LOCIS is collaborative arts programme between Leitrim County Council Arts Office (Ireland), the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń (Poland) and Botkyrka Konsthall,Stockholm (Sweden).
LOCIS is designed to provide knowledge, resources and opportunities for artists to engage internationally. It further seeks to reinforce the belief that a vibrant arts practice can be maintained from anywhere and that networking across borders can occur from anywhere and with anyone within Europe. The three partner organizations have devised a two-year, three-country artist in residence programme where each country sends and receives a leading artist from their country to work with a group of artists from the three regions.
LOCIS 2013
The first edition of LOCIS in 2013 will be based on the concept of space and how we use it, how the things we build are a manifestation of the society which we wish to develop for ourselves. Following the credo of one of the most inspiring forward-thinkers of XX century, Richard Buckminster Fuller, that one should “first seek to reform the environment, not Man”, LOCIS curators dedicated the first round of the program to the theme of space and new models for spatial/urban/environmental transformation. Therefore it will engage, in the role of the “lead artist”, those authors who developed their practice transcending disciplinary boundaries between art, design, architecture or urban planning and channeled their ideas in the direction which looks for the new models of living in symbiosis with our natural surroundings.
The three artists who will be leading residencies in 2013 are
· Architect and tutor, Dominic Stevens (Ireland) who will lead a residency with Botkyrka Konsthall, Stockholm in Sweden.
· Artist and member of architecture & design collective Uglycute, Jonas Nobel (Sweden) who will lead a residency with the Centre of Contemporary Art in Torun, Poland
· Artist and architect Jarosław Kozakiewicz (Poland) who will lead a residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton with Leitrim County Council Arts Office in Ireland.
Each lead artist will work with a group of four other artists, two from the country where the residency is being held, and one from each or the other two participating countries. Each group will meet together for three periods of approximately one week each in the coming months (from July to November) and once again for a fourth time towards the end of 2013 where the culminations of the residencies will be presented in an exhibition along with a one-day seminar.
There is a travel and accommodation budget for artists traveling to other countries. There is also a project budget with which the group can develop new work.
More info about LOCIS at: http://locis.eu
Timetable, deadlines and application process…
Artists should read the project plans and biographies of the three lead artists which follow below and then complete the LOCIS artist in residence application form. Return the completed form along with a CV and images/recordings of previous work before the correct closing date for that residency to the address at the bottom of the application form.
Please note the earlier date for submission of applications for the Polish residency with Jonas Nobel.
Irrespective of which residency you wish to apply to, you submit your application to the project partner in your own country.
The key factors to consider will be why you want to work in that country and why you want to work with this lead artist. (You can apply to do a residency in your own country in order to work with the lead artist selected to work there.)
Selection criteria are as follows:
· You demonstrate an interest in the social and cultural fabric of the residency location.
· You demonstrate a desire to work collaboratively.
· You demonstrate a rationale for why you want to work with that lead artist.
· You demonstrate that this project will have a positive impact on your practice as an artist.
The first meeting between lead-artist and the residents will be organized in June/July, while subsequent meetings will be scheduled by each individual group according to their convenience. The dates of the final visit with exhibitions and seminars are set by the project coordinators.
The first meetings between lead-artist and the residents have now been organized for June/July. Subsequent meetings will be scheduled by each individual group according to their convenience. The dates of the final visit with exhibitions and seminars will be set by the project coordinators in September.
- The first meeting of the Jonas Nobel Residency in Poland is on the 28th-29th June. The closing date for receipt of applications is 5pm Friday 21st June.
- The first meeting of the Dominic Stevens residency in Sweden is on the 15th-18th July. The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 28th June.
- The first meeting of the Jarosław Kozakiewicz residency in Ireland is on the 15th-18th July. The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 28th June.
