Application and Residency Conditions
This program is interdisciplinary in nature, as each of the partner residencies is also linked to one of the three other interdisciplinary programs at Iméra. For example, the Mucem/Iméra residency is associated with the “Mediterranean” program, the Citadelle de Marseille/Iméra residency is associated with the “Necessary Utopias” program, and the ICI/Iméra residency is associated with the “Interdisciplinary Explorations” program.
The aforementioned calls are addressed to researchers working on art as well as researchers and artists engaged in situated research through artistic practice. In general, this interdisciplinary program recognizes the contributions of art to multiple dimensions of interdisciplinary and societal issues, ranging from individual construction to major social, political, and identity-related challenges.
Methodologically and institutionally, the “Arts and Sciences: Undisciplined Knowledge” program is embedded in an academic, interdisciplinary, and international context. It represents a space for collective reflection on research in art and on art itself, acknowledging the specificities of art, including its freedom not to be a discipline in itself, by combining knowledge from different fields and eras. This program is collectively animated by the diverse members of the Iméra scientific team. The term “art” here encompasses all existing forms of artistic expression, including visual arts, literature, sound arts, architecture, cinema (including documentary), performing arts, and performance. Heritage can also be a subject of research and creation.
Thematically, the affiliation with another program and one of its scientific axes allows the research and inquiries generated by art (research on art) or constitutive of art (research in art) to be nourished and interrogated through regular dialogue with other residents and associated researchers working on a common thematic field, and vice versa. As an object of research, a mode of action, a producer of critical thought and knowledge, art occupies a central place in these exchanges, which, driven by a strong curiosity, encourage the explicitation of each individual’s systems of thought and enunciation. The program affirms the central role that imagination and creativity, as well as practices of invention, can play in the academic world and in society, regardless of the subject explored. These faculties also characterize many practices of interdisciplinary research, including those outside the realm of art.
Regarding researchers working on art and with art, they can come from various social sciences and humanities disciplines, including art theory, art history, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, geography, and more. Furthermore, it is also open to exact and life sciences as long as the research project has a close connection to art and/or artists. In all cases, the research concerned here should problematize the impact of art on society or its commitments to society and/or its position as a crossroads between various forms of knowledge, in relation to one or more challenges of the thematic programs (see the suggestions below and their general descriptions).
As for artists, Iméra can accommodate multiple phases of their projects as long as they require sustained dialogue with researchers from academic disciplines during the conception of a work, a thought, or a writing (whether it be theoretical, poetic, or of another nature) early in the process or a bit later in a phase of work development, but situated before production. Iméra does not provide means of production, but an unequipped workshop shared with another resident artist, allowing for a variety of configurations of knowledge that can also be spatialized and materialized in different formats. This can also be done for closed-door or semi-public exhibitions to share moments of research and initial outcomes. The development phase is understood as a constructive process of back-and-forth between “formal” experiments (written, visual, sonic, montage, etc.) and theoretical research, informed by artistic practice, the experience of that practice, and the sensorial, as practice-based research.
In the context of a future production or publication, Iméra can be mentioned as a support in the genesis of a work, offering an extended period of time during these decisive phases of the work’s gestation and original thought. Like a moment of pause from the liberal economy of artistic production, this program allows human and scientific encounters to unfold without pressure, and for inquiries to be sources of fruitful developments, and for the disruption of art codes in the academic world to open new paths and paradigms.
In the case of the intersection with the “Mediterranean” program, in addition to the topics mentioned in its general presentation and the associated partnership residency, the following can be developed: reflection on the Mediterranean as an artistic genre (“Mediterranean cinema,” “Mediterranean novel”) and as a museum category, representations of migrations in the Mediterranean through the arts, the dialectic between art and architecture in the Mediterranean, the role of the arts in the heritage-making of Mediterranean spaces, and the study of individual or collective trajectories of so-called “Mediterranean” artists.
In the case of the intersection with the “Necessary Utopias” program, in addition to the topics mentioned in its presentation and the associated partnership residency, the following can be developed: examples showing how art and invention can be used and/or conceived in the service of concrete utopias. In a non-exhaustive manner, creation is approached through the prism of artists’ engagement, seen as a means of resistance, even as a vector of civil disobedience, or as a bearer of social justice, reconciliation, regeneration, etc. More broadly, it can involve case studies analyzing the impact of artistic experiences in the realms of politics and society in connection with concrete utopias, or broader reflections on these dynamics.
Three residencies are attached to this program as follows:
| Fellowship Title | Duration | Types of candidates | Number of places | Umbrella Program | Keywords |
| Artistic and documentary writings in the museum – Mucem / Iméra Residency | 5 months | Artist or scientist | 1 | Arts & sciences: indisciplined knowledges AND Mediterranean | Society museums; Mediterranean cultures; ethnographic survey; cultural anthropology; Fort Saint-Jean; folk art; everyday objects; contemporary creation; documentary data; museography |
| Research- Creation in oncology and immunology – ICI / Iméra Chair | 10 months | Artist or scientist | 1 | Arts & sciences: indisciplined knowledges AND Interdisciplinary explorations | Therapeutic use of artistic practices in oncology-immunology; social representations of cancer; relations between artistic practices and clinical and/or scientific practices; epistemological perspectives |
| Utopian viewpoints on Marseille – Citadelle de Marseille / Iméra | 5 months | Artist or scientist | 1 | Arts & sciences: indisciplined knowledges AND Necessary utopias | Built heritage; living heritage; concrete utopias; participatory methods; citizens’ memories; military archives; testimonies; collective imaginations; Fort Saint-Nicolas/Entrecasteaux; hierarchy of living things; pollution |