Urbane Künste Ruhr
Open Call: Zu Gast im Healing Complex
Due date: 05. January
2024
Urbane Künste Ruhr invites artists who are interested in working with local networks
and public meeting places to take part in a three-month residency for the upcoming 2024 season. The residency is part of the
Healing Complex project. Two positions will be allocated for the residency. Interested artists can apply individually or jointly;
applications from collectives are also very welcome.
About the Healing
Complex
Since June 3, 2022, Urbane Künste Ruhr has been running the project Healing Complex (2018–ongoing) in
Gelsenkirchen, which was initiated by the artist Irena Haiduk based on the model of antique building complexes that combined
art and healing. Irena Haiduk's artistic practice links the symbolic capital of the art field with real economies, which is
particularly relevant in a post-industrial region such as the Ruhr area. The economic cycle of the Healing Complex is not
about ownership, but about use and working on a common exchange economy. To this end, Irena Haiduk has redesigned the interior
of the former church, which was closed in 2007 and profaned in 2014. The Healing Complex is therefore also a model for the
conversion of vacant churches, which could be filled with new life as abandoned buildings in many cities.
The long-term
project creates a meeting place in the former working-class district of Gelsenkirchen-Erle. A dense program of workshops and
events provides playful, practical and theoretical impulses for a diverse community. In the second phase of the project, from
March to September 2023, the idea of building an economy for the Healing Complex based on the underground network structures
of mushroom mycelia emerged: the Myconomie, to promote productive neighbourly coexistence, but also as an informal learning
space where knowledge and experience can be shared. After the winter break, we are following up on this phase with an guest
artist residency and at the same time
giving space to new ideas.
