HausCode Open Call

Haus der Kunst invites digital and interdisciplinary creators worldwide to participate in the first edition of HausCode, a new prototype for Creative Research and Development.

Shaping the vision behind the programme through drawing new lines in contemporary art history and weaving the projects into a coherent narrative that evolves over time, Haus der Kunst is committed to presenting works that invite audiences into deep systems of meaning – some visible, some less, some enacted through time or repetition. HausCode seeks to extend this approach by facilitating digital responses that engage with and reinterpret these underlying structures, creating a new context in which to understand our increasingly digitalised world.

The inaugural cycle is centred on the exhibition "For Children: Art Stories since 1968", which presents artworks explicitly conceived for children, approaching childhood as a space through which forms of learning and institutional functioning are reconsidered.

The open call aims to address broader international applicants and encourages unconventional ways to engage with the programme. In-person presence is not required.

Three concepts will be selected and commissioned to be developed through a focused, research-led process, with an online presentation in May 2026.

HausCode is an experimental annual initiative through which digital practitioners collaborate with and respond to the storytelling that unfolds through the artistic programme of Haus der Kunst.

HausCode invites diverse creatives to “embody” the programme, becoming its sensory extensions and interpretive agents. These creators operate not as illustrators of curatorial ideas, but as independent agents who decode, critique, or reimagine the institution’s logic and narration from within. Contributors get exclusive glimpses behind the scenes of the exhibitions and institutional vision, and are invited to reveal and reinterpret the hidden structures, codes and rituals that govern artistic and institutional practice.

Creative contributions will serve as a research and interpretation tool that operates as a conceptual avatar of Haus der Kunst: a generative identity that expands and evolves through each cycle, shaped by the creators who engage with it.

In this first edition, the avatar takes shape through the questions raised by "For Children": How do institutions frame childhood? What do they choose to protect, instruct, or imagine, and how do cultural systems shape what childhood can be, know, and do? Through artworks conceived for children, the exhibition examines how these frameworks influence learning, perception, and institutional behaviour. The exhibition foregrounds childhood as a complex cultural field – tender, political, imaginative, and shaped by institutional systems. To familiarise yourself with the show, feel free to explore our social media and refer to the exhibition film available online.

Creatives are invited to respond by interpreting Haus der Kunst as an active participant in shaping cultural ideas of childhood. Proposals may explore:

• learning systems, engagement, pedagogy
• play and imagination
• responsibility and agency
• bodily perception as transmission activator
• memory, trauma, or the transmission of knowledge
• how childhood is constructed, represented, or performed through art
• how Haus der Kunst “speaks” to or about children
• architectures and infrastructures of welcoming and sharing

Works may be critical, poetic, analytic, playful, or speculative. They are encouraged to engage with the exhibition’s and institutional broader conceptual context.

We welcome proposals that demonstrate:

• a clear conceptual relationship to "For Children"
• thoughtful engagement with the cultural or emotional structures of childhood
• experimentation with digital or computational media
• feasibility within the development period

Proposed outcomes may include:

• short-form digital contributions
• interactive or web-based works
• generative or AI-based experiments
• moving image, sound, or mixed media
• data-led or text-based explorations
• research-driven or speculative formats

This is a prototype commission; works may be fragmentary, exploratory, or experimental.

The open call is international and welcomes creatives, including but not limited to:

• digital, multimedia and interdisciplinary creators
• designers working with digital media
• creative technologists
• AI and machine-learning practitioners
• emerging or established practitioners working in hybrid or experimental forms

Applicants must be available for online sessions and able to deliver work between March–April 2026.

Each selected practitioner will receive:

• €2,000 fee
• A structured online development period
• Research and guidance sessions in dialogue with "For Children" and Haus der Kunst’s vision
• Curatorial and conceptual support from Haus der Kunst team
• Inclusion in HausCode Studio online showcase (May 2026)
• Publication across HDK digital channels

2 February 2026 – Start of application period
25 February 2026 – Submission deadline
Early March 2026 – Selection and notification
March-April 2026 – Creative development period
May 2026 – Online showcase / HausCode Studio

The online form will be available here on Febuary, 2.

Please submit:

1. A short proposal
    - Concept (max. 500 words)
    - Relationship to For Children
    - Proposed digital approach
   
2. A portfolio or selection of previous work
   
3. A short biography (max. 150 words)
   

Applications must be submitted through the online form on our website.

A panel including members of the "For Children" curatorial team, Haus der Kunst staff, and external digital practitioners will assess proposals according to:

• conceptual clarity and relevance to the HDK programme and vision
• originality and experimentation
• feasibility within scope
• artistic merit

Three proposals will be selected.

For enquiries, please contact:
hauscode@hausderkunst.de