★★★ Current ★★★

Space Grant for Artists with Chronic Illnesses

Duration: 2-week stay in Libken, flexible by arrangement (April – end of September)
Application deadline: March 15, 2026 / Written application max. 1 DIN A4 page or as a short video (max. 3 minutes)

Artists with chronic illnesses are structurally disadvantaged in the cultural sector. Many funding institutions are oriented toward continuous availability, clearly defined schedules, mobility, and a high level of self-organization. These requirements often exclude people with chronic illnesses or force them to make their needs invisible.

At the same time, many chronic illnesses are under-researched, socially insufficiently recognized, and often invisible. Those affected invest a large portion of their energy in everyday organization, regeneration, and medical care—often without adequate support from health insurance providers and therefore under significant financial strain. As a result, artistic work is frequently put under pressure or becomes impossible altogether.

With the space grant for artists with chronic illnesses, Libken aims to make a small but concrete contribution to greater accessibility in the cultural sector. The grant is intended to take individual working realities seriously and to open up room for action.

Target group

The grant is aimed at artists with chronic illnesses, including invisible ones, such as ME/CFS, endometriosis, Long Covid, autoimmune diseases, chronic pain syndromes, depression, or ulcerative colitis.
We invite individuals who are generally independent, but whose daily lives and ability to work are limited by their illness, and who benefit from a calm and understanding environment.

Social environment

During your stay, other residency guests may also be present on site. There is the opportunity to exchange ideas or experience a sense of community. Participation is entirely voluntary, and withdrawal or maintaining your own daily rhythms is possible at any time.

Companion and support

If it is helpful for your stay, you may bring a companion of your choice free of charge to support you in everyday life or assist where needed. They can be present flexibly, according to your needs, without obligations or specific expectations.

For the respective grant period, we are also happy to discuss what kind of practical support Libken can offer—for example, joint grocery shopping, carpooling, or accompaniment on site. We cannot provide medical or nursing care, nor childcare; however, children are of course welcome to come along.

Framework conditions and accessibility

The stay is designed to be flexible in terms of timing. The period is arranged individually and can be freely chosen within a larger time window. The aim is to keep time pressure and stress-related strain as low as possible. Depending on our capacities, short-term adjustments are also possible.

During the grant period, an apartment is provided exclusively, with access to the Libken grounds, the library, and workspaces. Libken is a quiet place in the middle of the Uckermark region, offering both retreat and opportunities for social interaction. Unfortunately, the apartments in Libken are not barrier-free. The lowest apartment is located on the first floor. Interested parties are welcome to contact us to discuss whether the place is suitable for their individual needs.

Due to ongoing questions regarding barriers and access, we continuously supplement and update additional information here.

Assistance dogs are, of course, welcome. On the premises as well as in corridors and common areas, dogs must generally be kept on a leash. If the leash restricts assistance work, exceptions can be arranged upon request.

For general safety and awareness matters, please refer to our Code of Conduct and our Awareness Concept.

Unfortunately, the building does not have an elevator. The first apartments are located on the first floor, requiring two flights of stairs with 8 steps each.

The building is an older prefabricated structure. Depending on occupancy, apartments may be partially sound-permeable. By arrangement with us, it is possible to choose time periods during which fewer people are expected to be on site.

Pickup from and drop-off at the train station is possible by arrangement. However, we cannot provide daily transport services. There is the option to invite an additional person free of charge for the entire period or for specific times, who can accompany you in Libken and take on assistance tasks.

We currently do not have a separate infection prevention concept. You will have your own apartment with bathroom and kitchen, which you will use exclusively. Corridors and common rooms are shared by multiple people. During the warmer months, the large grounds offer various opportunities to work outdoors and to create individual workspaces and areas.

Our approach

There is no expectation of productivity, outcomes, or public presentations.
We are aware that this space grant cannot reach all artists with chronic illnesses and does not cover all needs. Nevertheless, we believe it is necessary not to simply accept existing mechanisms of exclusion, but to question and change them within our own possibilities. For individual artists, such an offer can make a decisive difference.

The space grant is understood as an invitation to rethink working practices and to create spaces in which artistic practice does not fail due to normative ideas of productivity and performance.

Application

If you would like to apply, please send us your application by March 15 at 6:00 PM.

