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Exercising Modernity Academy 2026

September 7-11, 2026

Central and Eastern Europe: (de)constructed. Displacements, Relations, Transformations

 

THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING APPLICATIONS HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO 19 JULY 2026!!!

 

The Exercising Modernity Academy is an interdisciplinary program of artistic and intellectual exchange, which is focused on a critical reflection on the legacy of modernity and its contemporary interpretations.

The project centers on the study of processes of modernization, social and cultural transformations, and the ways in which art, architecture and design practice co-participate in their shaping. We are interested in modernity not as a homogeneous project of progress, but as a field of numerous contradictions, in which differing visions of society, authority and identity clash. Thus, the Exercising Modernity Academy proposes that modernity be viewed as an ambiguous and multi-layered process, shaped in equal measure by emancipatory aspirations and the experience of systemic violence. We are interested in exploring how the legacies of these manifold phenomena influence contemporary cultural, social and design practices, and how they can be critically reinterpreted today.

The sixth edition of the Exercising Modernity Academy will be held under the theme “Central and Eastern Europe: (de)constructed. Displacements, Relations, Transformations”.

The program of the 2026 Exercising Modernity Academy is founded in the conviction that Central and Eastern Europe is neither an obvious geographic category nor a stable historical construct, but rather a field of tension and negotiation. In the present year’s program, we will approach this notion as an effect of the longue durée: from the disintegration of empires through the Second World War and the Cold War divide of the Continent to the post-1989 transformations. We are interested in determining how the region was conceptualized in discourses, how it defined itself vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and Russia, and how it developed its own identity narratives in the face of the world’s division into East and West. In this perspective, the concept of Central and Eastern Europe reveals its post-dependence character: it is both the result of historical relations of subordination, and an attempt to overcome them, which goes beyond situating the region “between East and West” and showing its functioning as a subject of its own history.

Successive blocks of the proposed program help evolve this perspective, presenting Central and Eastern Europe as a space of intense displacement and relations, where the experience of dependence – political, cultural, economic – intertwines with the movement of ideas, people and artistic forms. Changes of borders, wars, totalitarian regimes and migrations created conditions of forced adaptation, but at the same time generated new channels for the transfer of knowledge and practice, often informal and indirect. Finally, we will also be interested in the networks of ties linking the region to both the West – in the broader meaning of the term – and the countries of the Soviet Bloc, thus moving away from the simplistic center-periphery model in favor of multi-directional dependencies. In consequence, the Academy proposes that we view Central and Eastern Europe not as a peripheral fringe of global history, but as a dynamic laboratory of modernity, in which relations with the East and West, as well as the broader global context, have shaped – and continue to shape – specific forms of culture, thought and social practice.

 

BLOCK I – CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE – CONCEPT, HISTORY, NARRATIVES

The aim of the first block is to critically reflect on the notion of Central and Eastern Europe, and its variability over time. We will attempt to answer the question of whether Central and Eastern Europe can be considered a coherent geographical, political, cultural and epistemological category. We will look at the history of the emergence and evolution of this concept in the context of key processes of the 20th century, such as the collapse of empires, the Second World War, the Cold War, the bisection of Europe by the Iron Curtain, and the profound political transition that occurred post-1989. The block will take into account perspectives typical of historical research, political science and cultural studies, thereby allowing us to understand how the concept of Central and Eastern Europe has been not only a tool of description, but also of power, hierarchization and exclusion.

 

BLOCK II – DISPLACEMENTS

The second block focuses on moments of rupture of the continuum caused by border changes, wars, totalitarian systems, repression, anti-Semitism and the related experience of migrations from Central and Eastern Europe. Special attention will be paid to the individual biographies of those who left the region or had to adapt to the new reality, and this will be accompanied by an analysis of their strategies of adaptation, of how they functioned in their new contexts, and of the roles they played in the circulation of ideas, knowledge and cultural practices. The block will also touch upon the issue of “mental isolations” – cognitive and communicational barriers that impeded the flow of knowledge between East and West, and the mechanisms thanks to which the transfer nevertheless took place.

