AIL Residency Program – Open Call for Angewandte Alumni

The AIL Residency Program continues and AIL invites alumni* of the University of Applied Arts Vienna to work on their interdisciplinary projects with a strong focus on research.

This Open Call is aimed at artists, designers, researchers or collectives, to use one of the AIL spaces as a workplace for artistic work or experimental formats and are interested in presenting their insights and practice to the public.

*Please note: The Open Call is addressed only to Alumni, who are currently NOT affiliated with the Angewandte via a Phd, teaching position or employment.

The AIL Residency Program 2027 focuses on the main topic of knowledge production. In the application one or both of the key areas below should be addressed within the proposed project:

1 | Ecologies of knowledge or collective ways of knowing:

This strand focuses on knowledge as a relational and ecological process rather than an individual or isolated act of cognition. It highlights interdisciplinary, collaborative, and distributed forms of knowledge production, emphasizing collective, networked, and processual modes of thinking and making.

This includes para-academic practices as well as locally embedded or “endemic” epistemologies, which emerge from specific cultural, social, and material contexts. The emphasis lies on alternative knowledge ecologies that challenge dominant institutional and disciplinary boundaries.

In that sense we welcome collective or collaborative working practices, which approache a chosen topic via new forms of knowledge production. Maybe you are looking for a space to test out workshop formats, collective research-methods or other forms of experimental knowledge production. Projects are encouraged to consider how knowledge can be communicated beyond institutional settings and contribute to public-facing exchange and dialogue with non-academic contexts.

2 | Questions of knowledge production:

We are welcoming research projects that focus on the topic of critical knowledge production itself: How is knowledge created, shared, challenged, legitimized or contested?

This strand engages with issues of epistemic justice and injustice, including questions of who is recognized as a legitimate “knower” within dominant knowledge systems. It also critically examines the power dynamics embedded in epistemic infrastructures, such as processes of canon formation, archival practices, and mechanisms of visibility and invisibility.

In addition, it addresses non-discursive and more-than-textual forms of knowledge production, including embodied, situated, and affective epistemologies that exceed conventional academic frameworks.  

RESIDENCY TIMESLOTS:

Residency #1:

8 Feb–8 Mar 2027
(dates can be slightly adapted if necessary)
 

Residency #2:

15 Mar–19 Apr 2027
(dates can be slightly adapted if necessary)

Application Overview:

WHAT YOU GET

• Workspace for 4 weeks (24/7 access, no overnight accommodation provided)

• 1.500,- EUR (incl. VAT) budget; available for the realization of the project, can be used for fees and material costs

• Technical infrastructure of the AIL (depending on the availability of equipment and facilities)

• Contact and network to interested public as well as other artists, teachers and students of the University

• We are also happy to organize visits with departments of the university, external curators, experts and representatives from other institutions

• The AIL will actively promote the project/residents via the website and social media channels in order to reach a broad public

RESIDENCY REQUIRMENTS

• Applicants agree to present their research, work to the public at least twice during their residency for 2-3 hours (e.g. live workshop, project presentation, performance), 

• participation at Open Studio Day

• at the end of the residency, AIL asks for a report (Q&A), which will be used for a feature on the AIL website

HOW TO APPLY

Please send all material in 1 PDF (max. 10 MB) to elisabeth.falkensteiner@uni-ak.ac.at

(Submissions can be in English or German!)

• Concept proposal: Submission of a short concept (max. 1000 characters) describing the planned project and explanation how your project fits into the focus areas of the Residency Program 2027

• Links to the artist portfolio or similar relevant information on artistic works

• Please state the year of your graduation and your degree program. (In case you apply as a collective, at least one person must be a graduate of the University of Applied Arts Vienna.)

• Please indicate the desired period for your residency

Deadline: 5 July 2026

Please note: The Open Call is open exclusively to Alumni who are not currently affiliated with the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Angewandte) through a PhD program, teaching position, or employment.

Timeline: Over the summer, the selection process will be carried out and the applications will be reviewed.

Applicants will be informed in October 2026.