The application can be submitted either

* as a text (max. one DIN A4 page), or
* as a short video (max. 3 minutes).

Please describe why you need a space for yourself and what you would like to work on in Libken.
It is not necessary to provide detailed diagnoses or medical descriptions. A self-assessment as a person with a chronic illness is entirely sufficient. What matters most are the specific needs that arise from this, so that we can assess how well we can meet them.

Please name your PDF file as follows:
FirstNameLastName_SpaceGrant (e.g. MaxMustermensch_SpaceGrant)

Send your application with the subject line “Own Pace” to: [contact@libken.de](mailto:contact@libken.de)

A ROOM OF ONE’S OWN | Libken Space Grant

„A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.“
Virginia Woolf

Almost 100 years have passed since Virginia Woolf’s famous essay, yet her words still ring true: anyone who wants to be creative—regardless of gender or background—needs time, space, and the right resources to explore their ideas and grow.

While Libken can’t always offer fully funded residencies, we do our best to support artists, thinkers, and activists. That’s why we occasionally offer space grants: we provide one of our apartments free of charge for a set period, giving you the room to focus on your project. Calls for applications are flexible and announced as soon as a space becomes available.

Alongside the apartment, you can use the Libken grounds, our library, the covered outdoor workspace, and—depending on availability—the waterworks. You’re welcome to share your work, whether through a reading, a mini-exhibition, a sharing session, or a library publication—but it’s completely up to you.

Current calls for space grants are always posted here on our website and on Instagram.

Past Residencies

Christiane Bergelt

Christiane Bergelt received her MA in Fine Art/Painting from Chelsea College of Art in London, supported by a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation, and studied free painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg under Prof. Christine Colditz and as a master student under Prof. Thomas Hartmann. With scholarships from the DAAD and the State of Brandenburg, Bergelt completed working stays in Iceland and at Wiepersdorf Castle. Christiane Bergelt was awarded the Young Artists’ Prize for Fine Arts in 2017 and the Working Scholarship of the State of Brandenburg in 2020. In 2022, she will receive the Neustart Kultur Scholarship from the Kunstfonds Foundation.

PREP___ io credo
WORK__ kommen lassen

A space for myself with imitation marble, fake trompe l’œil thoughts,
poems yet to write, preparatory drawings, dorky darke text images and Companion E.,
the furry four-legged black one.
Coordinating the arms of the octopus. Switching between body, hand and text work.

http://christianebergelt.com
Photo: C. Bergelt

Susanne Keichel

studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig and completed her studies as a master student under Prof. Tina Bara. Her works were exhibited at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015 as part of the official supporting programme. This was followed by participation in exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Dresden, the Kunstraum Düsseldorf and the ‘Rundgang 50Hertz’ in cooperation with the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums, the Prague Photography Festival and EMOP 2023 in Berlin, among others. Susanne Keichel was Artist in Residence at the Goethe-Institut Rotterdam and a NEUSTARTplus scholarship holder of the Kunstfonds Bonn. Since October 2023, she has been working as an artistic assistant for photography and media at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig.

Susanne Keichel’s work focuses on social and political developments and their effects over longer periods of time. A strong focus is placed on the departure and arrival of people in a globalised world and on the social inequality that our society reproduces. Susanne used the space scholarship in Libken to intensively prepare for the second part, ‘Work,’ of her three-part series
on social justice. In addition to viewing and analysing photographs on the theme of work, she read texts on class and social justice issues.

www.susannekeichel.de

Foto: Anja Schneider

Pit Heinrich

Pit Heinrich (he/him) studied literature in Freiburg and Paris. After dabbling in journalism and cultural work, he is currently studying comparative literature at the Peter Szondi Institute in Berlin. Pit leads a student seminar on literature and its theory, and also works as a reading mentor in a primary school. He is interested in the construction and deconstruction of worlds in language. This often involves questions of ecology, identity and poetic transformation. Pit’s texts have been published in various magazines in Germany and Switzerland.

In Libken, I worked on a three-part prose poem that attempts to tell a story of the relationship between humans and nature. The story spans from 1347 to the future, from the outbreak of the plague in Italy to the transformation of the Alps into a new sea. To this end, I reworked historical material into poetry and attempted to address the question: What separates us from our environment and how can we deal with this catastrophe?

