Artistic Research
AHC believes that art is research, and not least that the special form of research, which the methods and perspectives of art constitute, must be integrated into other research in society. We do this, partly because we believe that artistic research is relevant far beyond art’s own subject area, partly because we believe in research across disciplines and institutions to be able to tackle the complex challenges the world is facing. That is why AHC focuses purposefully on art as research.
In continuation of this ambition to facilitate, promote and develop art as research, AHC thus offers a number of formats which, in an experimental spirit, give artists the opportunity to work as researchers with all that this entails in terms of research, innovation, knowledge production and external collaborations. See the different formats below.
RESEARCH HOSTING
AHC is the host institution for PhD and postdoc projects within practice-based research in art and curation. AHC collaborates primarily with the Department of Art and Cultural Studies (IKK) at the University of Copenhagen and the Department of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University. The projects are mainly financed by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
MICRO INSTITUTE
The Micro Institute is a unique format for practice-based research, which consists of a two-year research stay for an artist or a curator. The program is based on the idea that the artistic process creates a surplus of aesthetic experience through a diverse processing of knowledge, language and materials, often in collaboration with others, including researchers, specialists, audiences and social communities.
TESTING GROUND
Testing Ground gives artists, as researchers, the opportunity to share their investigations and let the experiment emerge. The program lies at the intersection between knowledge production and art practice, studio and exhibition. Here, artists can open their processes and reflect on their thinking together with the audience or colleagues in a space of possibilities that they themselves set the framework for.
GUILT & DEBTS
Guilt and Debts is a framework for discussions about identity politics and decolonization, unfolding through conversations, research courses and seminars. The starting point is that there is an after-effect of historical injustice, whose consequences for contemporary life must be acknowledged, in order to be able to see and feel the other, and to find the opportunity to change ourselves and come together again.
