Fluctuating in Flux

Published on Tuesday, 10 December 2013 07:24

While on the plane over the Baltic, it seems appropriate to have a moment of arguably quiet (given that the engines of the plane are roaring worse than a Polar Bear, and in loop) retrospective overview of "Context in Flux", a symposium initiated by the Swedish Exhibition Agency and Lab 13, which took place on both coasts of the Baltic, in Nida, at Nida Art Colony and in Visby, Baltic Art Center (further - BAC), one in October, and the other – in November.

For Nida Art Colony (further – NAC) it all started with Pernilla Glasser and Mia Andersson arriving to Nida during a couple of beautiful days of sunny July. The idea of creating an online publication that would accumulate all of the good practice for an art residency seemed pretty awesome. And us in Nida definitely felt that we have some things to share after three years of activities, one and a half hundreds of hosted residents, some exhibitions, numerous open studios, "hello" and "farewell" parties and other major and minor events that are now an intrinsic part of Colony life. 

We also felt that there definitely are things to learn and questions to raise in order to function more smoothly. The whole "Context in Flux" seemed as an opportunity to discuss the touchy-feely subjects and exchange with others who do understand the idea behind a (remote) art center and artistic residence in off-centered conditions. 

The aim of the project was to develop tools that would assist cultural institutions who work in multiple art contexts and have artistic residency projects  or would be planning to conduct such line of activity. Thus the main participants of the events, along with the Lab 13, a new platform for process-methodology at the Swedish Exhibition Agency, were the aforementioned Baltic Art Center and Nida Art Colony, as well as Art Lab Gnesta. The project was also joined by invited artists, curators, other cultural actors as well as a psychologist in Nida (Ernest Truely, Artūras Raila, Arnas Anskaitis, Laura Grigaliūnaitė, Rūta Gražulytė), and a remote residency Kultivator establishers (Mathieu Vrijman and Malin Lindmark Vrijman), curator (Livia Pancu), artist and professor at Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm Olav Westphalen, philosopher and writer Lars-Erik Hjertström Lappalainen, as well as artist-run gallery Galleri Syster and Gnesta Young Artists' Association representatives.

All of the artist residencies that have participated in the project differ in their structure, human resources, approach to the artistic practice, capacity, yet they all have a sufficient amount of things in common, like some of their main processes, target groups in constant change, never-ending funding negotiation, development of new networks etc. 

Both of the symposiums consisted of various workshops which granted the participants with possibility to investigate relationships between place and practice, the interaction between the local situation and the flow of practices and people as well as the residency program as a productive arena and sheltered laboratory. Some of the workshops were targeted to explore some of more concrete questions like psychological conditions of those working in remote contexts, as well as the ways to develop the dialogue with the locals. 

More on "Context in Flux" and links all of its participants by the initiator of the symposiums, Swedish Exhibition Agency, can be found in the webpage here.