Jana Krüger

was born in Aachen and grew up in East Frisia. She studied cultural studies in Potsdam and general and comparative literature at the Free University of Berlin. While studying literary writing at the German Literature Institute in Leipzig, she led two projects for young refugees in independent youth welfare services. She is the winner of the 2019 Wortmeldung Förderpreis and participated in the 2022 Klagenfurt Literature Course. Her texts have been published in literary magazines such as Metamorphosen and Edit. She is currently working on her debut novel and a poetry manuscript.

During my stay in Libken, I worked on my poetry manuscript. I understand the poems as forms of nocturnal figures. The individual poems move in a fantastical and philosophical terrain that questions encounters and rebellion, sometimes straying and reinventing itself in other moments.

Foto: Hauke Vogt

Rosh Zeeba & Xenia Ende

Rosh Zeeba (they/them) works in the fields of film and video, multimedia, performance and artistic research.
In their work, Zeeba develops multidirectional narratives that negotiate Iranian queer identity, the politics of image production, the body and its associated storytelling, and deconstructed ornamentalism. Zeeba’s works always take a performative approach and question the embedding of art in established art institutions.
Her themes include intersections, glitching, irritation, intertwining, torn threads, post-cyberfeminism, queer theory, artistic research on radical image production, memory and dreams, ghosts and intergenerational trauma, Iranian mythology, and gentle world-building.
Zeeba’s works and lectures have been presented at the Thessaloniki Queer Arts Festival, Tetem (NL), Balkan Can Kino (Athens), Leuphana University, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Fluctoplasma Festival, Favoriten Festival Dortmund, XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin, MOM Art Space, RaumLinksRechts Hamburg, KH7 Artspace (Denmark) and Grrl Haus Cinema (Berlin/Boston). As part of the para-institutional project Haus Of Xhaos, Zeeba curates FEEVA (Forum for Experimental and Emancipatory Video Art) and hosts a monthly podcast.

www.roshzeeba.com
www.hausofxhaos.com

Xenia Ende works as a transdisciplinary artist. She thinks and writes and dances and screams. Her work is about caution, playfulness, improvisation, correspondences, poetry, beauty, transfeminist-queer materialist eco-socialism, humour, twists, drag, queering and games. She calls her work ‘Neurotrans*verse Performance,’ a made-up term combining neurodiversity, transgender/transsexuality, performance, and perforation. She works in artistic and political collectives as well as in bands. She lives in the Ruhr area of Germany.

www.xeniaende.com

Photo: Rosh Zeeba

Lilli Braunisch

Lilli Braunisch (born 1985) is a sociologist working at the intersection of politics, art and urban studies, and lives in Berlin.

How is it that we perceive our reality as a manifest world and orientation? What causes the ideologies and ideas that have developed within it, and which form the basis of our interpretation of the world, to change? Or what causes them to remain unchanged? I explore these questions using the example of the concept of innovation in the German Bundestag. This is an essential question, especially for politics with its dominant influence on all areas of society: How, for example, is innovation discursively constituted as an established hype term in politics? And how is the concept enforced to such an extent that the economic maxims anchored in it are transferred to numerous areas of society? Libken has given me the space to pursue these questions further.

Foto: Richard Rocholl

Danila Lipatov

My multimedia research focuses on experiences I had at the age of 13 in a village near Leipzig, queer cultures in the GDR in the 1980s, and my new home in Friedrichshain.

The project is developing in the form of a diary. It was very inspiring for me to live in the GDR Platte and see how it is being repurposed in such a communal and open way. Through the space scholarship, I met new friends with whom we exchanged our impressions and feelings in the kitchens and on the Hollywood swing (a new word I learned in Libken).

I also had moving encounters with old stones and burial mounds, a doll’s house in the moated castle of Gerswalde and books from the cosy library in Libken, which inspired me to think and write. For example, passages from Brigitte Reimann’s diary in which she describes her trip to the Soviet Union and her infatuation with the Russian translator Nadja. Here is an excerpt from 20 July 1964: ‘We talked about a thousand things, about socialism and love and Italian shoes and Matisse, but not once about the fact that we belong to two different nations.’