself etc.).
Regarding my insights into the residency at MQ, it si very beneficial in terms of location and financial support. The one thing that I found a little disturbing seems to be the distance between the organisational team and the artists-in-residence. But I believe this also depends on the type of projects the artists / curators are developing.