54 HOURS ART SQUAT
Myths of Tomorrow
26.-28. September 2025
OPEN CALL
Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile together with the NGO and Agency Port of Culture (Kyiv) invites artists of all backgrounds, disciplines and practices to join our 54h Art Squat this September in Berlin. From 26. - 28. September 2025 Hotel Continental - Art Space in Exile will offer its spaces and facilities for a non-stop art production rave — open day and night — for spontaneous, interdisciplinary, and process-driven creation. The topic for the 54h Art Squat is Myths of Tomorrow. For one long weekend, 54 hours in total - the Art Space will transform to a huge collective makers space, following the credo: Stop thinking, start creating!
The main goal of 54h Art Squat is a fast Pop-Up-Art-Production in interdisciplinary teams. Teams will be found on site or before, sizes can vary from 2 up to 6 or more people, depending on the field of work.
MYTHS OF TOMORROW
The theme of the Art Squat, Myths of Tomorrow — aims to explore speculative futures, poetic technologies, invented rituals, and collective fictions. How do we imagine what comes next? What new myths do we need? We invite you to join our creative myth-making that blends storytelling, imagination and reflection on our values and roots, thus giving meaning, identity and direction to the present.
WHAT WE OFFER
Full access to the spaces and infrastructure of Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile for 54 hours, including: Recording studio, black box theatre space, several crafting and hands-on-making areas, outdoor area, kino, basement.
Technical support for the creation and implementation of your interdisciplinary art project
A supply of basic art material
Chill zone with 54 hours of free tea, coffee, water and snacks
Moderation and support for finding a team
Support for finding accomodation in Berlin
Input lectures by experts and open debating formats to connect with creators and thinkers from diverse disciplines
Show Time: final presentation with public guests, an international renowned jury and aftershow party
Attractive awards
WHAT WE EXPECT
Enthusiasm and general interest for the topic
Open minds and willingness to share ideas and skills
Cooperation in an interdisciplinary team
Respect and tolerance among the participants
Respect towards the house rules of Hotel Continental - Art Space in Exile
WHO CAN APPLY
The 54h Art Squat is open to artists of all disciplines: painters, sculptors, designers, illustrators, musicians, actors, directors, composers, videographers, writers, circus artists, scenographers, filmmakers etc.etc. - as well as those artists who work at the intersection of disciplines. The call is open to international and Berlin-based artists and to all levels of experience.
Please note: The 54h Art Squat cannot provide accommodation for sleeping. Hotel Continental - Art Space in Exile offers the opportunity to work through the night, but no beds or washrooms. Support for finding accommodation in Berlin during your stay is available upon request.
HOW TO APPLY
To join the 54h Art Squat, please fill in the application form below.
Application deadline is 30.8.2025.
Selected participants will be contacted in the beginning of September.
SHOW & AWARDS
On Sunday, 28th Sept. we will have showtime! All your creative output, ideas and projects will be presented and discussed in the frame of a gallery walk. We will open the gates for invited guests, friends and the interested Berlin art community. The most interesting projects will be awarded by an international jury.
AWARDS
3 residencies at Hotel Continental – Art Space in Exile (work space and support for 3 months)
Invitation to host your event or exhibition at Hotel Continental
A mentoring session with Katya Taylor, director and curator of Port Agency, Kyiv.
TIMELINE
20.6. Opening of the call
19.7. 16:00 Online info-session Please register here!
30.8. Deadline for applications
10.9. Announcement of participants
26.-28.9. 54h Art Squat
INFO
For further info or special requests please write to: info@artspaceinexile.org
Downloads:
PARTNERS
The Team of Hotel Continental - Art Space in Exile aims to create a safer space free of aggression and all types of violence. All participants are expected to treat others with respect, listen without judgment, and speak with kindness. Discrimination, harassment, and harmful language are not tolerated. Each person’s identity, experiences, and boundaries must be honored to ensure a supportive and inclusive environment for all.
ABOUT
The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.
This is way more than just a motivational motto. The future will not happen just like that – the future was always imagined and created by people – and will continue to be.
Since ancient times people have felt the desire to look into the future in order to better confront the present. To imagine what is to come and to act accordingly is an evolutionary necessity; looking into the future has a long history. The predictions of oracle priests, prophets and visionaries have shaped the fate of entire countries and cultures. Throughout history, predictions played a dominant role in giving meaning to everyday life, to create powerful narratives that offer guidelines for society, culture and politics.
