Author: NIU Chun-Chiang
Art residency is a pathway that provides a platform for artists and cultural professions to exchange their artistic disciplines in unfamiliar surroundings. Being away from the usual distractions, the art residents could broaden their professional knowledge by meditation, relaxation, questing for inspiration, developing networking, expanding opportunities. Art residency could inspire artists, and cultural professions to turn their lives around after the unique experience.
Nowadays, there are various forms of art residencies from museums, performing centers, profit or nonprofit organizations, art galleries to the local art institutes. There are many opportunities to start a project. I will share my perspective and reflections with the readers interested in applying for art residency.
This article was written from my perspective as a visual artist. However, the viewpoint could still apply to not only artists but also cultural professions from various fields, such as visual artists, performing artists, curators, or arts administrators. The opportunities for art residency were never limited to just art creators.
"Twins", Exhibition(pre-set)｜Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2017
"Nei-Guan", Exhibition(pre-set)｜Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2017
Three Key Questions:
Before applying for a residency and finding the right location, there are three key questions we could ask ourselves.
- Considering your work experience and educational background, what kind of artist do you want to become in the present and the future?
This question is designed to acquaint our status, sentiment, and career plan. These reflections might be useful in finding the appropriate residency, followed by specific planning and connecting ourselves with the reality rather than idealism.
Some of the art residencies, located in well-known cities, might not be the best option. Staying in urban residencies seems to have more opportunities. However, if the applicants just graduated from school or newbie in the industry, whose capacity and preparation had not been relatively qualified, the possibilities might turn into unbearable stress. (Some of the residencies will arrange a final presentation or weekly meeting with curators and professionals, which required a longer time for preparation.)
From my point of view, this question also refers to career or life planning and publication of works in the future after finishing art residency.
"Nei-Guan", Exhibition(pre-set)｜Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2017
"Nei-Guan", Exhibition｜Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2017
- What are your expectations during the art residency?
Following the previous question, after getting a clear understanding of the current condition, the next step might be identifying your expectations for selecting the date and location for residency?
The incentives might be the city's cultural heritage, such as art festivals, museums, and artists, or the town itself related to your research or artwork, or you have a social connection with the place, such as contact or network. You would like to expand the link or plan for further cooperation.
The duration of residency might also be one of the factors that are related to decision-making. In many cases, the length of residency is decided by the organizer. Suppose the period of residency is short, there should not be a complicated art project to plan. After all, as a resident, exploring local life is also an essential experience.
"Nei-Guan", Opening Showcase｜Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2017
- What's the characteristic of the art residency? Are there any other artists who have been doing their projects in the residency before?
Each art residency has its features. Applicants could research for more information from the official channels of the art residency.
Each residency's operating concepts might be different from material to philosophy, for example, contemporary, history, science, communities, or placemaking. I will compare this to visual art, which has different categories, such as painting, digital art, sculpture. Some of the art residencies may invite art professionals from various fields staying in the house simultaneously.
Take the world's largest art residency organization Cité internationale des arts as an example. The organization invited artists from various professions, such as musicians, dancers, writers, filmmakers, visual artists, and curators, to join residency projects. Also, the applicants could list the artists from your targeted residency as reference.
After going through the key questions, if you still can't make a decision don't hesitate to follow your intuition.
"Nei-Guan", Exhibition Poster｜Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2017
Preparation before Embarks on the Residency
After receiving the offer from the residency, the most critical and primary task is to improve your language skills. I also consider that language learning is the most valuable investment during preparation.
Besides preparing your project, you can also search for activities, exhibitions, and festivals held on the street during your stay at the residency. When I stayed at Cité internationale des arts from August 2017 to January 2018, I got the chance to visit La Biennale di Venezia, Kassel Documenta1 , Sculpture Projects Münster2 , which were opened at that time. The annual events, FIAC and Paris Photo, were also on my visiting list. Paris is considered a bellwether of art in Europe. Therefore, the city is always enriched with artistic events like performing arts festivals or film festivals. By exploring these nomadic events, you could get a glimpse of the flow and changes in the global art market and keep pace with the trend of contemporary art.
Learning about the resources or archives for research located in the city is another essential work to do. In my case, building a list of galleries and museums will be my priority. Take Paris, Berlin, and New York as examples. I will suggest making a list of the exhibitions which will be held in public space and private museums. Usually, the date of the show will be scheduled a year in advance. Therefore, it's easy to obtain information about the exhibitions in the following three months. I would regularly note the galleries that I am interested in while surfing at the Art Fairs. So, when I was staying at the residency in Paris, I also took a chance to visit these galleries. Being aware that Paris is the cultural center in the history of western contemporary art, before embarking on the residency, I went to attend lectures about the history of Paris3 by Zhao Yang and the introduction of modern art by Chiang Hsun. With the aid of knowledge, I won't just rush through the artwork but absorbing the message within systematically.
