Station to Station #4 is online!

Image
Afbeelding
Authors
Kristin Metho

Station to Station #4 is online!

The seven guest authors in this edition are advocating for structural change and are taking steps to create a more sustainable, inclusive and fair art world.

What if the game itself has been shaken up and changed so profoundly that none of the existing rules apply any longer? The very rules that dictated the game, that the players were subjected to (willingly or not), that defined how they interacted with other players – those very rules they chose to bend, cheat, that they attempted to rewrite.

Taking the game as a metaphor, and applying it to the fabric of the cultural world, opens up the possibility of reimagining that world. The game here is the cultural field in which institutions such as artist-in-residencies operate. The rules of this world have been defined by existing and historical hierarchies and structures on a global as well as on local scales. Typically, artist-in-residencies are the smaller players, yet they play a key role in practicing change from the ground up. From the perspective of our platform, the TransArtists team has directly witnessed how the worldwide pandemic has exposed the fragility of residency programmes. We have seen how many residencies have had to postpone their activities, or have ceased to exist altogether, in the wake of Covid-19. Next to this sad fact, what is most evident is a strong and urgent call for structural change. The pandemic seems, at last, to compel answers to the complex questions that have long been around – questions concerning sustainability, accountability, equality and inclusivity of residency programmes. Despite their precariousness, we believe that residencies can be powerful agents of change.

The seven guest authors in this edition are advocating for structural change and are all taking steps to create a more sustainable, inclusive and fair art world. They are working in and with artist-in-residencies from Argentina to Kenya, and they speak from their respective practices as researcher, artist, residency organiser, designer and curator. Their contributions present a kaleidoscope of imaginative, thought-provoking practices. What emerges is an emphasis on new ways of working together: each author proposes new ways of collaborating between artists, across artists and residencies, and among residencies and their peers.

You can access the latest issue here. Enjoy!

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