Convened by Marte Aas and Stephanie von Spreter. Held in collaboration with Goethe Institut Norway and the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute (FINNO)
Residency dates: 3 – 30 November 2025
Application deadline: 23:59 CET, 4 May 2025
A body that possesses elasticity can change its form in response to external forces, then return to its previous state when the forces are removed. In a literal sense, elastic bodies are potentially adaptable and flexible. Structurally speaking, theories of elasticity in fields such as economics and neurobiology can also show adaptability and flexibility.
What does it mean for a body, be it human or (thinking non-anthropocentrically) more-than-human, to be elastic: to expand and contract? Can concepts of elasticity help us better understand different bodily and psychological states, such as aging, illness, motherhood, belonging and attachment? Are these even distinct states, or part of an elastic continuum? How expansive is our own capacity for elasticity, and to what extent does our increasingly shrinking and homogenized world limit our ability to explore it?
Developed by artist Marte Aas and art historian/curator Stephanie von Spreter, Elasticity invites participants to explore elasticity from both a material and a theoretical perspective. The project will seek to apply elasticity as a phenomenon and a construct to both individual and social bodies. It will ask how the term can help us rethink collaborative relationships between scientific, aesthetic and artistic practices.
The residency is open to artists and cultural producers from all creative disciplines, as well as thinkers, researchers and practitioners from other fields. Participants will work together as a group and explore elasticity from multiple perspectives through lectures, presentations, discussions, excursions, and field studies.
About Stephanie von Spreter
Stephanie von Spreter, PhD, is an art historian and curator. Her research interests include contemporary art and photography, Nordic/circumpolar art and feminist and decolonial art history. She is a member of the research group Worlding Northern Art (WONA) at UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, where she completed her PhD entitled Destructed Environments, Gendered Spaces, and Colonial Legacies: Contemporary Artistic Practices Sensing the Arctic and the Circumpolar North (2024).
About Marte Aas
Marte Aas is a visual artist who mainly works with film and photography. Her practice explores what a body is, and how ideas about the body are malleable, relative constructs shaped by ideology, history, and biopolitics. Her films include It Cannot be Contained, an examination of the history of blood, and A Letter to Zoe, which considers the epistemology of the container. Both films probe the ways that conceptual frameworks shape our world, and the politics that emerge from the process.
The Programme
PRAKSIS residencies take the form of collective research programmes. Participants collaborate in planning schedules and making adjustments as needed during the process. Residents typically meet four days per week for collective activities which may include participant-led sessions, residency-related visits and meetings, a tour of Oslo's galleries, networking events, discussions and group critiques. Some activities are public-facing. For example, a “Meet the Residents” presentation, usually held in the first week, offers participants a chance to informally introduce themselves and their practices to both the public and fellow residents.
Selection and Funding
A group of approximately eight participants will join an active, facilitated programme free of charge.
Residents share a work space at PRAKSIS HQ in the centre of Oslo.
PRAKSIS will host weekly group dinners with invited guests. On weekdays, PRAKSIS provides lunch at PRAKSIS HQ.
This residency offers a sponsored place for a resident from Finland which includes 12,000 NOK towards stipend and travel.
One stipend of 8,000 NOK is available to help towards the costs of someone who cannot participate otherwise. If this is a requirement, please select this option in the application form.
Non-Oslo based residents receive comfortable shared accommodation (with your own bedroom).
Oslo-based residents will continue to stay at their home address.
Residents are responsible for their own travel and any further costs.
Oslo has a vibrant arts landscape. PRAKSIS will help introduce residents to the city’s cultural scene and inform them about exhibitions, talks, performances and other events taking place during the residency period.
Where possible/suitable, our team will do its best to support applications for external grants.
Requirements
English is the common language at PRAKSIS and residents must be sufficiently fluent to participate in group discussion and activity.
Residents are expected to involve themselves fully in the work of the residency: joining discussions, participating in events and engaging with the resident community.
Accepting a residency involves a commitment to participation for the full residency term.
Application guidelines
Submit application via Google form by 4 May 2025 at 23:59 CET. In it, you will be asked to:
Summarise your practice. (max. 600 characters)
How does your current practical work or research relate to the residency theme? (max. 1500 characters)
What particular topics or questions would you like to explore during the residency, and how would you like to address them? (max. 1500 characters)
How will this experience benefit you and your practice at this stage of your career? Do you have longer-term goals or project concepts that relate to the residency programme? (max. 1500 characters)
How do you hope to contribute to the residency programme? (max. 1500 characters)
Add a CV and/or short bio.
Include contact details for two academic or professional referees. (They will only be contacted if you are invited to interview.)
Work sample: Portfolio (only one PDF file with all images and texts). Up to 5 pages will be accepted. Images should include captions or short descriptions. Alternatively you may include a link (or links) to your website. If submitting a large website - please link to individual projects you’d like us to look at.
Pay the application fee.
Selections will be made by Marte Aas, Stephanie von Spreter, and members of the PRAKSIS team. Online interviews will be conducted with shortlisted candidates.
Application Form
Please click here to access the form.
Application Fee
There is an application fee of 75 NOK (equal to €6.37 as of 09/04/24). The fee covers part of the cost of administering your application. It is paid via the application form.
Timeline
Open call: 4 May 2025
Interview dates: Mid to late May 2025
Residency: 3-30 November 2025
