Curatorial Residency Program enabled by ARKO 2025

Delivery Dancer’s Sphere / Ayoung Kim (KR)

Open Call 2025

The submission phase for the Open Call 2025 is already over.

For the third time, the Arts Council Korea (ARKO) and Ars Electronica are excited to announce the Curatorial Residency Program for 2025. The unique onsite residency program invites curators and cultural producers to spend four months in Linz, Austria, where they will delve into the vision, philosophy, and operations of Ars Electronica, the world’s leading media arts festival.

The program focuses on managing and curating parts of the Ars Electronica Festival 2025, as well as engaging with the jury process of the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica, often regarded as the „Oscars“ of media arts. Participants will gain insight into the broader Ars Electronica ecosystem, including the Ars Electronica Center, Ars Electronica Futurelab, and Ars Electronica Solutions, deepening their understanding of the intersection of art, technology, education, and social impact.

Arts Council Korea (ARKO) implements the Curatorial Residency Program as part of the International Exchange Program in collaboration with Ars Electronica. Through this program, media arts will be considered across the fields of science, education, business, and social responsibility, by being presented as a new cultural and artistic field. The program is designed to encourage the next generation of curators and cultural producers to think about media arts across a wide range of sectors, including science, education, and business, to create a new culture and a new framework for media arts, independent from existing concepts. The goal is to develop personnel resources and a creative platform for Korean arts internationally.

Open Call Details

Eligibility Requirements

The following application requirements must be met by the applicants: 

Program Benefits 

* Prerequisite is the positive assessment of the visa and work permit.

Commitment of the resident

This is a full-time residency running from June to September 2025. During this time, the resident must be fully devoted to the program and cannot take on other work. Travel home is only permitted under special circumstances with prior approval.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted via the ARKO platform by the specified deadline. Please ensure all documents are in English and in PDF format. Files should not exceed a total of 50MB. Please ensure that your application is complete and that you mention in the subject line “Application Curatorial Residency Ars Electronica [your name]”.               

Please state a valid email address as all applicants will be informed via email. All documents must be submitted before the deadline.

Required Documents:  

  1. Entry Form (must include): 
    • Why are you interested in this residency program?
    • What do you hope to achieve from residency program? 
    • Your specific ideas and plans that you want to put into practice within the residency period. 
  2. Short video statement (max. 3min) in English. 
    • Please introduce yourself and tell us your motivation for applying as well as your expectations in participating in the curators‘ program. Don’t forget to mention how you envision to use the skills you’ve learned afterwards.
    • The video can be recorded with a mobile phone, but please make sure that the audio is audible. Please add the link to the video in your application (you need to upload it to a file-sharing platform such as YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive etc) or upload the video directly to the application platform (format: mp4, max. 50MB).
  3. Portfolio of previous work experience relevant to your curatorial residency (in English as PDF, max. 5 pages). 
  4. CV – detailing your relevant experience (English, PDF).

One person will be selected to participate in the curatorial residency program.

Key Dates 

Residency stay in Linz, Austria: (onsite stay is mandatory) 

Residency Outline 

The curatorial residency programme with Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria provides a wide range of work experience within Prix Ars Electronica and Ars Electronica Festival.  

In April the main focus will be on the Prix Ars Electronica and the curatorial approach of the Ars Electronica ecosystem. The selected curator will gain valuable insight into the jury process, observing the discussions, attending networking events, and learning about the curatorial approach of the festival.

In June the focus shifts to the Ars Electronica Festival and the curatorial process of the festival programme. Especially in June and July, the resident will work alongside Ars Electronica team and experts to co-create parts of the festival program.

July and August will be dedicated to the festival production, with the resident taking a lead role in the development and implementation of parts of the programme.

September marks the final setup and the festival days, in which the curator will be responsible for guided tours and meeting with stakeholders and key experts within the festival program. After the take down of the festival, the resident will be dedicating time to preparing a final presentation and report. 

