Vijai Maia Patchineelam

Vijai Maia Patchineelam (Brazil/India), is an artist, researcher and educator based in Berlin. Patchineelam holds a PhD from the University of Antwerp and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (BE). His artistic practice focuses on the dialogue between the artist and the art institution. Placing the role of the artist as a worker in the foreground, Patchineelam’s research-driven artistic practice experiments with and argues for a more permanent role for artists — one in which artists become a constitutive part of the inner workings of art institutions. This displacement of roles is part of a larger trajectory of his Ph.D. research titled, The Artist Job Description: A Practice Led Research for the Employment of the Artist, as an Artist, Inside the Art Institution at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, the University of Antwerp and a.pass, advanced performance and scenography studies, Brussels. As a final outcome of his doctoral thesis, Vijai has published the book The Artist Job Description: for the Employment of the Artist, as an Artist, Inside the Art Institution (2022) with Track Report (Antwerp), in collaboration with OAZA (Zagreb, HR) and a.pass (Brussels, BE). As an educator Patchineelam has taught and conducted workshops at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (BE), a.pass – advance performance and scenography studies (Brussels, BE), Philippine Women’s University, (Manila, PH), Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (New Delhi, IN) and is currently a tutor at the Advanced Master: master of Research in Art and Design at Sint Lucas Antwerp (BE).