In 2014/2015, Center for Contemporary Arts (Celje), Miroslav Kraljević Gallery (Zagreb) and the feminist curatorial group Red Min(e)d (Sarajevo/Ljubljana/Munich/Belgrade) are initiating a collaborative research project focused on the topic of Shame.

The aim of the project is to question the modes through which the affect of shame becomes activated or produced. Shame operates on the relation between the self and the other, between the emotional and social. Experiencing shame is internalized. It belongs to the body and it affects the body by an emotional intensity that causes disorientation in the subject's perception of his own identity. Through shaming feelings of guilt, embarrassment and unworthiness arise within the subject, making him/her experience these emotions as if he's/she's done something wrong or bad in front of others. For example, nudity provokes shame, not because of the nudity per se, but because of an inability to escape, to hide, symbolizing the inevitable presence of the self. Likewise, humiliation as a result of the violent intrusion of social rules set by the controlling mechanism of a hegemonic and patriarchal power relation causes shame through suppression, inferiority or constitutional inadequacy. Therefore, to be ashamed can be understood as being left with something for which we can't take responsibility or with something that we want to cover (to hide) or with something that we should resist. This process enables the construction of a shamed identity that can be applied on the individual or on a particular population. If experiencing shame is an internalized modality, the anthropological formula that produces the social, cultural or material process of shaming is located outside the body, belonging to the other. The normative structure of a particular society constructs normative behavior. Any discrepancy from the prescribed norms initiates the process of shaming through which a certain type of behavior becomes marginalized.  By investigating artistic, cultural, social, political, anthropological and historical processes we will try to find the means that constitute shame in a particular culture and ask to which structural processes of identification the affect of shame is being attached. Is it attached to the conditions of the body and therefore applied to a particular mode of sexual behavior, gender or age? Or is it a matter of class, religion, race, culture or nationality?

Unpacking these questions will help to reveal the hidden motives and drives that initiate the process of shaming. Could shaming be understood as a tool that enables the power to marginalize and oppress certain members of the society? Or perhaps as a mode for practicing and sustaining control over the body? Can shame convey potency and articulate resistance? Which type of shame is being allowed and encouraged within today's society that re/produces capitalist and patriarchal power relations?

The project aims to investigate the topic by initiating a discursive platform that will bring together different disciplines and modes of thought reflecting upon the notion of shame.

For this purpose the Center for Contemporary Arts Celje, Miroslav Kraljević Gallery Zagreb and the feminist curatorial group Red Min(e)d (Sarajevo/Ljubljana/Munich/Belgrade) are publishing an open call for collaboration in the residential programme 2014/2015.

The open call invites artists, who within their own artistic practice research the proposed topic, for a two month residency focused on in-depth research as a contribution to the project.

The residency will take place in:

Center for Contemporary Arts, Celje: http://www.celeia.info/program_umetnik_na_delovnem_obisku

Miroslav Kraljević Gallery, Zagreb: http://www.g-mk.hr/programme/residents/

Association for Culture and Art CRVENA http://www.crvena.ba/

The outcome of the residency:

Public presentation of the artist´s work in the Center for Contemporary Arts, Celje and/or Miroslav Kraljević Zagreb/Association for Culture and Art CRVENA (the format of the presentation will be decided upon with the selected artist).

The project is going to be presented through various workshops, lectures, seminars, artist talks and the final exhibition showing the results of the project.

In order to apply, please send the following documentation:

- Personal data (name, surname, date of birth)
- Contact details (email, address and phone number)
- Letter of motivation (elaborate upon your interest in the proposed topic)
- Portfolio

Please send your application to one of the following addresses:

1. Center for Contemporary Arts Celje (attn. Maja Hodošček), Krekov trg 3, 3000 Celje, Slovenia or to the following email: maja.hodoscek@celje.si

2. Miroslav Kraljević Gallery (attn. Ana Kovačić), Šubićeva 29, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, or to the following email: ana.kovacic@g-mk.hr or info@g-mk.hr

3. Association for Culture and Art CRVENA (attn. Danijela Dugandžić Živanović), Hamdije Čemerlića 11/1, 71 000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina or to the following email: danijela@crvena.ba or info@crvena.ba

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 30 September 2013

* The curatorial board will decide upon the selected artists and locations of the residence. The selected artists will be notified by 25 October 2013.

NOTE: More details on the conditions of the residency program will be announced in the beginning of 2014.