Activity log 2014

In 2014, DutchCulture | TransArtists was involved in the Green Art Lab Alliance, the launch of the Werkplaatsen Platform (Technical work spaces in Netherlands and Flanders) during the TopGemaakt Symposium, as well as in different conferences (Mokuhanga, Alliance of Artists Communities, ...) and workshops (in Dutch art academies and also abroad).

Read some highlights here below, and contact us to know more!

November - December 2014: Research trip through China.

(image: Chongqing Air)

DutchCulture|TransArtists staff member Lotte Geeven traveled through China and visited a.o. Lijiang Studio’s residency at Lashihai, Rhizome - Lijiang Art Center, and Chongqing AiR. At Chongqing AiR she interviewed representatives of art institutions and resident artists. During her trip she advised Chongqing AiR with the start up of the residency program and gave a TransArtists desk tailor-cut workshop for young Chinese artists. Cultural cooperation with China is becoming increasingly important because of China’s growing global significance in the cultural, economic and geopolitical spheres; in this context Lotte Geeven will assist the DutchCulture|China Desk in the cultural mapping of Chongqing.

October 25 - November 1: Research trip to Budapest.

DutchCulture|TransArtists staff member Lotte Geeven visited Budapest and had the honour to be the first guest in Goat Street Residency.

This ambitious program established by Barnabás Bencsik will open its doors in 2015 to a selection of two to three international artists, theoretician and scholars from different field and backgrounds for a period of approximately two months or more. TransArtists will advise in the set up of the residency program if needed. As a spin-off Tijana Stepanovic - currently organizing the Off-Biennale Budapest (2015) - visited DutchCulture in Amsterdam. She will inform the TransArtists Desk on the Hungarian cultural situation, so if needed we can give you the right information.

Patrick Urwyler (director & curator of the Budapest based residency/exhibition award 'Chimera Art Award') talked to our desk about his program and introduced an online platform for artists to upload their application and portfolio in an easy way. This way he will contribute to the 'Tools' section of the website.

The Japanese resident and award-winner Tsuyoshi Anzai (quote: 'heavy user of the Trans Artists website') talked to TransArtists about his residency in Budapest and Korea. How they are different; why he does residencies. The outcome of these interviews and contacts will be collected in the upcoming AIR Collections and possible future collaborations. (image: Barnabás Bencsik at Goat Street Residency)

November 12-13: Expert meetings about residency developments and internationalization in Göteborg and Stockholm, Sweden.

DutchCulture|TransArtists staff members Maria Tuerlings and Heidi Vogels (AiR Platform NL) were in Göteborg and Stockholm to participate in two seminars about residency developments. In Göteborg, the region of Gotland organised a (public) expert meeting with DutchCulture|TransArtists and IASPIS to broaden the conversation around residencies and internationalization. In Stockholm, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee invited people with a special interest in residency programmes to a half-day of lectures and discussions. With the aim of supporting the development of residency programmes in Sweden, they invited Maria and Heidi to share their experience of residency developments, platforms and structures. More info here.

October 20-24: Annual conference of the Alliance of Artists Communities, Charleston, SC, USA.

DutchCulture|TransArtists staff member Marie Fol took part in the annual conference of the US network of artist residencies. Next to learning about new trends in the residency field (check the conference schedule for the full programme), Marie contributed to the pre-conference on Art + Ecology, which focused on the following questions: How do residencies support artists exploring ecological themes? Engage communities around sustainable practices? Foster collaborative work between artists and ecologists, farmers, researchers and leaders from other fields? These questions are of great interest to us, especially in the direct connection they have with our Green Art Lab Alliance, a EU-funded project focusing on sustainability practices in the field of visual arts, design, and more.

October 2-4: TOP GEMAAKT Symposium, Tilburg and rest of the Netherlands + Vlanders, BE.

TOP MADE Symposium festively launched the platform of technical workspaces for artists and designers (in whatever discipline) in the Netherlands and Belgium. There is a lot of interest in ‘the making’ of things, from 3D-prints to bio-screen-printing to hackathon. While artists and designers explore new concepts of making, technical workspaces develop facilities and expertise for experimentation and production. Workspaces create connections between art and design, between traditional and new techniques, between makers and principals from science and business. With unforeseen applications as a result.

• What is the cultural relevance of technical workspaces?
• Are poetry and experiment conditions for product innovation?
• How are traditional and new skills and knowledge shared?

Along these lines the Top Made symposium highlighted the array of technical workspaces in Holland and Flanders in all their diversity, in a multi-day program of lectures. ‘best practices’, workshops and workgroups. For more, please visit the AiR Platform NL meetings and projects page.

September 18-19: HOME IS WHERE … Symposium Artists in Residence, Waltrop, Ruhrgebied, Germany

On 18 and 19 September KunstvereineRuhr and DutchCulture|TransArtists co- organized the symposium HOME IS WHERE…. in Waltrop in the Ruhr-area.

After AiR Treffen 2010 in Dortmund and Essen, we were invited again by Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Kunsthaus Essen, and Kunstverein Bochum, to co-develop a follow-up symposium.

The Kunstvereine in the Ruhr area are mapping out ideas and strategies for collaboration and artist-in-residence concepts and reaching out to the international AiR field. The structure of Kunstvereinen in Germany as independent spaces for art presentation within artist collectives was also an interesting history to look into. Furthermore, the symposium focused on the development of a collaborative residency network in this region.

See: http://kunstvereineruhr.de/#Symposium
And for more, please visit the page Meetings & Projects of the AiR Platform NL.

September 10-14: International Mokuhanga Conference, Tokyo, Japan

There are increasing numbers of printmakers working with mokuhanga (water-base woodblock printmaking) today. In response to international demand to hold the academic conference of mokuhanga that discusses subjects on the technique, tools, materials, market and education, the First International Mokuhanga Conference was held in Kyoto and Awaji-city in 2011. In September 2014, the second edition of the conference took place, hosted by Tokyo University of the Arts in which academic contents will be discussed.

Meanwhile, IMC2014’s satellite project entitled "Printmaking Studio / Artist-in-Residence - Inter-Nation & Interpretation" organized a series of printmaking residency and studio's seminar, forum, exhibition, networking reception as well as a trade fair of printing paper, tools and materials, and discussion on fine art printing paper.
More than 100 international artists, printmakers, scholars gathered and exchanged information, among whom:

• Maria Tuerlings, programme director DutchCulture|TransArtists,
• Kristien van den Oever, director Amsterdam Grafisch Atelier,
• Jo Frenken, head of the Charles Nypels Lab of Van Eyck Institute,
• Sophie van Dederen, director of Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium.

Read more about this programme here: mokuhanga.jp/satellite/inter-nation-interpretation.