Advisory Support

The selected resident will meet an advisor from the Ars Electronica team to support him/her during the residency period and to deepen the topics that are raised within the various meetings and exchanges. 

Final Report 

The resident is required to compile a final presentation to Ars Electronica as well as a final report for ARKO. The final report will be made publicly available through the website of the hosts. 

Ars Electronica Ecosystem 

Ars Electronica Festival 

The Ars Electronica Festival was the starting point of the Ars Electronica ecosystem and premiered in 1979 in Linz, Austria. It was designed to take the digital revolution’s emergence as an occasion to scrutinize potential futures and to focus these inquiries on the nexus of art, technology, and society. This philosophy is getting increasingly important and laid the foundation for Ars Electronica’s ongoing relevance and success. Within the last 40 years, this Linz invention developed into the world’s most important media art festivals. From year to year, its line-up became more extensive and multifaceted. There were symposia, exhibitions, performances, concerts, and interventions spanning a broad arc from speculative futuristic scenarios to analytical considerations, from provocative actionism to philosophical debate. Each year, the Festival has been dedicated to a new theme and Ars Electronica is constantly on the lookout for interesting new venues—indeed, the consistent effort to break out of the narrow confines of conventional conference rooms and artistic spaces, and to stage cultural and scientific encounters in the public sphere has become something of an Ars Electronica trademark. 

The curatorial resident will be part of the festival production team and experience the curation, implementation, and production process of this huge event from within while learning about how a huge team can function and what it takes to organize and produce such a program within several months. Part of the tasks will be the whole process of several festival projects incl. project management, discussion and contact with artists and creatives, exhibition development and learning about creating a narration and storytelling that attracts international as well as local audiences and how important mediation is. 

Prix Ars Electronica 

The Prix Ars Electronica is the world’s longest-running media art competition, since 1987. With the award-winning works of international artists as a trend barometer, it offers an inspiring, current, and forward-looking insight into the interface between art, technology and society. The Prix looks back on more than 30 years of history and offers the opportunity to learn about the role of artists within our society and discover cutting-edge projects and new artistic perspectives.  

What social issues can be identified from the keywords and technologies used in the submitted works? The curator will deepen his*her understanding by discussing with the experts what social issues are highlighted in the artworks and technology is used to express those. At the same time, the participant will also learn about the workflow and implementation of the competition. 

Ars Electronica Center 

The Ars Electronica Center is the museum and school of the future, a creative educational hub for the region, and a centre for connecting art, technology with society, especially with the local community. 

The curatorial resident will understand the role of the Center as an educational hub in the region and how the influence of art and technology changed the city and society while learning about implementation cases and educational programmes and community exchanges. 

Ars Electronica Futurelab 

The Ars Electronica Futurelab is a laboratory and atelier for future systems. As the think-and-do tank of the Ars Electronica, it always places the human being at the centre of the research, considering the social aspects of technological developments such as artificial intelligence, robotics, media architecture, interactive technologies, new aesthetic forms of expression or swarm intelligence and their effects on the future of society. At the interface of art, technology, and society, it creates future visions, which are realized for the public, together with cooperation partners from the fields of business, culture, research, and education. 

The resident will have the chance to meet the experts and artists of the Futurelab and learn through case studies, lectures and workshops new approaches to developing innovative ideas. 

Change of Programme 

In the event that public health measures prevent (parts of) the programme from taking place as planned, the parties and the selected curator will work together to try, in so far as reasonably possible, to identify alternative arrangements to allow the programme to go ahead, nonetheless. This might mean that parts of the programme will be held online until international travel is again possible. In this case, the salary will still be paid to the selected curator. 

Data Protection  

Personal data will be processed under the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Adaptation Act 2018. 

Personal data will be made only accessible to key persons in the selection committee and shall be managed appropriately and safely. It is ensured that personal information is not leaked or used for fraudulent purposes. Personal data will not be provided to third parties, unless consent has been given in advance.  

Contact 

Please contact us directly if you have any questions related to the residency program.