 

BLOCK III – RELATIONS

The third and final block is devoted to an analysis of the relations between Central and Eastern Europe and other parts of the world, and the network of dependencies in which 20th century culture, art and design functioned. This includes relations with the broader Western world, as well as with Soviet Bloc countries and the USSR’s satellite states. However, instead of focusing solely on the center-periphery relationship, we will look at the connections, influences and dependencies functioning between different countries, institutions and individuals. This block will examine less obvious forms of cooperation, rivalry and exchange – in the sphere of culture, science, economics and ideology – that have not always been visible in official narratives or widely analyzed in research.

 

Selection of candidates

 

  • Participants – a maximum of 16 participants – will be selected through an open recruitment procedure. Participation in the 2026 Exercising Modernity Academy program may be applied for by researchers active in the humanities, curators, artists, creators, and those interested in the relations between culture, history, politics and space.
  • Since the present year’s academy is full-time (intramural) and does not offer support as regards travel and accommodation, we encourage especially those living in and around Berlin to apply. The participation of persons from outside Berlin is possible, however the costs of travel and accommodation must be covered by individual program participants.
  • Candidates are required to have at least a communicative knowledge of English. Candidates should be at least 18 years old.
  • Candidates are invited to submit their applications in English via e-mail to the following address: apply@exercisingmodernity.com by time 23:59, 19.07.2026. Candidates are requested to write “Academy 2026” as the subject of the e-mail.
  • A complete application should include:
    – Scan of the signed form “Information about the controller and the protection of personal data” – Attachment No. 1,
    – Scan of the signed form “Declaration concerning the provision of consent to the processing of personal data and personal image data” – Attachment No. 2,
    DOWNLOAD Attachements 1 and 2
    – Artistic/academic biographical note and/or portfolio
    – Outline of a concept of a six-month scholarship project for cultural activities, related to the subject matter of the 2026 Exercising Modernity Academy (maximum of 3,000 characters with spaces),
    – All the above documents should be submitted in English
  • Only individual applications will be accepted
  • We reserve the right to contact selected candidates for the purpose of conducting additional on-line interviews.

 

Additional information

  • Those admitted undertake to attend meetings of the 2026 Academy in September 2026 in Berlin; individual contracts will be concluded with participants.
  • Classes and workshops of the Academy will be held in English.
  • Information about the Exercising Modernity project and previous editions of the Academy can be found at www.exercisingmodernity.com.
  • Any questions or concerns should be sent to the address: contact@exercisingmodernity.com.
  • The recruitment process will be finalized by 18th of August 2026. The list of selected candidates will be posted on the website of the Pilecki Institute (www.instytutpileckiego.pl), on the project website (www.exercisingmodernity.com), and on the websites of Partners.
  • The organizers are not under any obligation to substantiate the decisions of the adjudicating committee. No appeal procedure has been provided for.
  • For candidates selected to participate in the project, the present document will constitute an attachment to the contract concluded between any such candidate and the Pilecki Institute in Berlin, and will also constitute the regulations.
  • The Competition is not open to graduates of previous editions of the Exercising Modernity Academy.

 

Graduates of the Exercising Modernity Academy 2026 are eligible to apply for a FINANCIAL SCHOLARSHIPS FOR CULTURAL ACTIVITIES UNDER THE 2026 EXERCISING MODERNITY PROGRAM OF THE PILECKI INSTITUTE IN BERLIN.

 

DOWNLOAD full announcement regarding the COMPETITION FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE EXERCISING MODERNITY ACADEMY 2026 and the COMPETITION FOR FINANCIAL SCHOLARSHIPS FOR CULTURAL ACTIVITIES UNDER THE 2026 EXERCISING MODERNITY PROGRAM AT THE Pilecki-Institut Berlin.

 

Please notify any questions or concerns to the address: contact@exercisingmodernity.com