Jonas Nobel at the Center of Contemporary Art in Toruń
Center of Contemporary Art in Toruń originated within a programme “Sign of Times” started by the Ministry of Culture / National Office of Cultural Assets and supported by the national and EU funds. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is the first venue built in Poland since 1939, planned specifically for promoting visual arts and other contemporary forms of expression. It is situated in a historical city, protected by UNESCO as part of the Cultural Heritage of Humanity, famous not only for its Gothic architecture but also for being the birthplace of Copernicus, who lends his name to its huge university campus. For a city that just turned 777 years old, the CoCA represents future prospects and welcomes a predominantly young public as well as numerous tourists. CoCA’s activity is focused on visual arts in the plurality of its forms: thematic exhibitions are hosted in three main exhibition rooms, comprising 4000 square meters in total, including an area in the form of an amphitheater situated on the ground floor dedicated to performative or smaller-scale exhibitive projects. Its annual program is enriched by festivals dedicated to electronic and experimental music, new media and graphic design, as well as numerous activities centered around cinema or experimental “LabSen” space which hosts lectures, panels, screenings, workshops and variety of educational activities. The reading room makes available not only books and international magazines but also facilities for online research, while in the bookshop can be found all relevant Polish art magazines and large selection of international books on history and theory of art, architecture, design and fashion. Exhibitions are accompanied by catalogues edited by CoCA, as well as by educational guides and other promotional materials. More info at: http://csw.torun.pl
A project with Jonas Nobel / artist’s statement
Storyrepelling – creating counter narrativeStoryrepelling aims at creating counter narratives for common interests as opposed to the storytelling which drives consumption. Storyrepelling is a term I use to describe my current activities. I want to investigate/write stories that repels from consumption of values towards production of new ones. My practice takes both physical and literary form, without any hierarchies between the two. Storytelling is a market strategy aiming at strengthening customers relation to a brand. Commercial business wants to enhance the experience around the brand, stories about how happiness is connected to consuming is constructed. These images of constructed happiness is often in opposition to true political or social change since they already have decided on the style of happiness and its connection to creating meaningful life. Create stories of other realities that in a market economy might be perceived repellent is therefore an interesting strategy in order to take back the notion of and the possibility of political change. I wish to further investigate on alternative stories together with the LOCIS artist group. Stories that seems repelling at first is important in order to break down expectations of happiness in a society were happiness mostly is connected to consuming and very seldom to producing. Producing in the notion of labour is conceived as something you need to do, to be able to consume. Producing is thus connected to “forced” labour and consuming is considered as something you do of freewill on you free time to make the suffering of the wage labour worth the effort. Story repelling has got the capability to shift focus to reasons for consuming and taking back the force of producing meaning. I would like to work with the project Story repelling. Art and critical design has the possibility to tell these stories and in my opinion has to in order to have a place in society. I divide my artistic practice between working alone in my studio and collaboration. This I do in order to blur the idea of the lone artist who only make commodities for an artmarket. This does not mean that I´m critical to art as an object it merely means I´m pro art in all its forms. - Jonas Nobel
Jonas Nobel & Uglycute
Jonas Nobel (b. 1970) studied at the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts, and now lives and works in Stockholm. His interdisciplinary practice involves both art and design, as one of the founder members of Uglycute, which merges art, design and architecture. Jonas Nobel has created a permanent installation for Restaurant Riche in Stockholm, and has participated in numerous exhibitions, including the previous Moderna Exhibition in 2006 at Moderna Museet, Stockholm. In 2007, his book, “The memory of this experience will fade and you will eventually die Iʼ m sorry Iʼ m so very very sorry” was designed by Research and Development. Uglycute is a design and architecture office based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded in 1999 by Andreas Nobel, interior designer, Fredrik Stenberg, architect, Markus Degerman and Jonas Nobel, artists. Uglycute are working to expand the concept of design by crossbreeding it with our different professions and trying to analyze its impact on society by not only practicing but also writing, teaching and organizing workshops. More info at: http://www.uglycute.com
Dominic Stevens at Botkyrka Konsthall (Sweden)
Residence Botkyrka is a context-based residency program for internationally active artists, curators and architects who are interested in working site specifically. Residence Botkyrka is exploring new forms of art in the public space and is supporting projects that are hard to make without a longer stay. Residence Botkyrka wants to create good conditions for artistic freedom and develop the local participation. Every year it invites the public to Fittja Open – an annual presentation of the public art in Botkyrka with art, happenings and talks.
Botkyrka is part of Greater Stockholm and is one of Sweden’s most international municipalities with people from about eighty different countries speaking more than hundred languages. Residence Botkyrka is run by Botkyrka Konsthall.
Botkyrka Konsthall pursues issues of co-creation and how the interaction between people can promote social justice and change. Certain subjects and themes keep reoccurring, for example; the climate change; globalization; and the social role of music in our society. Residence Botkyrka works in public spaces and supports projects that are difficult to implement without a prolonged stay. Residence Botkyrka is also interested in the issues of co-creation and how the interaction between people can contribute to social change.
