SLO
Milena Kosec
Rezidenca za umetnike na počivanju in ekološko vrtnarjenje
Pred dobrim letom je po e-pošti do mene prišel nenavadni
razpis Residency for Artist on Hiatus (RFAOH) s pripisom, naj se vsekakor
prijavim. Razpis je vabil umetnike na rezidenco za nekaj mesecev, največ za eno
leto pod pogojem, da v tem času ne bodo delali kot umetniki.
Ob prijavi je bilo potrebno navesti, zakaj želiš začasno
prekiniti umetniško ustvarjanje, kako boš porabil tako pridobljeni prosti čas
in se odločiti za neko vrsto poročanja o svoji dejavnosti v času RFAOH rezidence,
ko sicer ostaneš v svojem kraju in si z organizatorji in drugimi rezidenti
povezan samo preko spletne strani:
http://residencyforartistsonhiatus.org/
Tu objavljaš svoja poročila in lahko komentiraš ostala.
Obvezati si se moral, da karkoli boš v času rezidence počel, ne boš nikoli
uporabil pri svojem umetniškem delu ali proglasil za umetniško delo. Za vsak
mesec rezidence je bilo obljubljeno plačilo 30 kanadskih dolarjev.
Po krajšem razmisleku sem se res prijavila na rezidenco
za eno leto z željo, da v tem času na domačem vrtu izpopolnim ekološki
zelenjavni vrt in o tem enkrat mesečno napišem kratko poročilo. Na moje
presenečenje sem bila sprejeta. Izkazalo se je, da sta si rezidenco kot svoj
umetniški projekt zamislila dva umetnika Japonka Shinobu Akimoto in Kanadčan Matthew
Evans. Pripravila sta internetni razpis in spletno stran. Izmed več kot
trideset prijav s celega sveta sta izbrala šest med seboj zelo različnih
umetnikov. Prva RFAOH rezidenca se je začela 1. oktobra 2013 in zaključila 30.
septembra 2014. Rezidenca za novo skupino udeležencev se prične 1. novembra
2014.
MEDITIRANJE, VOZNIŠKI IN SPREJEMNI IZPIT, PROSTOČASNE
DEJAVNOSTI, RAZMIŠLJANJE O DEPRESIJI IN VRTNARJENJE
Vsak rezident je na svoj način izkoristil rezidenco:
Skupina MomenTech iz New Yorka si je vzela čas za meditiranje, Farid Rakun iz Indonezije za poučevanje, mlada Egipčanka Batool Mohammed je opravila vozniški
izpit in sprejemni izpit za nadaljevanje podiplomskega študija, Karen Zalamea iz Vancouvra nam je
pošiljala čudovite fotografije prostočasnih dejavnosti in Danka Honey Biba Beckelee razmišljanje o
depresiji. Nekateri so rezidenco zaključili predčasno, ker so dobili dragoceno
vabilo za umetniško delo oziroma niso zmogli vztrajati v umetniški
nedejavnosti.
Zame je bila to prva resnična vključenost v globalni svet
sodobne umetnosti, čeprav sem pred tem že sodelovala na pomembnih mednarodnih
prizoriščih (Štajerska jesen - Graz, Manifesta7- Bolzano). Izkušnja je navdušujoča.
Na eni strani sem bila celo leto razbremenjena dogovarjanja za realizacijo
umetniških projektov (razpisi, prireditveni prostor, kritje stroškov,..) in
vendar bila vklučena v umetniški svet in tudi širši mednarodni prostor preko
avtorjev rezidence in preko poročil. Na drugi strani sem imela na razpolago ves
čas, da se resnično lahko poglobim v ekološko vrtnarjenje. Res pa je, da sem to
leto fizično garala na vrtu več kot kdajkoli doslej. Zato je ta internetna
rezidenca zame izpadla fizično nadvse naporno. To je tudi razlog, da sem se
manj kot avtorja rezidence in ostali rezidenti spraševala o položaju umetnika,
čigar delo se ne prilega običajnim normam umetniškega sistema, o pomenu sodobne
umetnosti,... temveč sem se soočala s problemom zdravega prehranjevanja v
prenaseljenem in onesnaženem svetu.
Nekaj misli iz mojega zaključnega poročila:
 |
| Šopek, avgust 2014 |
Nekaj misli iz mojega zaključnega poročila:
»Predvsem sodelovanje na RFAOH
v luči današnjega običajnega zahodnega življenja čutim kot največje razkošje in
privilegij, ker sem imela možnost vzgajati lastno ekološko zelenjavo, jo kuhati
in pojesti svežo vsak dan. Imela sem redko možnost porabiti svoj čas za
prehranjevane na najboljši možni način. Zdi se, da je to danes možno samo v
zelo primitivnih družbah in v umetnosti. Mišljenje, da lahko gremo nazaj in
pridelujemo zdravo ekološko hrano za vse ljudi je velika romantična utopija.