We live in a time in which it has become difficult to look ahead with optimism or to draft strong visions for a better future. The future has lost its once-inherent promise of improving the human condition, today it more likely implies the question: How bad will it get? The fearful anticipation of what is to come and the lack of a unifying and inspiring narrative for the future are causing democracies to falter and societies to drift apart. At the same time, the war in Europe, the transformation of our economy, climate change, and the new global security situation require our societies to adapt and renew rapidly.
But it's not enough to try to prevent the worst. Without big plans, even small things won't succeed.
With the topic “Myths of Tomorrow” we want to reverse the logic of traditional myths who are oriented towards the past – and create meaningful cultural narratives, cautionary tales and symbolic frameworks about what might happen.
With the 54h Art Squat about “Myths of Tomorrow” we aim to stimulate an artistic, poetic, fantastic, imaginative and utterly speculative exploration of the things yet to come. We invite you to join our creative myth-making that blends storytelling, imagination and reflection on our values and roots, thus giving meaning, identity and direction to the present.
FAQ
A Myth of Tomorrow is a forward-looking narrative which can be culturally influential by shaping our behaviour, hopes, fears, the public discourse, policymaking, art and innovation. It can be a utopia, dystopia, a technological vision or a spiritual belief.
1. What exactly is a Myth of Tomorrow?
2. I would like to participate, but I am overwhelmed by the size of the task. Where should I even start?
Don’t worry about the potentially huge dimensions of creating a Myth of Tomorrow. Whatever topic you are interested in, it is worth exploring. We don’t expect holistic concepts, but rather speculations of specific themes regarding the things to come. It does not matter whether it´s small-scale or large-scale, whether it´s very personal or universal, whether it´s about how you will get through your next day - or about global issues such as climate, ecology, migration, nutrition, AI, power, inequality, identity, space, love or post-humanism. Your focus can be pessimistic or optimistic, practical or theoretic, pragmatic or poetic, philosophical, intellectual, visionary, hands-on, solution-oriented or spiritual. We all know: there is no one single future, but many different and even contradictory futures. So the more diverse your perspectives, the more interesting.
Again we leave this up to your imagination, personal perspective and individual interest. The future is the next moment, the next day, next year, decade, century or even the next millennium. And there are no restrictions of how far you want to look ahead.
3. What timeframe of the future we are talking about?
The 54h Art Squat is a unique possibility to meet up with a crowd of interesting artists of different disciplines and backgrounds for a Maker´s Rave Weekend. It is about open debate and artistic exchange, inspiration, improvisation, flow, rhythm, brainstorming and skill-sharing, about the beauty of spontaneous creation and the meaning of collaborative processes. Besides there will be special awards for the most interesting concepts!
4. What´s in it for me? Why should I participate?
There are several possibilities to connect with other artists and find interesting matches for collaboration: Via our online-platform with the profiles of the other participants before the event, or via a big pitching-session in the beginning of the event, or other interactive formats.
5. How will I find a team?
We recommend to work in groups between two and five persons to ensure productivity, efficient communication and fast decisions.
6. How big should the teams be?
7. Can I work alone in case I don’t find my perfect match?
In case you don’t find an inspiring match for the project you have in mind: don’t worry! You can still pursue your own project as a solo-artist – or be a supporting “bee” flying from flower to flower in the Squat – collaborating with different teams. However, the experiment of interdisciplinary collaboration should be the goal.
8. Can we participate in the Art Squat as an already existing team?
Yes, thats possible.
There are no limits to unusual and unexpected artistic experiments – on the contrary, we hope for inventive and surprising blends of disciplines, potentially connecting performing art with installation art, sculpture with poetry, dance with graphics, textile art with music, urban art with literature, filming with painting, etc. etc.
9. What formats of artistic expression are possible?
The main goal of the Art Squat is the process – not the finished product. It’s about the journey, not the final destination. We are looking for your work-in-progress, mock-ups, unpolished concepts, rough drafts, sketches, studies, explorations, proposals, early-stage storyboards and unfinished compositions. All ideas will be shown, shared and discussed in a final presentation with friends and guests.
The first step is the most important. The rest will follow after.
10. What can be a final outcome of the Art Squat and how should it be presented?