Researcher in Residence (RiR)

What happens when an emerging institution, an exhibition space for contemporary art for and with children and adults, puts co-creation processes with its audience at the core of its programme? This question guides all activities at the KinderKunstLabor. Already in the run-up to its grand opening in June 2024, children played a crucial role in shaping the institutional practice on various levels. How can all the knowledge and insights attained in such processes be incorporated into a continuous transfer and become a basis for the institution to realise concrete projects?

With these questions in mind, artistic director Mona Jas conceived a residency project for scientists in 2022, which subsequently led to an open call under the title Mittlung neu denken (Rethinking Art Mediation). A high-profile expert jury examined the 24 submitted research concepts in terms of their potential to convey artistic expertise and the stringency of a well-founded scientific research approach to complement the ongoing projects at the KinderKunstLabor.

Social anthropologist Anahita Neghabat, whose submission was selected by the jury members, accompanied the activities of the KinderKunstLabor from August 2023 to February 2024. She presented her research findings at the international symposium Can institutions learn (to get going)? in November 2024. The anthology of the same name contains the multilayered excerpt from Neghabat’s research project under the title Let the Material Lead! Co-Creation through Methodological Diversity at the KinderKunstLabor. In her essay, she analyses constructions of childhood and critically investigates the extent to which art institutions provide space for diversity. Picking up on the concept of “new materialism,” she demonstrates how the curated materials and spaces can facilitate access to an art institution for young people, but also hinder it.

In the framework of the founding, conception, and development of the KinderKunstLabor in 2023, Mittlung neu denken was set up as an international, collaborative, and practice-based research project and, for the first time, coupled with a Researcher in Residency programme under the mentorship of the artistic direction. 

The KinderKunstLabor is a learning institution. Knowledge and insights attained in processes on site are scientifically evaluated and shared in a specially developed qualification center in cooperation with a university network centred on the fields of art mediation and curation. Current discourses and practices are examined with a special focus on phenomenological approaches, spatial aspects in art production as well as curating and mediation for and with children. 

Mona Jas