Samo zelo bogati ljudje lahko kupujejo striktno ekološko hrano in samo zdrav
lastnik dobre zemlje jo z veliko časa in dela v dobrih klimatskih razmerah in
čistem zraku lahko pridela dovolj zase in za družino."
ZAKLJUČNE BESEDE O UMETNOSTI
Zame osebno je umetnost odkrivanje neznanega – raziskovanje življenja. Moje umetniško delo čutim kot umetnost takrat, ko uspem narediti nekaj več - nekaj, kar nisem nikoli pričakovala, da bom naredila (nekaj, kar me presega). Mislim, da je za umetnika pomembno, da dela z odprtim srcem tisto, kar čuti za dobro in nujno. To je vse. Pri tem za realizacijo lahko uporablja umetniški sistem ali pa ne. Za samo umetnost to ni bistveno. Čeprav je umetniški sistem vedno v službi ideologije. O tem je bolje ne izgubljati besed. Na splošno umetnost reflektira dobo in odstira prihodnost. Čas nam pokaže, kaj je dobra umetnost, kaj je slaba oziroma kaj ni umetnost.«
ANG
RESIDENCY FOR ARTISTS NOT MAKING ART – SO WHICH PART
IS ART?
Milena Kosec
Residency for artists on holiday and permaculture gardening
Residency for artists on holiday and permaculture gardening
About
a year ago, I received an email containing an unusual call for applications
titled Residency for Artist on Hiatus (RFAOH) with a postscript encouraging me
to definitively apply. Artists were invited to the residency for several months
but not more than a year providing they did not work as artists during that
time.
To
complete the application procedure, the artist had to explain the reason for
the temporary gap in the artistic creation, the use of the newly obtained free
time and had to decide for a form of reporting about the non-artistic activity
taking place during the RFAOH residency. Being a member of RFAOH residency
meant that the artist did not change his location but was instead connected to
organisers and other artists in the residency via the web page: http://residencyforartistsonhiatus.org/.
The web page is a place for artist’s reports and comments. The artist was bind
not to use anything done during the time of residency as the work of art or to
proclaim it as such. For every month spent at the residency the artist would
receive a payment of 30CAD.
After
a short consideration I applied for a year at the residency wanting to improve
the permaculture vegetable garden at home and decided to send monthly reports
about it. To my surprise I was accepted. It turned out that the residency was
an art project of two artists, namely Japanese Shinobu Akimoto and Canadian Matthew
Evans. They prepared an internet call for applications and the web page.
Six very different artists from all over the world were chosen among more than
thirty who applied. The first RFAOH residency started on 1st October
2013 and ended on 30th September 2014. Residency for the new group
will start on 1st November 2014.
MEDITATION,
DRIVING LICENCE AND ENTRANCE EXAM, FREE TIME ACTIVITIES, THINKING ABOUT
DEPRESSION AND GARDENING
Each
resident spent the time during the residency in a different way: the MomenTech group from New York took time to meditate, Farid Rakun from Indonesia Indonezije had teaching lessons, young
Egyptian Batool Mohammed obtained
her driving licence and passed her entrance exam for further postgraduate
studies, Karen Zalamea from
Vancouver sent beautiful photographs of her free time activities and Danish Honey Biba Beckelee reported her
thoughts on depression. Some of the participants ended their term before time
because they got a special invitation for work of art or could no longer endure
not to make art.
This
was the first time that I was really included into the global word of
contemporary art although I have so far participated in important international
events (Steirischerherbst – Graz, Manifesta7 – Bolzano). The experience is inspiring.
On the one hand, I was free from constant making of arrangements for
realization of artistic projects (call for applications, performance rooms, expenses
etc.) for a year and yet I was a part of the art world. Furthermore, the
authors of the residency and the reports enabled me to be in the midst of the
wide international art scene. On the other hand, I had all the time I wanted to
focus on permaculture gardening. It is true, however, that I had to do a lot
more of hard work in the garden than ever before. Consequently, this internet
residency was physically quite strenuous for me. This also explains why I
thought much less than the authors of the residence and other artists about the
situation of the artist whose work does not conform to the rules of the art
system, about the meaning of contemporary art etc. Instead, I was faced with
the problem of healthy food in the overcrowded and polluted world.
Here
are some thoughts from my final report:
“The participation in RFAOH residency offered me,
especially in the light of nowadays western way of life, the greatest luxury
and privilege to grow my own organic vegetable, to cook it and eat it fresh
every day. I had the rare opportunity to spend my time for eating healthy in
the best possible way. It seems to me that healthy food is a reality only in
very primitive societies and in art. Thinking that we can go back to growing
healthy organic food for all people is nothing but a mere romantic illusion. Only
very rich people can afford to buy purely organic food and only a healthy owner
of a fertile soil is able to grow enough food for his needs in good weather
conditions and clean air."
