Call out phase one: Chemnitz artists
Quarantine, Manchester, UK, and ASA-FF, Chemnitz, Germany, would like to meet Chemnitz based artists who are interested in being part of a cross-border intergenerational exchange with artists based in Manchester, UK.
Chemnitz and Manchester have been twin cities since 1983. The last 40 years have treated both cities differently, and this has had a significant impact on the demographics of their populations. The median age in Manchester is 31 years, in Chemnitz it’s 52 years – a whole generation older.
In response, Would Like to Meet (WLTM) will pair artists from Chemnitz, Germany, with artists from Manchester, UK, with at least a 20-year age gap between them. We’re looking to curate a cohort of artists of all ages from both cities, so please apply whatever your age.
This edition of WLTM is one part of Quarantine’s new project The Questions, part of Chemnitz 2025: European Capital of Culture.
The opportunity
- To be paired with an artist in Manchester, UK, for two residencies together – seven days in Manchester and eight days in Chemnitz (including travel days). The residency time is for sharing practice, framed by the questions that you have for one another across generations, and across cities. The invitation is to spend time together in a determinedly open-ended way, engaging in conversation, experimentation and shared experiences. There is no expectation to produce something concrete as a result.
- The residencies are self-directed, but support and provocations will be offered from Quarantine and ASA-FF throughout the process, and there will be facilitated time with the wider WLTM artist cohort in each city, as well as opportunities to see other parts of the wider The Questions project.
- Access to an artist hub in each city for the duration of the residencies.
- A total fee of £1800 per artist to cover both residencies, plus travel, accommodation, and per-diems when visiting the city that is not your home base.
- A budget of £500 per pair of artists, per residency, to spend in whatever way feels relevant to what you want to explore together – perhaps to invite in an expert on a subject you’re interested in, or to visit somewhere together, or to cover materials…
Who can apply?
WLTM aims to facilitate intergenerational collaboration and create opportunities for artists to learn from one another, regardless of where they’re at in their professional development. We’re keen to hear from artists of all ages (18+ only for safeguarding reasons) and at all stages of their practice.
Artists can be working in any art form but there should be a live element to your practice, and you should in some way feel that your work and ideas are resonant with the artistic and social/political ambitions of Quarantine and ASA-FF.
This first phase of the call is aimed at artists who live in the Chemnitz European Capital of Culture region. Together with Chemnitz, 38 cities and municipalities form the Capital of Culture Region and together bear the title ‘European Capital of Culture’, with around half a million inhabitants.
About the application process
The application process will happen in two stages:
- Five artists from Chemnitz will be selected by Quarantine and ASA-FF. These artists will let us know what kind of artist they ‘would like to meet’ from Manchester.
- These ‘would like to meet’ ads will then be shared with artists in Manchester, who can respond if they feel that they’re a good fit, interested in the collaboration and have a 20-year age gap.
Access and inclusion are at the heart of how Quarantine and ASA-FF operate. We recognise that institutional racism, discrimination and inequality exists in our sector and are dedicated to helping to address this. We particularly welcome applications from people with lived and intersectional experience of racism or marginalisation, including working class, disabled, neurodivergent, LGBTQIA+, global majority individuals and other marginalised groups.
We have a separate access budget to support these residencies and are happy to discuss with you anything we can do to make the application process or residency experience more accessible for you.
Artists must be available on all of the following dates:
Manchester: 7 consecutive days between 29 September – 19 October (exact dates tbc)
Chemnitz: 24 November – 1 December 2025
Online information session
We’re hosting an online information session in German for artists interested in applying on Thursday 20 February at 6pm Germany (5pm UK).
Sign up here – we’ll be in touch closer to the time with a Zoom meeting invitation.
Application questions
Please apply by sending your answers to the following questions either in writing (no more than 2x A4 pages) or as a video or audio file (no longer than 5 minutes), along with a website or social media link (if possible) to sarah(at)qtine.com by Sunday 2 March 2025.
We will accept applications in both English and German.
Interviews will take place online via Zoom on Friday 7 March 2025. If this date is not possible for you, please let us know this at the point of application.
- Who are you and what is your artistic practice?
- How old are you and how do you feel about that?
- What kind of artist would you like to meet through this process?
- Would you prefer to be matched with an artist who is older or younger than you?
- What starting questions would you have for them?
- How does your practice resonate with the work of Quarantine and/or ASA-FF?
- Do you have any access needs?
- Are you available for the interview and residency dates? And if shortlisted, would you prefer for your interview to happen in English or German?
- What languages do you speak? We will try to pair artists who can speak a shared language.
In 2025, Quarantine (Manchester, UK) will collaborate with ASA-FF (Chemnitz, Germany) on our new three-part project The Questions, which will create intergenerational encounters with people both locally and across borders – between our cities, which have been twinned since 1983.