About the Partners 

Ars Electronica

Ars Electronica is a cultural institution, an educational facility and an R&D lab based in Linz, Austria. Like no other institution, Ars Electronica represents a comprehensive approach in the confrontation with techno-cultural phenomena and enjoys a worldwide reputation for excellence. It is comprised of four divisions: the Ars Electronica Festival, the Prix Ars Electronica, the Ars Electronica Center and the Ars Electronica Futurelab. These four divisions mutually inspire one another, constituting a circuit of creativity: The FESTIVAL as test environment and the PRIX as competition of the best and brightest—both of them international, artistic, experimental and focused on the leading edge; the CENTER as year-round presentation & interaction platform—local, educational and entertaining; and the FUTURELAB as R&D facility—innovative, creative, endowed with strong technical competence and implementation skills, and linked up to a global network of universities & research facilities. 

https://ars.electronica.art

Arts Council Korea

ARKO aims to enrich the lives of the population by increasing accessibility to arts and cultural activities, making the arts a meaningful part of everyday life in Korea. ARKO endeavours to provide a strong platform to support artistic work in diverse disciplines, including performing and visual arts, by increasing funding opportunities for artists and arts organizations, undertaking outreach initiatives, enabling Korean artists to reach the world stage, and encouraging cultural exchange. Established as the Korea Culture and Arts Foundation in 1973 it was later restructured as Arts Council Korea in 2005, following the re-enactment of the Korea Culture and Arts Promotion Act. Since its foundation ARKO has led the formulation and implementation of arts and culture policy on the basis of the official National Culture and Arts Policy set by the Korean government. 

https://www.arko.or.kr/eng/index

FAQ 

The per diems for the Jury Meeting will be paid upon receiving an invoice from the curator after the event. The salary will be paid on a monthly basis from June – September 2025.

No, they will not be paid. Please pay for these out of the monthly salary provided.

No, Ars Electronica will provide you with accommodation during your stay. The costs are covered by Ars Electronica.

While Ars Electronica will cover accommodation for you, any additional costs for family members would need to be arranged independently. Please ensure any such arrangements do not interfere with your full-time residency responsibilities.

No, if the curator receives an Austrian work permit, a health insurance is included. If any additional insurance is required, the curator needs to arrange this him*herself.

Yes, you need to apply for a visa. Ars Electronica will provide a document stating that the curator will be employed by Ars Electronica.

The residency is specifically for 2025 and cannot be deferred. However, you are welcome to apply for future editions if the program continues in subsequent years.

Yes, you should have a minimum of three years’ experience in curating and/or producing exhibitions and artistic programs. Please mention any relevant experience in the cultural and technological sector in your entry form.

No, the resident is a full-time position, and we expect the selected curator to fully dedicate his*her time to the program.

Only one curator will be selected for the 2025 Curatorial Residency Program.

The residency covers your stay from June 1 to September 30, 2025. If you wish to extend your stay, any additional costs, including accommodation and living expenses, will need to be arranged and covered by yourself. Please be aware of visa restrictions.

You will have access to Ars Electronica’s curatorial and production teams, meeting spaces, including a dedicated table and workstation. If needed, access to the Ars Electronica Labs such as the Biolab can be arranged. However, if you require specialized equipment or tools, please inform the team ahead of time.

Ars Electronica will assist you with your accommodation and provide guidance on settling in, as well as a close connection to team members. However, you are responsible for managing daily life, such as transportation and local expenses.

The primary working language of Ars Electronica is English, although German is spoken by many team members. Your proficiency in English will be essential for daily activities.

You will observe the jury process and engage in networking with jury and team members. While you may not directly participate in decision-making, you will gain valuable insight into the jury’s discussions and curatorial approaches.

If it fits into the festival frame and budget, we are eager to make it happen. However, keep in mind that there is no additional budget, so your project should focus on research and curatorial practice within the festival framework.

While we strive to provide feedback to all applicants, due to the high volume of submissions, we may only provide detailed feedback to shortlisted candidates.