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ABOUT ART
Art is, for me personally, the discovering of the
unknown – the discovering of the life itself. I perceive my artistic work as
art when I manage to do something more – something I never expected to do
(something which surpasses me). In short, it is my firm belief that artists should
openheartedly do what they feel is good and necessary. They may or may not use
the art system while making art, but for the art itself this is not
significant. Although, of course, the art system is always a subject to
ideology and one should not ponder over this too much. Generally speaking, art
reflects our era and reveals the future. However, in the end, it is time which
distinguishes between good art, bad art and that which is not art at all.”
translated by Sibil Guntar Vilfan
ČLANEK OBJAVLJEN V SPLETNI REVIJI AN
https://www.a-n.co.uk/reviews
Now in its second year, the
Residency for Artists on Hiatus seeks to free its participants from the
pressures of the 'capital A art world' by providing space for artists to not
make art. Michaela Nettell finds out more.
“For me, personally, this is my artistic
survival.” Shinobu Akimoto is a Japanese visual artist
based in Montreal. She is also co-director of Residency for Artists on Hiatus
(RFAOH), an online residency in which participants are invited to spend between
six and 12 months not making art.
Akimoto founded the project with fellow
artist Matthew
Evans to explore alternative contexts for artistic activity; to
question the role and value of what they see as an increasingly
institutionalised art world; and to confront their own disillusion and
disconnection from the mainstream art scene.
“In my case I was travelling between Japan and
Canada so I never belonged to a single art community,” explains Evans. “I was
looking for a way to meet other artists and make work with them in an
open-ended way.”
In the project’s inaugural year, six participants
were selected from an open call, a disparate and geographically distributed
group including Slovenian Milena Kosec, who graduated in 1974 with a
degree in technical mathematics and has since established a “non-institutional
art space” in her vegetable garden; and MomenTech,
a young, multimedia collective in New York.
The participants spent their time not making art in
diverse ways – from permaculture gardening (Kosec), daily meditation
(MomenTech), to gaining a driver’s license (Egyptian design graduate Batool
Mohammed) – but forged surprisingly close bonds during their shared time out.
“Although the residency is only on the Net, we’ve
somehow made very personal connections among each other,” says Kosec, who,
having embarked on a full 12-month break from her art practice, is still on
hiatus. “I was sorry when the others finished.”
“I’ve collaborated with people a couple of times
before,” agrees Akimoto, “but to have these people coming to the project from
all over the world, not really knowing who they are but feeling so close to
them, to me it’s amazing!”
Expanded and enriched
As directors, Akimoto and Evans maintain the
project website, publish participants’ periodic reports, promote the
residency through social media and at art events (including the Venice Biennale
in 2013), and design and sell multiples with the RFAOH logo. Their own
practices are expanded and enriched by this exploration of alternative modes of
production.
“A lot of people had trouble understanding it at
the beginning,” says Akimoto, “they would ask: ‘A residency for people who
aren’t making art – so which part is the art?’ But what do you do, if you can’t
create work that fits the institutional formula any more, if you’re not
accepted into galleries and you still want to live as an artist?”
The pair find themselves in an ambivalent position
in relation to the art establishment. While the project seeks to free
participants from the pressures of the “capital A art world”, it intentionally
borrows from the bodies it sets out to critique – lifting selection criteria
from the Canada Council’s grants program for example.
Initially, Akimoto and Evans looked to established
galleries and institutions for support – to reify their work and to amplify
this paradox. But now, after the success of the first residencies, with
interest growing from like-minded individuals and organisations across the
world, and with their second call for applications reaching almost 9,000 people
in its first fortnight online, this kind of ‘official’ endorsement is beginning
to feel less important.
“There’s this institutional structure and as artists
you want to participate in it,” reasons Evans, “but maybe simply in making
things you belong to it because you have a group of peers who are also
involved. The art world exists beyond the visible spaces of these institutions,
it exists within the community you’re working in.”
By virtue then of a somewhat absurd logic (and
Evans is “a big fan of nonsense”), their virtual residency for non-art is
succeeding in creating a very real community of committed and critical
practitioners, within which he and Akimbo feel able to sustain their own art
activity.
“I’ve always had this love-hate relationship with
the art world,” says Akimoto. “I’m a huge fan of certain big-name artists and I
love work that is institutionally sanctioned, but I am also a bit tired of ‘art
people’ and I hate the gatekeeping. This project is one of the answers –
otherwise I would have quit a long time ago!”
The application deadline for the latest call for
participants is 15 September 2014.
residencyforartistsonhiatus.org
residencyforartistsonhiatus.org