More info at: http://botkyrkakonsthall.se
Dominic Stevens
Dominic Stevens graduated from Architecture school in 1989. In 1995, after working in Berlin he returned to Dublin and commenced in private practice. In 1999 he relocated his practice to rural Co. Leitrim. He divides his time between building, architecture and teaching. His practice focuses on making buildings and theoretical projects in the Irish countryside. He was awarded the Kevin Kieran Arts Council OPW Bursary for research for 2005-07 and was Roscommon County Council Architect in residence in 2005. His work has been widely published and exhibited internationally, and has received numerous awards. His project Fluidcity was included as part of the Irish exhibit in the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2006. His second book RURAL was published September 2007. He is a lecturer in the Dublin School of Architecture DIT. His work has been exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin 2004, Eigse Carlow 2006, in Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2010, Guggenheim Museum NewYork, 2010. He was shortlisted for the BSI Swiss Architecture award in 2012.
More info at: www.dominicstevensarchitect.net/ www.irishvernacular.com
Jarosław Kozakiewicz at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ireland
The Leitrim Sculpture Centre was established in 1997 in the market town of Manorhamilton, North Co. Leitrim to facilitate the training and professional needs of artists across the North West of Ireland. The objective was to provide a high quality working facility for practicing artists in traditional and contemporary sculpture techniques with a specific focus on the development of work in stone, bronze and wood. Originally offering facilities and professional support in these areas the centre has since developed into a leading centre for contemporary practice across all mediums and styles including installation, multimedia and environmental practice and research. The Leitrim Sculpture Centre support research and experimentation in both the production and display of compelling and challenging new work and in the acquisition of traditional and contemporary skills and knowledge. Its programme includes exhibitions, artists residencies, workshops, training, research, masterclasses, talks, symposia and additional projects that explore the local landscape and alternative and sustainable models of arts practice through trans-local networking and collaboration. The Leitrim Sculpture Centre works with the wider community and values and supports innovation and increased training opportunities in art, design and communication for all. More info at: http://www.leitrimsculpturecentre.ie
A project with Jarosław Kozakiewicz / artist’s statement
Regardless of the visual discipline through which I express my thoughts or feelings, I always circulate between certain ideas. They are connected with the perception of man as a harmonious part of the universe. Whether it is architecture, sculpture, installation, landscaping or film – at the root of the project’s conception is always the idea of mutual relations between man and nature, other people, technology. Each place in our environment has its unique nature and requires special treatment. Every change, every intervention can have an impact on the place’s future and the life of its inhabitants. It can tell them something they themselves are unable to notice, permit them to see their part of their environment from a new perspective. Ultimately, it may help create new kind of relationship between the place and its user or give familiar things new meanings.
For me, there is an obvious relationship between the human organism, in all its complexity, and architecture. This applies equally to function and form. Sculpture, architecture, man and other living organisms should be connected into a cohesive system able to live and develop to live and develop freely. I am interested into the original qualities of a place with which I can dialogue, drawing a passer-by, viewer, and recipient into that conversation.I believe that our environment – built and natural, like other extremely complex bio-systems, has its own, autonomous, natural urge to modify its abilities and keep renewing itself. The aim of this workshop would be to observe the context in Leitrim, create situations that open up new perspectives, reveal things that have been obscured. I would like the participants to get to the heart of it and point at the fundamental issues, thoughts, and emotions lying at the root of everyday life.
Jarosław Kozakiewicz
Jarosław Kozakiewicz (b.1961) works at the intersection of art, science and architecture. He graduated in sculpture from the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. The inspirations for Kozakiewicz´s artistic-architectural projects include contemporary ecology, genetics, physics, astronomy and ancient cosmological concepts which relate microcosm with macrocosm. Identifying an analogy between the human body and the natural world, Kozakiewicz questions the anthropometrical character of Vitruvian man as the traditional paradigm of architecture. Instead, he proposes an organic paradigm, a `geometry of the inside´. Kozakiewicz’s quest has led him to utopian and critical architectural and land-art projects. Some of them have received prizes in major architectural competitions. In 2007 Kozakiewicz’s Mars Project, a massive redesign of the landscape of a former lignite-mining area near Lake Baerwalde in Germany, was completed. It takes the form of rolling landscape shaped like a giant human auricle. Other projects include proposals - often utopian schemes - for ecological or symbolic solutions in the field of urban planning (Transfer, 2006) or architecture (Oxygen Towers, 2005). In 2006 Kozakiewicz represented Poland at the International Architecture Exhibition in Venice.
More info at: http://www.kozakiewicz.art.pl
Dowload the LOCIS Application Form HERE