For example, when you arrive in Paris, you can start your art journey from Musée du Louvre to visit the cultural relics from Egypt, Greece, and Rome, then dive into the artwork of the medieval period, Renaissance, Rococo, Neoclassical to Impressionism. After gazing at Impressionism artwork in Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie, you can walk in the last stop Centre Georges-Pompidou. After browsing these museums, you will have a clear vision for the line development of the artwork after 1990 systematically, including the Cubism, Avant-garde, and Contemporary Art when walking in the modern art gallery.
I always think that art education in Taiwan puts great emphasis on creation instead of exploring the origin. In Paris, artists can transfer knowledge from textbooks into reality by looking through the contrast and correspondence within.
Majoring in architecture, I'd also visit some works of my favorite architects during the residency. I also watched lots of theatre performances. These experiences have a significant influence on my creation. I believed keeping a light mood when approaching the project helped a lot.
Villa Savoye, Paris, France
Coming to the last tip, it would be handy to prepare your name card, portfolio, the album of paintings or motion works, or any publications to create more opportunities on some formal occasion.
Expectation and Reality
After all these preparations, to remain an open mind is essential. No matter for work or living, do not let yourself be occupied by preconceptions or fixed ideas. You will find that the unpredictable incidents are the most exciting part of the residency. The two art residency I had worked with were distracting to my original plan. In Paris, I was planning to absorb new knowledge, collect my thoughts, and rest. But in reality, I started to create my new series of artworks within three months after I arrived.
Keeping an open mind could also help you meet new friends, things, and experiences. People from Asia might like to stay with friends with similar cultural backgrounds since they lack a sense of security in foreign countries. However, it is still worth experimenting with making friends among people from all over the world. I met lots of friends during my residency. Some of my friends are not art professionals, but I received lots of help from them with living and work.
When I stayed in LA with 18th Street Art Center in 2011, I met Michael from Portland, a photographer who also stayed at the art center for residency. Michael had a car, so we often traveled together. Thanks to him, I enjoyed the splendid landscape and some unknown small towns or movie scenes located in the western United States. Also, because of my photography project, I knew some female friends who worked in different professions, such as Kelly, a web designer, Yvette, an oil painting artist, Merjan, a performance artist. Especially with Kelly, she introduced me to lots of local art activities to join.
Open Studio｜18th Street Arts Center,Santa Monica ,Los Angeles,USA,2011
There were more stories to tell during my residency in Paris in 2017. I even headed to the hospital once because of illness and was met by a good doctor there. In the six months of residency, I met a local friend and helped him to overcome the difficulties of life. Through this companionship, I realized that the romance taking root in Paris had its historical context. The romance in Paris is different from small bliss in daily life. It's not an attitude of exaggeration or languidness, but passion and motivation that inspire people to keep walking when encountering an undefeatable reality and difficulty. The romance in Paris grew with its never defeated city that had remained entirely through the fire war in hundreds of years.
Open Studio｜Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2017
Navigating by the natives, you could see beyond the surface and look into the truth beneath the city.
Art residencies are intermediate stops. Passengers come and go. After six months of residency, I would head back to Taiwan. Some of the artists would also go back to their homeland. Everyone wanted to stay although we didn't know what we could offer if we stayed. The time of residency was like looking at things through glasses. The colorful wonderland would attract you. Then after choosing to stay, you had to face reality.
The Representative Office of Taiwan, due to personnel regulations, usually will have shift arrangements of the chief executive regularly. Meanwhile, the budget for art and cultural activities is managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which might make the project more complex to manage.
If the executive is not familiar with the art industry, the local resources that take years to accumulate will not be able to reach its full potential. Therefore, I will suggest that the Ministry of Culture may re-examine the organizational structure of the cultural representative office abroad, including personnel arrangement, budget issues, and the connection between the office and residential artists. I also recommend that the applicator of art residency should keep in touch with the local representative office. Apart from information exchange, the union could also effectively promote the global name recognition of Taiwan art culture.
Continuity after Art Residency
In conclusion, art residency could help you expand your vision to self or the world., including the awareness of Taiwanese value, identity, and frame.
This journey will help you find out the obstacle that traps you, the difficulty of life, the question from the inner self, or the gloom of the global crisis. After the residency has ended, besides arranging presentations, publications, or creating an extension of personal career, the cherishable experience will ferment and grow within ourselves through internalization. If the experience could become active by long-lasting sharing, those memories in the past will evaluate our cultural environment in the future.
"Nei-Guan", Exhibition｜Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France, 2017
Footnotes
1Kassel Documenta is one of the most notable art exhibitions in the world held once every five years. Kassel Documenta and together with Sao Paulo Art Biennial and La Biennale di Venezia are the world's three major art exhibitions.
2Sculpture Projects Münster is an art exhibition, including installation and sculpture. The exhibition mostly takes place every ten years and usually occupies public areas in and around the city.
3Zhao Yang "Paris: a Kaleidoscope of art and culture" organized by Trend Education Foundation