If we assume that the present is characterised by multiple crises, how can research react to this situation of uncertainty and instability? And why are ghosts a help in this scenario? The Hauntologists, a post-academic fellowship programme at BAK basis voor actuele kunst in Utrecht that took place from 2021 until 2022 in Utrecht, Jakarta and Istanbul, made the hauntologist a key figure for speculative, embodied research within hybrid networks. Operating collaboratively and navigating between different places, the programme refered to a specific form of knowledge production. Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga, the curator of the programme, talked to Agnieszka Roguski, Artistic Director of M.1 Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung, about the necessity and the challenges of such a programme. She gave insights into entangled research methodologies, responsive infrastructures, the performativity of research – and explains how ghosts respond to a state of constant uncertainty in a fundamental way.

Julia Morandeira Arrizabalaga is a researcher, curator and educator. Her practice is articulated in long-standing projects of curatorial research, which materialise in different formats and structures. She is Director at KADIST Paris, and lecturer and coordinator of the Social Justice Activism in the Visual Arts course at Leiden University. Prior to this she was Curator of Post-Academic Program at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht; theory and COOP tutor at the Dutch Art Institute master program, ArTEZ University; a mediator for the Concomitentes (Nouveaux Commanditaires) project; and ARCO Madrid's Opening section curator for the 2021-22-23 editions.

You can listen to the talk here.